Women and Religion
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06JudaismA.docx06 Judaism A
In this topic we turn to our third religion and, with this, we also move across an important boundary among the family of world religions. We turn from the ‘reincarnation’ religions of the Far East (Hinduism and Buddhism) to the ‘resurrection’ religions of the Middle East (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). The former have a cyclic worldview of human existence (we are reincarnated many times) whereas the latter have a linear view (we live only once in this body). These last three are also classified as the “Abrahamic” religions since they all look back to the figure of Abraham as their spiritual forefather. What is significant about Abraham here is his belief in one God rather than many. In other words, not only do they share a linear view of human existence, but they also share a monotheistic view of divinity.
GENERAL FACTS
The Biblical Period
Judaism is one of the oldest world religions today, and arguably the oldest of the five that we are exploring in this course. Its chief competitor for that title is Hinduism, which, if you recall, was difficult to date since it had no historical founder. Some argued that Hinduism begins with the Vedic period in about 1500BCE while others claim it goes back further, possibly prior to 1900BCE. In the case of Judaism, there is also a bit of ambiguity regarding origins since there are two key figures at the start of the story. The first is Abraham and he is usually described as a “forefather” or “ancestor” since the Jewish people trace their genealogical lineage back to him. Indeed, Abraham, his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob are usually grouped together and called “the patriarchs”. The story of these three can be found in the first book of the Jewish bible, the book of Genesis, and scholars think that the period in which the narrative is set seems to be about 1800BCE.
The second founding figure appears on the scene about 600 years later (around 1200BCE), when the descendants of Abraham (the Hebrews) are now slaves in Egypt under Pharaoh. Under the leadership of Moses, and with the assistance of God, they escape across a body of water into the Sinai wilderness. This is the Exodus: considered by Jews to be the greatest miracle in their history and celebrated every year at Passover. Moreover, during their wanderings in the Sinai desert, the Jews believe that God gave Moses a set of divine directives to guide the people – the Law. This Law is summed up in the famous Ten Commandments, given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai. Hence, although Abraham is the first patriarch, Moses is considered to be the greatest of God’s prophets (human spokespersons who deliver divine messages).
Moses with the Ten Commandments
The biblical stories relate how the Hebrews wandered in the wilderness for “forty years” until they eventually reached the land that was promised to Abraham and his descendants. At that time, it was known as Cana’an but, in time, it would be renamed Israel. There is still debate over how much was military conquest and how much was gradual migration but, by the year 1000BCE, the twelve loosely confederated Hebrew tribes had joined together to form a single kingdom under Saul. He was quickly replaced by David who established Jerusalem as the new capital, and his son Solomon who built the first Temple. Many of the books in the Jewish bible narrate the vicissitudes of the Kingdom of Israel, including its division into two parts (North and South) and the mixed record of its kings in terms of following the Law and heeding the advice of the prophets (most kings are deemed to be sinful). Eventually, tragedy struck in 587BCE when the Babylonian army invaded the land and destroyed the Temple, sending most of the aristocracy and intelligentsia to Babylon in exile. When the Persian Empire defeated the Babylonians, the Jews were allowed to return to Israel (around 537BCE), re-establish their kingdom and reconstruct their Temple. Their fortunes waxed and waned as time passed but in 70CE, tragedy struck again when the Roman army attacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple for the second time. This meant the end of the temple sacrificial system, the Jewish priesthood and the Sadducee party that was aligned with these. Hence, their opponents, the Pharisee party, prevailed and leadership passed into the hands of the rabbis and scholars. It was about this time that the Jewish scriptural canon was finalised and closed (more about that below). To this day a third Temple has never been rebuilt, not only because Jews themselves are divided over whether that should happen, but also because there is now an Islamic mosque and shrine on the site – so it is a very delicate political-religious issue.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock
on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem
The Jewish Bible
The Jewish religion has a very clearly defined scriptural canon, which it considers to be inspired by God and thus carries the highest authority. The Jewish (or Hebrew) Bible consists of 24 books, composed over a very long period – from about 1000BCE to 100BCE. Christians call this same collection of books the “Old Testament” but this is a very inappropriate term to use in the context of Judaism. Its Jewish name is Tanach (pronounced “tunnuck”) which is actually a threefold acronym – Ta (Torah), Na (Neviyim) and Ch (Ketuvim). These refer to the Hebrew names for the three main subsections in their traditional order:
Torah (“Law”) is the oldest and most important section. It consists of 5 books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. There are two main types of literature in these: narrative and law. The main narrative sections include stories of creation and the patriarchs (Genesis), the escape from Egypt and the wanderings in the desert (Exodus and Numbers). The main law codes are found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy although there are also divine laws in the other books. The rabbis claim to have found 613 explicit commandments scattered throughout the Torah.
