Women And Tradition

Last updated on: September 15, 2010 at 10:09 pm by Jeffrey L. Falick

Women And Tradition 2010-09-15T22:09:00-05:00 Jeffrey L. Falick

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Way back when I was first exposed to rabbinic literature, one of the things that struck me dumb was the treatment of women. On myjewishlearning.com, Judith Bakin summarizes the view of women in the Mishnah, Talmuds and Midrash (Jewish works of law and lore):

Woman’s otherness and less desirable status are assumed throughout the rabbinic literature. While women are credited with more compassion and concern for the unfortunate than men, perhaps as a result of their nurturing roles, they also are linked with witchcraft (Mishnah Avot 2:7; Jerusalem Talmud Kiddushin 4, 66b), foolishness (BT Shabbat 33b), dishonesty (Genesis Rabbah 18:2), and licentiousness (Mishnah Sotah 3:4, and BT Ketubot 65a), among a number of other inherent negative qualities (Genesis Rabbah 45:5).

Add to this the undeniably unequal treatment of women in Halacha (Jewish law). Women can’t serve as witnesses, be counted in a minyan (quorum of ten required for prayer) and so forth. Each morning Orthodox men bless God “who has not made me a woman.” And don’t even get me started on the laws regarding menstruation.

As if all of this were not enough, there are all of the strictures on modesty (tz’niut or tz’nius) beyond reason, prohibitions on singing for a male audience and generally mingling with men. Radicals in Israel have been known to throw acid at girls not sufficiently covered up. An ultra-Orthodox singer just accepted the judgment of a religious court to receive thirty-nine symbolic lashes as punishment for singing to a mixed audience. Israeli buses now have special lines where women “voluntarily” sit in the back of the bus. It’s only voluntary in theory. Recently there is even talk of all-male and all-female cars on the new Jerusalem light rail. It’s a perfect mix of misogyny and technology!

The real reason for the rules is the tradition’s fear of a woman’s power to tempt a man into sexual misconduct. Women sit separately in the synagogue lest they interrupt a man’s prayer with their sexiness. The Sifrei Deuteronomy (Piska 52) speaks about a woman’s demonic power to sexually tempt men. Avot 1:5 admonishes men not to have much conversation with women and Rabbeinu Yona comments that the danger inherent in this is worse than the danger of death.

This all came up because someone near and dear to me is receiving a traditional Jewish education with all the trimmings. Being in an all girls’ school, her teachers are obviously anxious to tone all this down. Their technique consists of lots of talk about the elevated status of women in Judaism, their higher spirituality and nonsense like that.

One of the most popular tricks is to use modernity as a punching bag. By hiding their outer appearance, they claim, women protect and nurture their inner beauty. By contrasting the objectification of women in popular culture with the modesty required by traditional Judaism, they create a false dichotomy.

This line of thought is also an objectification of women. It denies them the dignity of being viewed simply as human beings with free choice. It reminds me of the people who cast blame on rape victims because of how they dress. Can there be any more of an objectification of women than that? Maybe it’s their men who should go into hiding to avoid seeing women at all.

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