A Women's World

Rabbi Andrea Kulikovsky reflects on a mentoring morning for teenage girls and connects it to the hidden role of Noach’s wife, Naamah, in Parashat Noach. She argues that naming and listening to women’s stories unlocks possibilities for the next generation and strengthens our collective effort to repair the world. Listeners will come away with concrete ideas for how adults can support girls’ curiosity and leadership through simple acts of listening and visibility.

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What is Kolot: Voices from The Ark Synagogue?

Welcome to Kolot, the podcast of The Ark Synagogue, a bold, experiential and caring Progressive Jewish community in Northwood, London.

Through sermons, reflections and conversations from across our community, Kolot explores Jewish life, learning and values in the world we live in today. Rooted in tradition and open to new perspectives, these episodes bring together voices that inspire thought, connection and belonging.

Whether you are Jewish, exploring Judaism, or simply looking for meaningful reflection, you are warmly welcome.

To learn more about The Ark Synagogue, visit arksynagogue.org.

Last Sunday was the International Day of the Girl.

To mark the occasion, JW3 organised a mentoring morning for girls in Years 9 and 10, inviting women at different stages of their careers to share their experiences. I was one of the women invited.

And it was fantastic.

I met three girls in short mentoring sessions, and their questions were so diverse. From “How do I deal with this boy?” to “How do I choose my work experience?” and “How did you become a rabbi?”

Some questions were practical. Others were deeply personal. But what impressed me most was their determination, their curiosity, their courage, and the possibilities they were beginning to imagine for themselves.

I left JW3 full of hope for the women they are going to become. But also thinking about how important it is that we, the adults around them, help them get there.

Because having potential is one thing. Having someone who sees that potential, encourages us, and helps us believe in ourselves is something else entirely.

And one of the first things we can do is simply listen. Give girls the opportunity to ask questions, express their ideas, and imagine their own futures.

Because we know what happens when women’s voices are not heard. Sometimes, their stories lose importance or disappear altogether.

And that brings us to this week’s parashah, Noach.

Our parashah begins with the Flood. A turning point for humanity. Not long after creating the world, God decides to begin again. The project isn’t working. Humanity has become corrupt, violence has spread, and God decides to pivot.

For this new beginning, God chooses Noach, a tzadik, a righteous man in his generation, to build an ark and gather representatives of the living creatures so that life can continue.

But there is someone essential to this project who remains invisible in our story.

Noach’s wife.

Think about it. Noach receives an extraordinary instruction from God. Build an enormous boat, gather animals, prepare for a flood that will destroy the world. And somehow, his wife goes along with it.

We don’t know whether she believed him immediately, questioned him, or argued with him. We don’t know how she felt when the rain began, or what it was like to spend all that time inside the ark.

But we know she was there.

Without her, and without the wives of Noach’s sons, there would be no new beginning for humanity. And yet, none of these women is named.

This happens quite often in the Torah. Women are present, sometimes essential to the story, but their voices and identities disappear into the background.

However, the sages tried to give Noach’s wife a name.

In Bereshit, chapter four, we meet Naamah, the sister of Tubal-Cain. She appears in just one verse, without any explanation of why she matters.

In Bereshit Rabbah, some of the sages identify her as Noach’s wife. Her name comes from the Hebrew root meaning pleasantness, and one interpretation suggests that she was called Naamah because her actions were pleasing.

By naming her, the sages are recognising that she matters. That her contribution was important. That she has a story of her own.

When we leave people unnamed, we risk forgetting their contributions, their experiences, their ideas and their voices. Naamah was there when humanity was given the chance to begin again, but we know almost nothing about her.

And I wonder how many women throughout history have helped build and repair our world, but whose names and stories have been forgotten. How many girls have grown up believing that certain dreams were not for them, simply because they couldn’t see women like themselves in those roles?

This is why initiatives like the mentoring morning at JW3 matter.

Not because girls lack ambition or ability. Quite the opposite. I met girls full of ideas, questions and determination. But they need opportunities to explore those possibilities. They need to see women in different roles, hear their stories, ask questions, and discover that there isn’t just one way to build a meaningful life.

And they need people who will listen to them.

After the Flood, God makes a covenant with humanity, symbolised by the rainbow, promising never again to destroy all living creatures through a flood.

The world is still imperfect. Humanity is still flawed. But rather than beginning again from scratch, God and humanity will have to work together to build and repair the world.

And we cannot build that world while leaving half of humanity in the background.

Which brings me to Tallulah.

Tallulah, today you have stood before your community, read from the Torah, and shared your own interpretation of its words. You have studied, questioned, struggled, prepared and found your own voice within our tradition.

And that is something worth celebrating.

Each journey is different, and each voice brings something of its own. There isn’t one right way to become Bat Mitzvah, or one particular achievement that every young person must reach.

What matters is that you have taken your place in the continuing conversation of the Jewish people.

Thousands of years after the story of Naamah, we have the privilege, and the responsibility, of hearing the voices of our girls. Their questions, their ideas, their interpretations of Torah, and their dreams.

Our responsibility, as parents, teachers, rabbis and as a community, is not to decide what our girls should become. It is to give them the confidence, the opportunities and the support to discover that for themselves.

Because building a better world isn’t something we can do alone. And if we want our girls to help shape that world, we must make sure there is room for their names, their voices, their dreams and their leadership.

May our Ark be a place where we build together a better world.

Shabbat shalom, and Mazal Tov!