Neviyim (“Prophets”) consists of 8 books that focus on the history of the kingdom as well as the key prophets who conveyed divine messages to the leaders and the people at different times.
Ketuvim (“Writings”) is a collection of 11 books of quite varied literary style and content. There are psalms (songs), proverbs, stories (some historical and some legendary) and apocalyptic works (visions of the end of the world).
A Torah scroll The Tanach
Talmud and Medieval Writers
Tanach is the most important and authoritative text, since Jews believe that God was heavily involved in its authorship, especially the commandments of the Torah. However, like most religious canons, it is a finite collection and, thus, does not explicitly deal with every possible issue, nuance or controversy that might arise in religious life. Moreover, sometimes there are biblical texts that are somewhat inconsistent or even contradictory. Jewish scholars and leaders were well aware of this and so, soon after the Tanach canon was closed, they began to write detailed commentaries on every biblical commandment and story, with the idea of clarifying the meaning and showing how it applied to actual Jewish life. It goes without saying that this was an enormous task and the result was a very large collection of rabbinical writings known as Talmud. There are actually two versions of the Talmud (one from Jerusalem and one from Babylon) and they appeared about the same time – around 500CE. Like the Torah, they also contain two mains types of literature: legal discussions (halakah) and illustrative stories (haggadah). With halakah, the rabbinical authors spend a lot of time discussing the minutiae of a particular biblical verse in order to draw out its many layers and meanings. With haggadah, they relate anecdotes and popular tales to illustrate the point of the law in question. The Talmudic authors claimed to draw on an unwritten tradition that dated back to biblical times. The topics are as diverse as Jewish life itself: rules about Sabbath (Saturday); conditions for marriage and divorce; the structure and timing of daily prayers; guides for diet & fasting ; life cycle rituals such as circumcision, bar mitzvah and funerals; and so on.
A section from the Talmud
Needless to say, the Talmud is a daunting prospect for the average person and it is usually only studied by those preparing to be a rabbi or undertaking some special role in their religious community. The medieval period saw the composition of simpler versions of Talmud and the two that are most commonly quoted are the Mishneh Torah by Maimonides (around 1200CE) and the Shulchan Aruch (pronounced “shoolkan arook”) by Joseph Caro (around 1600CE).
Maimonides Joseph Caro
Modern Period
Today there are many forms of Judaism, but the three largest and most important branches are the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews. They all agree that the Tanach and the Talmud are the key sources of guidance for being a Jew but their main difference lies in how much one can legitimately alter or adapt traditional teachings and practices to a changing world. Orthodox Judaism, which is the only official form of Judaism in Israel, is the least likely to allow contemporary thinking and practice to change hallowed tradition. It stresses the divine ( rather than the human) authorship of the Hebrew Scriptures and the Talmudic traditions, and thus, their lasting authenticity. For Orthodox Jews, the biblical commandments are always binding, even though the world may come up with ‘new ideas’. What matters is fidelity to what has been passed down. Thus, on the question of gender equality, the Orthodox Jewish position will generally be more concerned to defend longstanding traditions against modern “misinterpretations”.
Orthodox Jews at prayer
At the other end of the spectrum are the Reform Jews who, as the name suggests, are more willing to rethink and adapt traditional ideas and customs to the changing times. For them, God is still revealing his (her?) divine will today, and so the tradition must continually be ‘reformed’ in view of new truths that come to light from fields of human exploration such as science, history and philosophy. On the question of gender equality, the Reform Jewish movement issued an explicit commitment to “the equality of sexes” at its Breslau Conference of 1846.
A Reform Jewish prayer service
In between the Orthodox and Reform movements, lies the Conservative movement (the name can be a bit misleading). In fact, it often takes a middle position between the two, endeavouring to strike the right balance between loyalty to the past and relevance to the present. Its main theological base and the centre of many of its greatest teachers is the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.
The Jewish Theological Seminary
Video
Women in Judaism 9 min
by Reform Rabbi Rick Jacobs
Listen for the following:
· the agunot who are “chained”
· gender inequality as God’s will or men’s will
· masculine God language
· the 1846 Breslau statement about women
· raising the age of maturation for girls
· the first female ordination and numbers today
· the only legitimate form of Judaism in Israel
· gender quality as an issue of “justice”
· the “unsung” women sages of the Talmud
· “All gates are closed except the gates of ...... ”?
· repairing the world (tikkun olam)
· what happened to a woman wearing a tallith (shawl) at the kotel (Western Wall)
· what the state of Israel must do about the Orthodox monopoly
DIVINITY & GENDER
As always, our first theme is the question of the masculinity and femininity of the deities and higher beings in each religion. We discovered both male and female gods in the Hindu pantheon, with some schools giving priority to the masculine Shiva or Vishnu, with other schools granting central place to the mother goddess Shakti and her various forms. In contrast, Buddhism did not retain its mother religion’s gods, and takes little interest in them as objects of worship or agents of salvation. However, in practice, Buddhists turn to buddhas and bodhisattvas in order to find supernatural assistance and consolation. Whilst the tradition requires that a buddha be in male form, we also discovered female bodhisattvas and heavenly beings such as Kwan Yin and Tara.
