Friday, November 18, 2011

Women are Equal Beings in Judaism? Really?

Thanks to Primum non Nocere for a bit of sunshine in what was starting out to look like a grey day--a column by an Israeli Chareidi rabbi coming out against the horrible behavior towards women that has been justified as being the "true" Jewish way.

http://asformeandbeiti.blogspot.com/2011/11/traditional-jewish-approach-to-women.html

5 comments:

JS said...

Wish the person who re-posted gave a bit more insight into what was being referred to by "The Taliban-like demonization of women in chareidi Judaism has trickled down to Modern Orthodoxy." Curious what was meant.

The problem with the article is that it's in English (assuming it's not also being published in Hebrew and/or Yiddish). The rabbis he quotes are not ones generally respected in those communities to the best of my knowledge. He's trying to make a halachic argument which is bound to lose since these people have their rav that they rely on who says otherwise. He also ignores a large issue - the equality spoken to is not equality as it's understood today it's the "division of labor" semi (mock?) equality that we're all familiar with along with its attending apologetics (e.g., the bracha she'lo asani isha is just about mitzvot).

Fact is, you want to stop extremism you fight back and you fight back hard. You stage sit ins on buses where you force mixed seating. You force mixed seating at weddings. You walk with both genders on both sides of the street. You protest newspapers that don't print pictures of women. You stop honoring rabbis that support these practices. The list goes on and on.

This article though will do nothing.

Abba said...

JS:

"The problem with the article is that it's in English (assuming it's not also being published in Hebrew and/or Yiddish) . . ."

he is sephardi and has no sway over yiddish-speakers. in any case, don't worry, he has been very vocal in hebrew.

"This article though will do nothing."

of course this one article will do nothing. but don't think this is all he's done. he has literally risked his political future because of some moderate positions he's advocated. (e.g., he was recently ousted from shas because of his position on conversion.)

JS said...

Abba,

Interesting. I never heard of him or his organization before.

The real question is where are the moderates? I don't see any people protesting this extremism. You hear it's "only a small group of people" but, if so, they seem to have enormous sway and no one is doing too much to stop them.

Mark said...

JS - has trickled down to Modern Orthodoxy." Curious what was meant.

If I had to guess I would say things like replacing lower mechitzot with higher ones, replacing the transparent glass with one-way glass, not permitting women to be officers of the shul, etc.

Zilla said...

Funny that "seperate but equal" never feels equal if you are the one that is seperate.