Debra Messing and the Abandoned Matriarchs of the Jews: Bilah & Zilpah

What I Learned from the Amazing Guest Speaker at the JewishColorado Signature Event

Dr. Jack Frank Sigman, Ph.D.
Holocaust and Genocide Studies

My wife and I attended the 2025 JewishColorado Signature Event at the end of January. I must confess, I did not go to support Denver’s Jewish Federation so much as I went to network, to offer my professional services, pro bono, as an expert speaker on what makes a genocide accusation credible, a holocaust scholar, nuclear energy, Olympic-style weightlifting, etc… And hear Debra Messing speak.

As what usually happens at such affairs, there was a series of presentations concerning the tremendous accomplishments of JewishColorado, and some of its members, particularly the younger members. They are the future. They are our future. The night continued with an inspirational presentation of the “Lifetime Achievement Award,” honoring a couple who are pillars, treasures, and the embodiments of Tikkun Olam in the Jewish community – Arlene and Barry Hirschfeld.

Dinner followed. And then Debra Messing, the guest star, arrived, took a seat, and regaled us with stories of her life in Rhode Island, education at Brandeis and Tisch School of the Arts, and her professional career. From there, the conversation went to her advocacy work fighting antisemitism and the profound impact of 10/7 on her personal life and beliefs and how she is delving deeper into Judaism.

For me, the one big takeaway was her statement, and I am paraphrasing: We must praise those who are fighting antisemitism and supporting the Jews. This is an interesting statement and as there was no opportunity to speak with Ms. Messing before or after (I did get my card to a member of her entourage regarding the Gratz College MA in Antisemitism) in order to clarify that statement.

However, based on the totality of her oration that night, I am going to assume that she meant praising those who do more than mouthing condemnation of antisemitism along with a host of anti-this and anti-that, but who make a full throated singular focus on fighting antisemitism and at the same time make supporting the Jews, as a people, a part of their lives. Defense of Jews as a people, not just those who practice some form of Judaism, in the US, Israel, and around the world.

Which brings me to Bilah, the mother of Dan and Naphtali, and Zilpah, the mother of Gad and Asher. Now I am an “old school” davener who learned the prayers and melodies by rote and took comfort in the communal recitation of the same. As a child, to me those prayers and melodies were as ancient and sacred as the Torah and reciting them correctly was as important as reciting each word in the Torah with the correct vowels and musical notation.

The recitation of the Amidah was a highlight. When the egalitarian movement within Judaism added Sarah, Rachel, Leah and Rebecca to the liturgy, I froze. It sounded so foreign. The melody didn’t work. The world was turned upside down. But I did understand. But what I did not understand, and do not understand to this day, is leaving Bilah and Zilpah out of those prayers.

I do not care about their social status, or how they came to be in Jacob’s household, as reasons for exclusion. I do not care that there is a perfectly normal rabbinic and Talmudic explanation. I care that they are the mothers of fully one third of the tribes of Israel. And as such, they deserve to be honored and praised. Their descendants helped conquer Canaan and establish Eretz Yisrael. Their descendants intermarried among the other tribes. While my 2600-year-old forefather was likely a Judean, my foremother could have been a Danite (as was Samson, champion weightlifter of his time).

While honoring and praising those who stand by the Jews in their time of sorrow and scorn was not Debra Messing’s only message, this moral of the story resonates and, to me, it is a call to action. Just as Yad Vashem honors those selfless people who rescued Jews during the Holocaust, we should honor and praise those who fight antisemitism with their hearts and soul, who stand with the Jews even when the weather is foul.

We can start by adding Bilah and Zilpah to our daily prayers.