Judaism and Feminism: Hand in Hand?

By Josh Klemons
San Diego State University

We live in a day of equal rights for all. In America, we expect everyone to have the same rights in all walks of life and religion is no exception…is it?

I have often questioned women’s role in traditional Judaism. I am unhappy with the gender inequality that I see in many aspects of Jewish life. Interestingly, my strongest opponents in this debate have usually been women who grew up in traditional households.

They say that they find fulfillment in the role that has been assigned to them and I am thrilled that this is the case. We must all find fulfillment in our own way, in order for this particular system to work. I just sometimes question the conditioning that goes into this mindset from their perspective.

After all, I know the conditioning that goes into my side. I grew up attending a Conservative synagogue. We were not Shomer Shabbat and we did not keep kosher, but I celebrated becoming a bar mitzvah, I went to Hebrew school until I graduated from high school and we never brought pork into the house. I went to a southeastern university and studied Journalism and Sociology. My friends say that I am liberal--I do not always agree.

I wonder how it is that women, who are so integral in so many decision-making processes can be content with not being counted in a minyan or with not being expected to fulfill the same mitzvot as their husbands. I do not understand how these women can tell me that they are satisfied with their position in Judaism. Yet they do, and with gusto.

In "The Jew in the Lotus," by Rodger Kamenetz, in referring to the centrality and significant survival of the Jewish religion, quotes Marc Friedman, his traveling companion in studying Buddhism with the Dalai Lama. He claims, "The home is the central shrine and the heart of all being."

I think that this gives us a lot of insight into how a woman who demands equal pay and equal rights in all walks of life, can be content to stay home cooking for company while her husband is praying. These women know that the home is what keeps everything together and that without it, all else fails. It is the bottom of the pyramid upon which all else rests. Without it, everything tumbles down and is lost. That is quite a responsibility for a person who would not be counted in a minyan. But that is the woman’s role in Judaism, at least in the traditional sense.

So that was me playing devil’s advocate and I hope that we will all sleep easier tonight having read that side of the argument. My side is a bit different however.

For years I have grappled with the resounding question. Did God write the Torah? And any Christian who is true to their inner voice has asked the same of the Bible, likewise Muslims with the Koran. I still do not have the answer to this question but I have come up with some insights. Bear in mind, these are answers to my questions and not necessarily something I usually bring up. It just seems relevant.

I have believed for some time that the woman’s place in these aforementioned texts is proof that whether or not God wrote any or all of them, they were at the very least edited by man. I do not believe that God would discriminate between the sexes in such a striking manner. Once again, I extend these beliefs to most monotheistic religions and they are not limited to traditional Judaism, although they certainly apply.

If the argument is that women, especially at the time that these laws were crafted, needed to stay at home and care for the children, where does that leave the unmarried, or the infertile? If the only way for a woman to be a relevant member of a Jewish society is through childcare, what are we saying about a woman who cannot have children? They have no value in this society? Why not amend the laws to say that no person, whether male or female, who has childcare responsibilities, may be counted in a minyan for fear that they are neglecting their children in order to fulfill this mitzvah. With that however, the most traditional of minyanim would have to reevaluate the acceptance of women who have no children to tend to and allow them to be counted among their ranks.

Of course, no traditional minyan is going to rewrite anything. It would go against the idea of the traditional viewpoint, that God wrote the Torah and that it is literally set in stone, now and forever. That is where my argument comes back into play.

Couldn’t God, in all of God’s foresight, have known that one day it might be acceptable for women to get jobs and support themselves, to not take a husband and to make the choice to not have children at all, without being seen as outcasts in their community? Maybe God saw this, but the men of the time could not accept the destiny of their descendents. Perhaps these addenda were their way of fighting off a day when women could vote and become doctors and truck drivers, and stand up for themselves and demand the exact same rights accorded to their husbands, brothers and peers.

I will leave with this question: We say unquestioningly that God created man in God’s image. Is it possible that in fact man created God in his?

[Posted 6/7/05]