By Rabbi Tamara Cohen
March 18, 2022, eJewish Philanthropy
The Torah portion for this week, Tzav, begins its list of the rules of various sacrifices with one called an “olah” – translated by Everett Fox as “the offering up” sacrifice. Olah is a feminine verbal noun and is identical to the Hebrew word describing a woman who goes up, or ascends. If we take the word out of its sacrificial context, we can recognize the word “olah” as one that is also used to refer to a woman coming up to the Torah for an aliyah. Indeed, the celebration of 100 years of bat mitzvah this Shabbat — which Moving Traditions is co-sponsoring with many other organizations and which is being spearheaded by the Jewish Women’s Archive and The Society for Advancement of Judaism — is called Rise Up.