In the case of the Abrahamic religions, commencing with Judaism, there is an unmistakeable stress on the oneness of God and the rejection of any form of polytheism as superstition and delusion. Today, many Jews, Christians and Muslims might think that monotheism is the “natural” form of religion, but in Abraham’s day, and for much of Jewish history, monotheism was something of an oddity. The vast majority of ancient religious systems took it for granted that there was more than one god. Abraham’s insistence on God’s uniqueness was a highly unusual belief in an ocean of polytheism and, indeed, the Jewish scriptures are full of references to the fact that the Israelites looked very conspicuous and often felt the stigma of being “the odd man out”. The classical expression of God’s unity and uniqueness is found in the second of the Ten Commandments (according to the Jewish ordering).
You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. (Exodus 20:1-2)
The second commandment is rather long compared to the other commandments and it seems to be saying two things. First, that the Israelites must not put another god “before” their God, which is taken to mean that they must not worship any other god except the one true God, since only one true God exists anyway. Second, it goes on to say that they must not attempt to make any religious images, inspired by anything from the sky, land or sea. This is taken to mean not only that there should be no images of false gods, but also that there should be no images of the one, true God either. In other words, in Jewish thinking, no finite material image can possibly do justice to the transcendent, mysterious nature of the one God. It is a religion that stresses the transcendence of God to the point where the difference between Creator and creature is greater than any difference within creation itself. In fact, the word for “holy” (kadosh in Hebrew) originally meant “different” or “other” (rather than good). That is why you will never see images of God (and rarely the prophets) in synagogues and Jewish homes. This would be idolatry and a direct violation of the second commandment. The mysterious God of Israel is pure Spirit, way beyond any worldly categories, especially physical ones.
So, what is the relevance of this to the gender of the Jewish God? Well, many commentators have pointed out that if Judaism so stresses the divine transcendence then it follows that thinking of God in terms of physical sex or psychological gender is a very dangerous thing, verging on idolatry. Sex and gender are aspects that belong to creatures. As Creator, God is, by definition, beyond sex and gender.
God Language
Nouns and Pronouns
Given the notion that the God of Israel is beyond sex and gender, how does this play out when it comes to speaking of God using the only tool that we have: human language. Well it depends somewhat on which language you are using and its grammatical rules regarding gender. In Hebrew, the language in which most of the Jewish bible is written, all nouns are either masculine or feminine. There are no neuter nouns. For example, “yom” (“day”) is masculine, whereas “eretz” (“land”) is feminine. It’s a bit like French and Italian. Now when you use a singular pronoun to replace the singular noun, it follows the gender of the noun. In Hebrew the two singular third-person pronouns are:
hu = he
he = she (that’s a bit confusing for English speakers isn’t it!)
It has to be either “he” or “she” since there is no neuter pronoun “it”. So, translating literally, the pronoun for “day” (yom) would be “he” (hu) and the pronoun for “land” (eretz) would be “she” (he). To give you an idea by translating literally, it should go something like this:
The day, he is very hot. The land, she is very wide.
This does not mean that there is something intrinsically masculine about a day or feminine about the land. It’s just the way the Hebrew language works. Remember ‘grammatical gender’ from Week 1?
As it happens, the main words for “God” in Hebrew are all masculine nouns:
YHWH (“I am who am”)
Adonai (“my Lords”)
Elohim (“the gods”)
El Shaddai (“Almighty God”)
Thus, the grammatical rules of Hebrew demand that the masculine pronoun “he” (hu) be used in all cases. However, a Hebrew speaker would be accustomed to using “he” for a whole range of nouns that in English are neuter. Thus, the implication that God is somehow male or masculine is not that great for a Hebrew speaker.
YHWH Elohim
However, it is rather different in English since most of our nouns are neuter and we do have a neuter pronoun “it” (alongside “he” and “she”). So, our words for day and land are neuter and when we refer to them with a pronoun we use “it”: The day, it is hot. The land, it is wide.
We normally reserve “he” and “she” to refer to humans or animals, and we specify their sex by the word we use. If we talk about a person as “she”, then we do mean that it is a woman or a girl. If we talk an animal using “he” then we do mean its sex is male not female. [By the way, some languages have a singular pronoun that does not specify the sex: for example, in Indonesian and Malay, the word “dia” means “he/she”.]
Thus, for an English speaking Jew, if God is the noun, what pronoun should they use? Some might say “it” since God is beyond gender but that word is usually applied to things rather than living beings and so it has been avoided. Traditionally English has followed the Hebrew convention and used “he” but, in English, it does have real implications about the maleness or masculinity of the subject. And changing it to “she” would also have similar implications.
