Religion and Theology

Religion and Theology

Men are More Central to the Life of Judaism than Women

Theology is the study of religion. Theology is concerned with faith, how the human experience of faith, and how different individuals and cultures express it. Theology then focuses on understanding and structuring these concepts and skills of faith and using them to come up with normative prescriptions and how individuals should live their lives. Theology also helps theologians to address present needs and situations via a religious tradition and try to explore different ways of interpreting the world. On the other hand, religion is the belief and worship of superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. We have different types of religion and include; Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, realism, and Caodaism, etc. This essay will discuss men are more central to the life of Judaism than women, considering the rabbinic sources and their responses to them. Also, the paper will discuss women and Jewish Law, women, and Judaism as well role of women in Judaism.

Men are More Central to the Life of Judaism than Women

Judaism is the monotheistic religion of the Jews. The ancient Hebrews developed it. It began in the Middle East 4000 years ago. It gets characterized by a belief in transcendent God, a God who revealed himself to Moses, Hebrew prophets, and Abraham. By an active religious life and living per the rabbinic traditions and scriptures. Abraham is the father and leader of the Jewish faith because he was the one who promoted the Jewish religion (belief in one God). Judaism is a phenomenon of the way the Jewish people lived, comprising of cultural traditions and laws to guide them. The Jewish people believed in the Torah (Plaskow 2014: 90). Torah was the law that gets given to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. The Jewish thought they must obey laws that governed their lives. Later, the rabbis wrote legal books that determined the law which applied to every new place and time for the Jewish people.

The role played by women is determined by the rabbinic literature, the Hebrew Bible, cultural factors and by custom. However, the rabbinic literature and Hebrew Bible mentions several role models, but the religious law treats women different. Men are more central to Judaism than women because looking at biblical times, the Judaism traditions, Jewishness is passed from mother, but it is the fathers’ name that gets used to describe daughters and sons in the Torah. But,  in response to that, today, daughters and sons can either take their mother’s or father’s name. Also, in the bible, an agreement between God and the Israelites was formed at Mount Sinai. The Torah shows that both Israel men and women were involved in the covenant. However, the contract gets expressed in favor of men; as men, we given all the responsibility. Men were supposed to ensure that their children, wives, and slaves did what they get expected. In other words, the covenant bounded women, but indirectly hence men are more central than women. However, in today’s society, the contract made between both women and men are treated as equals, and women can take the same responsibility as a man.

In the bible, few women characters get mentioned showing how the male is more central to Judaism. Also, it shows that women were hardly allowed to lead the public culture in the way male was. However, they are several exceptions to this rule, Rachel, Rebecca, matriarchs Sarah, Deborah, the judge, prophetess Miriam, and Huldah. It is a phenomenon in the bible which shows women are trying to overturn the men’s power structures. These women did not meet with sufficient opposition to stifle their passion for the relative public role they had. In today’s society, these women are seen as founders by feminists for the way they provided insights to Jewish women. Albeit is an example of those women who challenged male dominance.

Family and marriage law in biblical times also favored men compared to women. For instance, a man (husband) can divorce a wife, but a wife cannot divorce without consulting the husband. Levirate marriage was practiced and applied to widows of deceased husband with no children but not widowers of dead wives. In response to today’s society, women have the right to divorce men and get married with or without children. According to the Torah, it suggests that women are inferior to men.  In those times, men were the breadwinners and had specific responsibilities to their wives, like providing sexual needs and clothing. Women depended heavily on men financially and economically. Women couldn’t inherit any land only in conditions where the father did not have a son. However, in such scenarios, women will be advised to marry within the tribe to prevent landholdings. Unlike today women can inherit properties from their father the same way men inherit properties.

Women and Jewish Law

To understand more that men are more central to Judaism, we must understand women and Jewish law. Bible depictions of women begun in the first chapter. The creation of human beings gets described into two different stories in Genesis. First, one woman and man were created from dust and together. From the second story, Adam gets created first, followed by Eve, who gets created from Adam’s rib. Eve gets created to provide companionship for Adam. In the bible, the attitudes towards women have changed a lot. Carol Meyers stated that the traditional role of women is less valued when the monarchy gets established. The Jewish religious life changed to a temple cult, and the Jewish were no longer interested in home and agriculture (Swidler 2012: 8). The rabbinic literature has contributed a lot in proving men are more central in Judaism in the sense that the Rabbinic literature contains more straight-forward opinions concerning women.  It says that women are jealous, lazy, and greedy but are compassionate are intelligent (naturally) than men. Also, women are said to be dishonest and foolish and get linked with witchcraft. In response to that in today’s society, women are neither stupid, nor do they deal with witchcraft, but a man who has no wife is said to have no blessing and joy. The earliest rabbis communicated that a woman’s voice and body were indecent; however, a man is supposed to respect his wife and put her needs first.

In rabbinic law, men have more responsibilities as compared to women.it is a general rule that women have no obligation from positive time-bound commandments, which include fixed prayers at a specific time in the day. Judith Hauptman, a scholar, has stated that this ruling is evidence of women’s subordination. If a woman is around to have an obligation to time-bound commandments, then this would lessen her man dominance since she will concentrate more on God and not his man. In response to the above the law, society today has changed a lot. That law is not allowed because both men and women have the same religious responsibility and the same obligations to serve God (Irshal 2013: 340).

