Scholarly work on contemporary midrash indicates that this practice is a way for women to further engage with religious texts. Indeed, such scholarship also implies that many women have a need for a way to reconnect to their faith.
The records of the Institute for Contemporary Midrash provide evidence of women for whom midrash became a means to re-engage with Judaism. Moreover, by virtue of this collection housing interviews, works actually produced by Summer Training Intensive participants, and a journal of midrash, we encounter the voices of women (and men) who actually made midrash. With the records, we no longer have to rely on scholarly speculation of the empowerment that comes with the process of midrash; the producers of this midrash no longer have to be
spoken for because their voices can be heard. These voices also indicate the potential midrash has for building a community, particularly a community of women. This community includes women who worked on midrash together, women in religious texts whose voices come to life, and, indeed, anyone who encounters this archive. As Marge Piercy says in her interview in
Living Text, midrashic interpretations stay with us and have the potential to change how we read biblical narratives forever. Similarly, the voices that emerge when encountering the ICM records have the potential to stay with us and change how we read the world of faith forever.