Metaphors
Apart from nouns and pronouns, the Hebrew Bible also utilises linguistic imagery to fill out the portrait of God. It is interesting that this is not considered idolatry since a material image is not involved. The metaphors certainly imply that there is a conceptual similarity (albeit Iimited) between the mysterious transcendent God and elements of creation. What is noteworthy is that the majority of biblical metaphors for God are masculine. Here are some examples:
· King “The Lord is king forever and ever” (Ps 10)
· Warrior “Our God will fight for us” (Neh 4)
· Father “As a father has compassion for his children so the Lord” (Ps 103).
· Husband “You have played whore to many lovers and would you return to me?”(Jer 3)
Commentators note that, although masculine metaphors dominate, they are not sexual or phallic in nature. As one author notes: “The God of Israel is not imagined below the waist.” (Rita Gross)
So, the question arises whether there are any feminine metaphors for God in the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures; and the answer is affirmative. Such imagery does exist although it is by no means as numerous as the masculine metaphors noted above. One of the challenges of Jewish feminism is to rediscover these metaphors and give them their due attention in order to gain a more complete picture of the God of Israel.
One of the most important is the comparison of God to a human mother in such verses as these:
“You forgot the God who gave you birth.” (Dt 32)
“Now I will cry out like a woman in labour, I will gasp and pant.” (Is 42)
“As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.” (Is 66)
Furthermore, scholars have long noted the etymological connection between the Hebrew word for “compassion” (racham) and the Hebrew word for “womb” (rechem), both of which are linked in a famous verse from Isaiah:
“Can a woman forget her baby, or show no compassion (racham) for the child of her womb (rechem)? Yet, even if these may forget, I will never forget you.” (Is 49)
God is also compared to a mother eagle and a mother bear:
As an eagle stirs up her nest, and hovers over her young; as she spreads her wings, takes them up, and bears them aloft on her pinions, YHWH alone guided him. (Dt 32)
I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs, and will tear open the covering of their heart. (Hos 13)
Some even see a connection between the divine title ‘El Shaddai’ (“God Almighty”) and the Hebrew word for breast: “shadu”. If true, then Shaddai might connote not only divine power from on high but also maternal nurturing.
Another interesting linguistic issue is the term used to denote God’s activity in the world. The standard English translation is “Spirit”, taken from the Latin spiritus which is a masculine noun and thus, is usually translated as “he”. The Greek term is pneuma (from which we derive words like pneumonia and pneumatic tyres) and this is more suggestive of air or breath or wind. In Greek, pneuma is a neuter noun and is properly referred to as “it”. However, the original Hebrew word ruah is a feminine noun and, thus, is referred to in Hebrew as “she”. According to Genesis, ruah is the wind or breath of God that hovers over the waters of chaos at the moment of creation. She is also the divine wind that enters the mind of the prophets and inspires them to speak on behalf of God.
So, there is evidence in the Hebrew Bible to support the notion that God can be compared to female persons and feminine traits as well as male persons and masculine traits, even though the latter dominate. In fact, the domination of masculine metaphors in the biblical notion of God led to an interesting phenomenon within Israel itself: the clandestine worship of a goddess alongside the official worship of the one God. On a number of occasions, the Hebrew scriptures speak of how the Israelites erected a sacred pole (asherah) and were using it to pray to Astarte, the goddess of fertility and the Queen of Heaven. Astarte is linked to the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar and it is probably no surprise that the prophets of Israel harshly condemned this practice as a form of idolatry. Some of Israel’s kings supported their criticism and it seems that King Josiah effectively rooted out the practice around the year 620BCE (just before the destruction of the First Temple). Prior to that, many kings either condoned or ignored the practice. What is interesting is that it seems to reflect a need or desire among ordinary Israelites for a feminine divine figure to complement the dominant masculine imagery used to describe the one God. [It is also interesting to find a similar trend in Christianity where, in some branches of that religion, Mary, the mother of Jesus, has been elevated as a de facto Queen of Heaven – more about that when we look at Christianity]
Figurines depicting Astarte
On one hand, traditional Jews are concerned that using feminine pronouns for God or recovering feminine metaphors for God has grave dangers, not the least of which is an association with ancient goddess worship and, thus, polytheism and idolatry. There is also a concern that an emphasis on the feminine side of God might associate God too much with nature, fertility and sexuality. Traditionally these have been seen as natural rather than supernatural – a part of creation and not the Creator who is more like a sky-father than an earth-mother. On the other hand, Jewish feminist writers are concerned that overemphasising the masculinity of the one God also has grave dangers, not the least of which is the tendency to associate divinity with human males alone, thus rendering human females as less godlike and inferior. Given the existence of feminine divine metaphors in the pages of the scriptures, they argue that there is a need to restore a balance and rediscover the genuinely feminine side of the one God, who, ultimately is beyond gender.
