Like Bread on the Seder Plate

I just wanted to post this picture to go along with my comment to Sophie's post. If you're interested in Jewish feminism, this is a good book to read.

Jewish Women and the Torah

In response to this week's question, I think that Jewish women try to have the same relationship to the Torah as Jewish men do, but are often prevented or looked down upon by men for doing so, as shown in Half the Kingdom. I do no believe that studying the Torah is the only way these women can relate to scripture. However, although JBK referenced making challah, cooking kosher meals, and teaching children Bible stories and domestic traditions as other ways of relating to Torah, I think after listening to all of the women’s stories and how emotional they got when they were able to read and touch the Torah for the first time, it is evident that these other ways of relating to Torah simply aren’t enough for these women. I thought this need to relate to the Torah was accurately conveyed in the movie by one woman’s comment about how we should not be holding on to 2,000 year old traditions that are discriminatory. I believe these women just want to be on equal footing with the men in their society, and although they are relating to the Torah with these other practices, the actual act of being given the right to study it seems to be a source of empowerment for them. In response to whether or not the devotion to Torah study is out of touch with reality, I believe for people who are not part of that religion it seems like it would be out of touch with reality, but for them it is normal. They may see a lot of things that we do as being out of touch with reality. For them, the Torah is their reality, meaning that as long as it continues to be studied, readers will always be left with a derogatory view of women. I agreed with one of the women from Half the Kingdom who offered a possible solution to this situation by saying that we can’t hang onto these male texts. We need to find womens texts to study from and write new texts. Until this happens, Jewish women will constantly be fighting for equal rights.

Jewish Women and Judaism

I always think of my tradition (Southern Sudanese) as a discriminatory tradition because women are prevented to do certain things (because they are not basically as smart as men). Even though I watched the first movie wandering why there were no Jewish women studying the Torah, I did not expect that Jewish women would almost not be allowed to study the laws that played the important roles in the history of their tradition. But today in class I wandered more by seeing women in one of the great tradition (Judaism) challenging the way they were not encouraged to learning the Torah.

It was a fascinating movie because the women tried hard to find their common ground between religious and historical tradition. I thought the women played an important role not only by praying at the Holly Wall in Jerusalem (to show the men they are part of this tradition), but also addressing the issues of their religious civil rights, and the struggle for self-definition in a man dominant tradition and religion. I do not know why Judaism does not allow women to study and learn the Torah, Is it because God created man and woman differently or was this created by men who wrote or interpreted the Torah? Did God prohibit Jewish women from studying the Torah, or did this develop over the years of Jewish traditional change?

Who's wrong in the eyes of God?

I believe that both Jewish men and women have the same relationships to the Torah in a way that they perceive the Torah as the bridge which connects the Jew and God. It is undeniable fact that the Torah has been the core of Judaism; the individual’s attempt to develop and deepen his or her personal relationship with God through studying of Torah, explains why the importance of Torah study has been stressing out among the different Jewish communities around the world.

After watching the video “The Torah and the Scholar Today,” I could completely understand the significant meaning(s) of Torah study within the Jewish society. Through watching the video, I learned that the importance of Torah study comes not only from one’s sincere desire to appreciate (or to learn more about) YHWH, but also from one’s duty, as a Jew, to preserve a special relationship that the one true God of Israel had made with the Jewish people in the ancient past. Therefore, it was not so hard to understand Jewish women’s desperation to study (or even to read) Torah while watching the video, “Half the Kingdom.”

However, while watching several women’s “unbreakable will” against their own ethical traditions, I thought of a small possibility that some of the women could have used the notion of Torah study as a weapon to fulfil one's own desire (to build a strong relationship with God or to justify gender equality to the Jewish men) whether their society or ethical traditions approve it or not.

I strongly believe that those women have every right to claim their rights and duties to worship and learn about God who loves and treats them equally as He does to men; I believe that no man has a right to stop anyone from performing religious acts. However, when I was watching the part where Jewish men were yelling at or disapproving women’s reading the Torah (or performing religious practice) in public, I wondered how God would respond to their behaviors.

Would God say that those men had a right to disapprove women’s mere desire to worship Him in public? Or, would God say that those women had a right to disorganize the society and disobey their husbands in order to worship Him in public?

I do not know what God truly wants His people to do. However, I am sure God would not want His beloved people to either discriminate one another due to gender difference or violate one’s traditional role to fulfill one’s own desire.