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Traditional
View of the Role of Women in Judaism
The dialectics about whether or not Judaism treats women as
lower than man is a discussion brought about by the
phraseology of Jewish prayers and rituals. There are Orthodox
prayer rites and the blessings that are phrased differently
depending on whether or not the one praying is a man or woman.
This has resulted in the role of women from the traditional
Judaism viewpoint being distorted so much so that people get a
totally wrong impression. In traditional Judaism, the fact is
that the status of women is not as low as many people think,
especially if they see it from today’s democratic standpoint.
The fact is actually the opposite – in Jewish Law, women
actually enjoy a better position in society as early as the
Biblical period compared to most women of modern times.
Due to women’s family and religious obligations and
responsibilities, they are treated as a separate but equal
being when compared to men. In Traditional Judaism, the
equality of men and women emanates from the highest possible
level as Judaism has always upheld that God possesses both
masculine and feminine qualities and is only referred to as
masculine for the sake of rhetorical convenience since Hebrew
does not have a neutral gender unlike the English person used
to describe either a male or a female.
Besides, Judaism sees man and woman as created in the image of
God; however, women naturally possess more intuition,
understanding, intelligence (binah) than men. This is brought
on by the fact that women have held positions of
responsibility and esteem in Judaism since biblical times in
the person of Miriam one of the liberators of the Children of
Israel, sister of Moses and Aaron; Deborah (one of the Judges)
and 7 of the Biblical prophets.
Although the Talmud also contains disapproving commentaries
about women it should also be noted that the Talmud equally
contains negative comments about men! The fact that women are
not readily encouraged to pursue higher education or religious
office is because of the fear that they might pass over their
most important duties as wives and mothers, since this is
their most important role in Traditional Judaism.
Women’s rights in traditional Judaism are more defined and
have a greater scope that their counterparts in Western
civilization until this century. Jewish women can buy, sell,
and own property, and enter legally into contracts, they have
the inalienable right to be consulted with regard to marriage!
There is no other clear cut and distinctive evidence that
traditional Judaism has high regards for the women than the
great respect and the spiritual influence of a woman over her
family. In the Talmud, it is said that when a religious man
marries a sinful woman, the man becomes sinful as well; on the
other hand, should a sinful man marry a religious woman, the
man also becomes virtuous!
The exemption of women from the positive commandments (thou
shall in contrast to thou shall not) stem from the fact that a
woman's duties as wife and mother are considered of very high
importance they cannot be postponed just to fulfill a
commandment has led to the greatest misunderstanding and
misinterpretation on the role of women in Judaism. Many people
interpret the exemption is a prohibition and the exemption
reduces the role of women in the synagogue. This mistaken
belief stems from the incorrect assumption that Jewish
religious life revolves around the synagogue whereas in
reality, it actually revolves around the home where the
woman's role is every bit as important as her husband’s.
Source:
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