Eve: The First Woman
We now turn from heaven to earth and take a closer look at the ways in which Judaism has understood the status and roles of women. As with other religions, we will investigate Jewish ideas about being a woman, a wife and a mother, as well as the perennial question of whether women should be given leadership roles. But before we plunge into the texts that speak of such things explicitly, we should spend some time looking at what the Jewish scriptures say about the very first woman: Eve (or Hawwah in Hebrew). Indeed, the stories about Adam and Eve in the first part of Genesis have had an enormous impact on not only Jewish attitudes and practices but Christian and Islamic as well.
Read the two stories closely and consider the questions at the end. The answers provided are taken directly from the two stories and some may surprise you.
The first story: Genesis 1:1 – 2:3
In the beginning when God (Elohim) created the heavens and the earth,2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.3Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.4And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.5God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.....
Note: God then creates the following:
Day 2: sky dome
Day 3: dry land and vegetation
Day 4: sun, moon and stars
Day 5: animals (sea, land and sky).
Then, on Day 6: ...
Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind (adam) in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ 27 So God created humankind (adam) in his image, in the image of God he created ‘him’ male (zakar) and female (neqebah) he created them. 28God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’29God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.30And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so.31God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. [Chapter 2] 1Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. 2And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. 3So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
The second story: Genesis 2:4 – 3:24
4 In the day that the Lord God (YHWH Elohim) made the earth and the heavens,5when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground;6but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground—7then the Lord God formed man (adam) from the dust of the ground (adamah) and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.8And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed.9 Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.....(some verses follow about the four rivers of Eden)..
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.16And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;17but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’
18 Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.’19So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.20The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner.21So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.22And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman (ashe) and brought her to the man.23Then the man said, ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman (ashe) for out of Man (aish) this one was taken.’ 24Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.25And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.
[Chapter 3] The First Sin and Its Punishment
1Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God say, “You shall not eat from any tree in the garden”?’ 2The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden;3but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.”’ 4But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die; 5for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,* knowing good and evil.’ 6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. 7Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ 10He said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.’ 11He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ 12The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.’ 13Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent tricked me, and I ate.’
14The Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.’ 16To the woman he said, ‘I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.’ 17And to the man he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, “You shall not eat of it”, cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’
20 The man named his wife Eve (Hawwah) because she was the mother of all who live.21And the Lord God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them.
22Then the Lord God said, ‘See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever’ 23therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.24He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.
QUESTIONS
FIRST STORY
1. In what order are plants, animals, man and woman created?
vegetation (day 3), animals (day 5), humans (day 6) – apparently both male and female at the same time
2. What trees are forbidden?
Apparently, none. ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.
3. How many humans are created on the sixth day?
It is not clear but at least one couple and possibly more: Male (zakar) and female (neqebah) he created them
4. Who precisely is created in “God’s image”?
It seems humankind (adam) – both in its male (zakar) and female (neqebah) form.
5. What is the first commandment given to the humans?
Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it
SECOND STORY
6. In what order are the garden, the animals, the man and the woman created?
The man; the garden; the animals; the woman
7. Why are the animals created? Does this work?
It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner...So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man ..... but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner
8. How is the woman created?
God took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman (ashe)
9. What is the man’s reaction to the woman?
This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman (ashe) for out of Man (aish) this one was taken
10. What is the author’s comment?
Therefore, a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh
11. Which tree(s) is/are forbidden?
The man is told: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat
12. Which tree does the woman think is forbidden?
The woman tells the serpent: We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.”
NOTE: the tree in the middle of the garden is the tree of life; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is possibly also there but it isn’t clear: (see 2:9 above)
13. What will be the effect of eating from the tree of knowledge according to God?
In the day that you eat of it you shall die
14. What will be the effect of eating from the tree of knowledge according to the serpent?
You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil
15. In the end, who was correct?
They didn’t die but their eyes were opened, so apparently the serpent: Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked
16. Why does the woman eat the fruit?
the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise. [Are these positive or negative motives?]
17. Why does she offer her husband the fruit and what is his reaction?
Neither her reason nor his verbal response (if any) is stated; she offers and he eats.
18. Is an apple, Satan or original sin mentioned anywhere?
No. Only “the fruit” and “the serpent”
19. Who blames whom?
The man: The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.
The woman: The serpent tricked me, and I ate.
20. How is the serpent punished?
Cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.’
[Note: Does this imply that the serpent had legs before this?]
21. How is the woman punished?
I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.’
[Note: For our course, this is one of the most significant verses in the entire story]
22. How is the man punished?
cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’
23. Who is expelled from Eden and why?
See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever’ 23therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.24He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.
