I spent today reading victory posts.

Markey: subpoenas. Ansari: subpoenas. Levin: subpoenas. Pat Ryan: impeach the Secretary of Defense, and here’s a link to sign up. Twenty-four hours after winning, and not one of them led with your grocery bill, your rent, or how you’re going to heat your house this winter. Voters asked for relief. They got a revenge tour.

And it isn’t only one side. Amit Segal put it plainly today: first the Democrats blamed Israel for America’s problems, and now some Republicans are blaming Israel for theirs. When both parties reach for the same scapegoat, it was never about Israel.

Meanwhile, in Tehran, they marked the anniversary of the 1979 embassy takeover the way they have every year for 47 years. “Death to America.” “Death to Israel.” Nobody should be surprised. They’ve never once said it quietly.

I needed a break from all of it. So I went back to the women who actually fixed things.

Shifra and Puah defied Pharaoh. Yocheved and Miriam saved Moses. Deborah led, and Yael ended a war with a tent peg. Esther fasted three days and then walked into the king’s court uninvited. The Talmud says it straight out: in the merit of righteous women, Israel was redeemed from Egypt.

Women. Every time.

Which got me wondering: If women have saved our people every single time, why are we still waiting for permission to lead?

Because look at the world right now. Women being told to cover up so men aren’t tempted, as if our existence is the problem. Women in Iran beaten in the street for showing their hair. Women’s groups who couldn’t find their voice after October 7. And women here, smart women, voting against their own safety because the slogans sounded kind.

I’m done being quiet about it.

Not angry-quiet. Not polite-quiet. Done. This house was always going to be about living my life through Torah, out loud. Now it’s also about this: building women up to lead. In our communities, in our families, and in the conversations everyone else is too scared to have.

Our grandmothers didn’t survive by waiting for someone else to stand up. Neither will we.

Yael