women in judaism - a response to rabbi reinman

it's like this... part 2 of rabbi reinman's talk was not exactly on the menu. the issue of understanding the woman in judaism is something ruthi and i had planned to address ourselves in the coming weeks. there is no question that the misconceptions are great, and furthermore no doubt that anyone will find the traditional understanding to be thoroughly refreshing, radically surprising (considering the "reputation"), and doggedly iconoclastic towards today's western ideology. this concept is so fundamental to the future of jewish leadership because it is here that the battles will be waged and where judaism stands to make one of the greatest contributions to the salvation of western dignity and thought. all social injustice and depravity may just possibly stem from the visceral and/or outright objectification of woman in today's world. when any woman's success will be predicated on her sexual prowess, therein lies the destruction of person, the nullification of true human dignity, which invariably spreads its poison to every crevice of social injustice. one look at the film and music "role models" of the female genre should be cause for an outcry of epic proportion. where are the voices? where is the uproar? i don't doubt that even women with the most far-removed aspirations and solid critical credentials, in pursuit of the finest and most noble of professional positions, will to some degree fall prey to such pressures and expectations as well. judaism cries, wails, screams, pleads and protests every fiber of objectification.

on a second front, judaism seeks to revalue the very greatness of woman's instinct and potential. in a world where education is undervalued and placed in the care of others, women are left with no "legitimate" option other than those available to men, namely professional, success orientated endeavors. the mother-by-choice is something unappreciated and possibly completely snubbed by all progressive western thought. judaism has proven explicitly that it values education more than any other culture. our history of literacy and equality in education, the communal and national commitment to free access of knowledge and continued study has shaped the very fiber of humanity. and even today, statistically we rise far above the normative expectations. but know, that the essential fundamentals of education are those of morality, spirituality, faith, and vision in the completion of man and the world according to the strict prescription of God's Torah. our synagogues and armies are worthless if jewish values and dreams are not being transmitted to the coming generation. herein lies the very essence of our survival. there is no reason for jews to wage war if the home, that bastion of jewish thought and life, cannot be preserved. we fight for the survival of Torah, which means "teaching", literally. we fight for the right of jewish parents to live and cultivate their judaism in order to successfully ensure its transmission. what greater honor is there than that of building a generation, raising jews to be jews with the strength and conviction to tackle the world on God's behalf - for the sake of liberty, truth, morality and holiness. to accept with dignity at all costs the honor of being that light unto the nations, the conscience of God (as hitler wrote) even on pain of death. such a task is so crucial, that the Almighty imbued His creation with special dispensation particular to this cause. this is woman. He created her innately as a master of time. She would effortlessly synchronize with the temporal nature of the physical world in such a way as to free her from a physical burden so that her energies could be better placed on maintaining His Torah. A woman has natural rhythmic, cyclical biological realities ("clocks") to her makeup. She'll synchronize her cycles with the tides, with the moon, with other women. She has no need to "conquer" time in this world, for she is above it's clutches. consequently, all time-bound mitzvos (commandments) in the Torah do not apply to her. if mitzvos are God given bridges between the physical and spiritual worlds, she needs none. she will not have the obligations to master time, and therefore, while men will be enjoined to first conquer time before coming close to God (praying at three specific set times a day and performing many rituals in the process of "removing" himself from a "burdensome" world), a woman is left to effortlessly communicate with the Almighty at her leisure, once a day. Her position of greater spiritual proximity to God is a "technological advance" in the created world (she was created last, as creation progressed towards greater manifestations of divinity and perfection). and this very innovation is precisely why she is chosen to manage the most central of all tasks: the building and maintenance of the continuity of God's teachings and the jewish people, its carrier.

in like fashion, as rabbi reinman pointed out, she is also exempt from "obligations" that may severely compromise this task (the obligation of prayer amongst a quorum, the obligation of public service, the obligation of legal proceedings, the obligation of legal exegesis and redaction, etc.). she was granted an intellect classified as "bina yisera" (an intuitive, introspective and absorbing intellectual faculty, greater than man's) and was released from the shackles of antiseptic, epistemic logic (she has it, of course, but not to the degree of man). this further contributes to infusing value and faith into the jewish people. wherever there was severe crisis in jewish history, the women consistently carried the jewish people through (during the slavery in egypt, at the shores of the red sea, by the golden calf, the victories of hannukah - yehudis - and purim - ester, etc. - see me for details). this is a direct consequence of woman's particular physiological and spiritual uniqueness. this is not some compensating pc spin, but rather, thoroughly borne out in jewish scripture and practice - find any great Torah jew and simply ask him about his wife.

it's now 2am and i'm bleary-eyed. i'm allowing myself to write this and send it because i assume that we've developed enough of a relationship that my intentions will be trusted and real discourse can follow. while i may have wished the topic could have been presented a bit differently, i am prepared to go to all lengths to see this one understood clearly. rabbi reinman made astute points about the value of education/child rearing vis a vis secular culture, the ability of woman to accomplish both, but not one at the expense of the other, and my wife would argue that there is ultimately no greater fulfillment of and challenge to a woman's strengths, intellect included, than raising jewish kids and building a jewish home. there is nothing in traditional jewish thought which precludes women from pursuing careers and affecting the outside world as well. but to be essentially discouraged from successfully undertaking the greatest challenge of all is deicide. the jewish home is elixir of life. we've just forgotten what it's supposed to look like, how essential it is, and how great it can be.

yours,
shmuel