Modern scholars date the first story to about 500BCE and the second story to about 1000BCE, making it much older. Moreover, there is ongoing debate as to whether the two stories can be reconciled with each other if they are taken literally. Some scholars think that the second story was originally told to explain certain things about our world, including: why farming can be so arduous; why childbirth is painful; and why snakes have no legs. For our purposes, the two stories have been used in very different ways to define the status and role of women relative to men. We will return to some of these issues as we work through Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
MARRIAGE
We now turn to traditional Jewish ideas about marriage and the role of a woman as wife. The two Genesis creation stories (above) provide the two main aims of marriage according to Jewish theology: companionship and procreation. The first story highlights the duty of the first man and woman (men and women?) to “be fruitful and multiply” and we will examine this aspect of marriage when we look at women and motherhood later on.
The second story tells of a single male created from dust, whose need for a companion was not satisfied by the creation of animals. So, God takes one of his ribs and fashions it into a new being, evoking the following response from the solitary man:
This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called Woman (ashe) for out of Man (aish) this one was taken.’
Commentators note that the key point here is the mutual love that overcomes loneliness and the complementarity of the sexes. The single man is incomplete without his female partner. They are drawn together by natural (heterosexual) attraction and are meant to be together as a couple. Indeed, the author goes on to make a comment about marriage at precisely this point of the text:
Therefore, a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.
Thus, at the very beginning of the Jewish bible, in the two stories about the origins of the world, themes of marital love and fruitfulness appear. Thus, it is not surprising to discover that the Jewish tradition has a very positive view of heterosexual marriage, which is seen as something planned by the Creator from the beginning. In fact, it is so important that the Jewish tradition has had a corresponding negative view towards religious celibacy as a deliberate life choice. For instance, there are a number of oft-quoted texts in the Talmud on this point. It describes an unmarried person as “half a man” and in another place states that “a man without a wife lives without joy, blessing, and goodness” (Yebamonth 62). So important is the married state that it recommends even the selling of a Torah scroll (a very precious item) if that is what is needed to be wed (Siman 153). Even God’s direct involvement in match-making is reflected in the well-known saying: “God created universe in six days and has spent rest of time arranging marriages”.
Clearly there has been a strong expectation within Judaism that young men and women get married. This is more in accord with the divine plan as reflected in the second Genesis story. However, there is another dimension to the marital relationship that is brought out in later biblical texts. This focuses not so much on the horizontal partnership between the husband and the wife, but on the vertical relationship between Israel and God. In other words, these texts suggest that a married human couple on earth symbolise the divine-human relationship between heaven and earth. In other words, God is “married” to Israel; “he” is her husband and she is his bride.
One text that stresses this idea is the book of Hosea, one of the minor prophets in the Jewish Bible. It was probably Hosea’s own personal experience that led him to see the God-Israel relationship in terms of marriage. According to the text, Hosea married a prostitute named Gomer, who then abandoned him for another lover. Despite her infidelity, Hosea was willing to take her back and seems to have paid some sort of ransom for her freedom. The allegory is clear enough: Hosea represents God, the faithful husband willing to take back his unfaithful wife, Israel. This allegorical connection between marriage and divine love is considered valid by feminists but they often object to the fact that it is the wife who is portrayed negatively as a former prostitute and an eventual adulteress, whereas the husband is given the role of the faithful divine lover. This may have been Hosea’s actual experience but it reinforces the idea of males as pure and divine, and females as promiscuous and sinful.
Hosea and Gomer
A very similar theme is found in another biblical book named the Song of Songs (sometimes called the Song of Solomon) yet without the negative connotations of Gomer’s background and infidelity. Scholars think that the Song was originally a secular love poem since God is only mentioned once in its entirety. It is ostensibly a passionate, erotic dialogue between two lovers. Here is a sample:
The two lovers appear to give and receive equally and it is their mutual love that is celebrated, rather than other themes such as procreation. Yet it has found its way into the Hebrew bible and the Song is read every year at the feast of Passover – one of the most important festivals on the calendar. Again, Jewish tradition sees more in this than just the love of a man and a woman. Similar to Hosea and Gomer, their powerful affair is linked to divine-human love, in a way reminiscent of the Krishna-Radha relationship in Hinduism. Now it is not so much God who marries Israel but God who woos the human soul like a young lover woos his beloved.
Spousal Rights and Duties
So, the Jewish tradition sees marriage as a sacred bond, whose purpose is mutual companionship and fruitful procreation, and which also serves as an analogy for God’s love of his people or God’s love for the individual human soul. Let us now take a closer look at how marriage works out in practice, especially in terms of the rights and duties of husband and wife respectively.
Ketubah
One place to start is the ketubah or marriage contract which is actually a written document that is read at the wedding and often hung on the wall of Jewish homes.