The point of view for women who get built in the middle ages in the rabbinic models has reflected the typical cultural backdrop of people Jewish communities. In Muslim lands, they are so many originating sources, and the sources towards women are often more restrictive. Conferring to Maimonides (this are Spanish philosophers who get considered to be the most significant Jewish scholar during the Middle Ages. Their work was to codify rules or laws in the Talmud for the Jewish. Examples of Maimonides includes, Rabbi Moses Maimon and Moses Maimonides) it states that, having your wife always being in the house all of the time is the best thing. Also, Maimonides allows the husband to beat their wife if she doesn’t fulfill or refuses to perform wifely duties like washing his feet and hands. In response to the Maimonides, there is a difference between the Christian and Muslim lands (Baskin 2015: n.p). According to a significant French Abraham ben David, he noted that he has never heard that men are permitted to harass or beat their wives.

Relating to the Middle Age mystery, theology of Sefirot (ten attributes or modes through which God reveals Himself), some of the characteristics are women. The sefirot also called Shekhinah or Malkhut is the minor women manifestation of God, these manifestation has made women praiseworthy. However, these women’s attributes or modes of God are considered as subservient, passive, and secondary and receives power from the men’s characteristics.  The Middle Age mystery commonly believed that the significant purpose of the women’s manifestation of God was to help in facilitation in the religious life of men (Hauptman 2010: 270). They are an intriguing passage in the Zohar (the main text of the Jewish Kabbalah) it states that the most essential Middle Age mystery work associate that the life after death is officiated by women who aided or gave birth to great men. For over 30 years now, there have been responses to the written Rabbinic literature, which is mostly about women issues. The most considered and favorable of the women’s issues addressed is women’s headship in public prayers and also women’s entrance in the cantorate and the rabbinate. At the same time, other responses like Orthodox response have covered issues like prayer groups and recitation of the kaddish ( prayers for thanksgiving, universal peace, and the dead). Many of the Orthodox answers not only do they address innovations of such legalities but also advocate for the social consequences of changes that occur. Several concerns get reflected in innovating tradition, although it was approved by the Jewish law, which leads to practices that do not conflict with the law.

Specifically, Kabbalistic and Chassidic philosophy responses to rabbinic literature indicate that human beings get categorized into two creation women and men. However, when characteristics get considered, we usually commonly refer to feminine and masculine traits. Both women and men have feminine and masculine features. Both men and women are predominantly masculine and feminine, respectively. There are exceptions why not every man and woman will naturally desire female property as well as male property. The differences concerning feminine and masculine are vast and magnificent. It is these differences that affect the way women and men act, speak, feel, and think. The differences are intellectual, psychological, spiritual, and physical, and while there be a combination of both traits, you can be either a woman or a man. The differences are not supposed to distance but to balance, bond us and bring us together and nor separate us. The most considerable difference between women and men get found in human beings’ intellectual properties. Chassidic philosophy illustrates that we have three intellectual properties that contain seven emotional qualities. Chochmah, which gets translated as wisdom, a male principle is the first intellectual property. Chochmah can be related to a flash of insight. Also, it can get compared to the seed of man. A seed is beginning and foundation of life, and without seed, nothing would exist. However, like the seed, it is naked to the eyes, has no meaning, no form or shape. Yet, it has incredible potential to develop and grow, but it cannot by itself.

Binah, which is the second property, is a feminine property. It gets translated as understanding. Understanding is the ability to grasp wisdom and provide a meaning to it. Binah is the development, the bonding, and formation process, which gets referred to as pregnancy. Binah host the seed as it grows within it until it is fully ready to be on its own. The Binah qualities that wish to receive the seed and make it into something meaningful and tangible through pregnancy. However, the Binah is willing to do that, because, it is what it wants to do. It is a situation where each Binah and Chochmah are dependent on each other to generate reality. The seed without the Binah cannot grow into something on its own. Spiritually, a man has feminine traits of the Binah.

As well as, a woman has masculine features of chochmah, the creation of babies is the most everlasting and profound show of love between a woman and a man.  Torah advocates that men’s masculinity needs to get rectified. A man’s commandments are physical and substantially external, while for a woman, there are internal and private. A woman needs a man for conception, and this is the most considerable role of women in Judaism  (Webber 2014: 100). Also, a woman is supposed to be a helpmate to the husband. Through the ability that she can develop, she as well takes his talents, his ideas, and internalize them by being impregnated with them for a while until they become ready to be delivered in public.

Conclusion

From the above information, it is evident that men are more central to Judaism than women according to the written rabbinic literature. However, some of the rabbinic laws or rules do not apply in today’s society. For instance, beating or harassing your wife if she does attend to her wifely duties is not acceptable in today’s society. Although Judaism has played a significant role for Jewish people as God revealed Himself and gave out the Ten Commandments, which guided the Jewish people. Also, Judaism brought the Jewish together, for they believed in one God and acknowledged that they needed to obey the rules as they governed their lives.