A ketubah
What is interesting about the ketubah is that it traditionally specified the duties of the husband towards his wife, but not vice-versa. In other words, its primary purpose was to protect the rights of the woman. Hence, it usually designates the husband’s obligations to provide food, clothing, shelter, financial support and sexual satisfaction for his wife. It often also states the amount of money that had to be paid to her in the case of divorce. In many ways, it was an ancient form of pre-nuptial agreement. The importance of giving priority to take care of one’s wife was also reflected in a well-known Talmudic saying: “A man should spend less than his means on food and drink for himself, up to his means on his clothes and above his means for honouring his wife and children.” (Chullin, 84b)
The absence of any written form of the wife’s duties towards her husband did not mean that she had none. The Talmud explains that a wife’s primary duty was to take care of the household and children as well as provide her husband with sexual satisfaction. It also adds that she should do all that she can to support his Torah study (a duty/ privilege that fell on the man but not on the woman of the house). We will return to this later when we look at the issue of women’s education and access to leadership roles.
Polygyny
One key issue that arises immediately is whether Judaism envisages the possibility of polygamy. At this point we should clarify that polygamy is a general term indicating that a married person is allowed to have more than one spouse at the same time. It can be subdivided into polygyny (a man may have more than one wife) and polyandry (a woman may have more than one husband). The latter is rare across human cultures and was never allowed in Judaism. The former, however, is technically legal in Judaism even though it has never been considered the ideal situation. There are a number of cases of polygyny mentioned in the Jewish bible. For example, Cain, the son of Adam and Eve, is said to have had two wives. Moreover, Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon and many kings had multiple wives.
The many wives of King Solomon
However, polygyny usually led to problems and there is no doubt that the Jewish bible sees monogamy as the ideal. For instance, the second creation story tells of a single couple at the start of the human race (one man and one woman). Furthermore, the prophets traditionally link polygyny with idolatry (similar to the way Hosea links Gomer’s adultery to Israel’s idolatry). The famous description of the “ideal wife” found in Proverbs 31 presumes that there is only one wife in the house. Consequently, the practice was strongly discouraged in Talmudic times although the Talmud itself discusses the issue and recommends that a cap of four wives be applied. [This is interesting since precisely the same number is given in the Qur’an - see Islam later.] During the medieval period, Rabbi Gershom of Mainz (d. 1028) argued against the practice and, as a result, polygyny became a rarity among European Jews, possibly because monogamy was the norm in the Christian world. In contrast, there were still recent cases of polygyny among Jews living in Islamic lands such as Northern Africa and the Middle East.
Rabbi Gershom
The fact that Judaism considers polyandry to be illegal and polygyny to be legal (albeit not ideal) is significant since it influences Jewish ideas about divorce and adultery.
Divorce
Despite the lofty ideals that Judaism has about the holy bond of marriage, it has always been open to the reality of its termination. It is not ideal as the Talmud states that “even God shares tears when anyone divorces his wife” (Sanhedrin 22a), but the fact is that divorce is legal and has been since the earliest times. The key text is found in the book of Deuteronomy (one of the five Torah books):
Suppose a man enters into marriage with a woman, but she does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her, and so he writes her a bill of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; she then leaves his house (Dt 24:1 )
So according to the Torah, divorce entails a simple three-step process:
1. A bill of divorce is written up by the husband
2. The bill is given to the wife
3. She is then sent away
The key points are:
1. Only the husband can initiate a divorce (not the wife)
2. The consent of the wife is not required
3. No grounds are required, only that “she does not please him” for whatever reason
During the Talmudic and medieval period, the rabbis followed the Deuteronomy text closely, agreeing that the husband could initiate proceedings for as simple a reason as “she spoiled his dinner”. However, they also began to speculate on the grounds for which a wife could seek a divorce and request a divorce certificate (now called a ‘get’) from the husband. These included:
· impotence
· refusal to have sex
· failure to support
· infidelity
· physical abuse
· prolonged absence
· certain illnesses: leprosy, boils, goiter etc
· certain trades: tanner, coppersmith, dung collector
The rabbis still agreed that only a husband could issue the get, but the above grounds gave the wife the option of asking a rabbinical court to persuade or even force the husband to do so if he initially refused her request.
The real issue in all of this is not the divorce itself, but the second marriage that follows a divorce. Today, Reform Judaism no longer requires the get for a Jewish man or woman to remarry in a Jewish ceremony, mainly because it objects to the inherent inequality in the tradition (only the husband can issue a get). However, Conservative and Orthodox Judaism still require a get to be issued before a person can remarry in a Jewish ceremony. If someone does not have a get and remarries (outside of a Jewish ceremony) their new marriage will not be recognised legal and any children that are born of that union will be considered illegitimate (mamzer). Moreover, the status of a woman who remarries without a get is worse than that of a man. This is because she would be considered as an adulteress (since she is still technically married to her first husband) whereas he would “only” be considered as a polygynist (he now has two wives, which as we saw earlier is discouraged but legal).
This may seem rather technical but it actually affects many Jewish women today who are unable to obtain a get from their husbands in order to remarry in a Jewish ceremony. The two main reasons why they have not been able to obtain the get are either the husband refuses, or because he is missing and his death cannot be proven. These women are called the “agunot” (chained ones) and you will find plenty of information on the internet and in literature about them.
Some solutions have been devised to assist the agunot, especially in the case of a recalcitrant husband. For example, Conservative Judaism allows a special clause (called the Lieberman clause) to be inserted into the ketubah (marriage contract), which specifies heavy penalties on the husband who refuses to issue his wife with a get if she demands one. However, Orthodox Judaism does not accept this solution and many Orthodox agunot remain in limbo as a result.
Adultery
There is a similar imbalance in the definition of adultery that concerns Jewish feminists. According to the Oxford Dictionary, adultery is defined as: “voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and a person who is not their spouse”. However, the Jewish definition is: “voluntary sexual intercourse between a married woman and a man other than her husband”. In other words, the term adultery strictly applies only to a wife who betrays her husband and not to a husband who betrays his wife. The latter is not condoned by Judaism but it is not considered as serious as the former. In fact, adultery was considered to be such a serious crime in biblical times, that it warranted the death penalty for both parties (the unfaithful wife and her male lover, whether he was married or not). Again, the key text is in Deuteronomy:
If a man is caught lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman as well as the woman. So, you shall purge the evil from Israel. (Dt 22:22 )
The prescribed form of capital punishment was stoning to death in public.
The Torah also speaks of an unusual ritual that a suspicious husband could impose to ascertain whether his wife had committed adultery or not.
When he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and has been unfaithful to her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain, and her womb shall discharge, her uterus drop, and the woman shall become an execration among her people. But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be immune and be able to conceive children. (Num 5)
It is not clear precisely what the potion was but it represents a form of ‘trial by ordeal’ not unlike the process used in European witch hunts (see later).
By Talmudic times, the rabbis insisted that two witnesses were required to sustain the charge of adultery, which made it nearly impossible to convict anyone. Moreover, the punishment was reduced to whipping and the woman was forbidden to marry her lover.
Such drastic measures are no longer advocated by Jewish law but feminists are still concerned that the narrow biblical definition of adultery still stands in Orthodox Judaism. In particular, it is the implication of the definition that worries those who advocate gender equality; namely, that the woman is a part of the husband’s property and that the real sin involved in adultery is not so much betrayal as theft. Indeed, the prohibition on adultery is the seventh commandment (of the Ten Commandments) according to the Jewish numbering, and it sits between that of murder and theft:
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
Moreover, the tenth commandment – which bans coveting someone else’s goods - also reinforces the notion that the wife is part of the husband’s property. There are two versions of this commandment. The Deuteronomy version states:
Neither shall you covet your neighbour’s wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbour’s house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour. (Dt 5)
Such ordering might imply that the wife is set apart from the rest of the neighbour’s property but
the Exodus version, which is possibly older, says:
You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour. (Ex 20)
Here, she is definitely listed among the neighbour’s goods (so too are the male and female slaves). This is consistent with the idea that adultery is essentially stealing another man’s property – in this case his wife. This also explains why the case of a single woman sleeping with another woman’s husband is not technically adultery, since he does not “belong” to his wife and so no theft is involved.
The treatment of the wife as a piece of property is also reflected in the ancient expectation that brides are virginal (at least for their first marriage) whereas there is little interest in the status of the groom. Brides were expected to be ‘untainted goods’ and great shame was brought upon the father and the groom if a bride had lost her virginity beforehand. Again, a passage in Deuteronomy reflects the ancient practice of testing for a bride’s virginity. According to the text, a suspicious groom could ask for an examination with the risk that, if his fears were unfounded and she turned out to be a virgin, then he would have to pay a fine of 100 shekels (paid to the girl’s father). This is not an insignificant amount of money (possibly between $2000 and $20000 today) but the price paid by a girl who had lost her virginity was death by stoning (see Dt 22:13-21).
Sexual Temptress
Lilith
The sexual temptation associated with Lilith and women in general, traditionally meant segregating men and women in synagogue (see later) and in ordinary life. In traditional Jewish communities, women were expected to dress modestly in public, ensuring that sleeves, necklines and skirts were not too revealing. Moreover, married women were expected to cover their hair in public and this is still the practice among Orthodox Jews. Women might wear hats, snoods or even wigs, although some rabbis think that wearing a wig is not in the spirit of covering one’s hair since it still gives the impression that one’s hair is visible. The concern for modesty in public is also behind the Islamic tradition of wearing the veil as we shall see later in the course.
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