Feminism?

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Lighthearted

Senior Member
Oct 17, 2016
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Whether you are male or female. When you're single, you use what God has provided you with to take care of yourself and live life. When you take on a spouse, you use what God has provided you with in a joint effort to support, honor, and love one another in your life together.
 
T

TheIndianGirl

Guest
what struck me is that Jewish men would pray and they would all 'thank God He has not made me a woman'

Whereas I dont know if any of the women prayed 'thank God He has not made me a man'.

But you would have to ask a Jewish woman what she really thinks. If shes actually allowed to speak at all on the matter.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/jun/10/judaism-women-feminism-orthodox

The Jewish men were thanking God for not being female during the times of Jesus, and very likely, even before Jesus, and probably the more orthodox/religious Jews even continue to believe this today. The Jews did not get the message of Jesus, who actually elevated the status of women. Most likely the Jews do not believe this: “Now, there is neither Gentile or Jew, slave or free, male or female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus.” For the Jew, the woman is probably a second class citizen.

https://www.gregnettle.com/thank-god-im-not-a-woman/

At the same time, the Jews probably have sound reason to believe what they did. Based on Genesis, God wanted women (specifically wives) to be submissive as a form of punishment. Being submissive (and all of its implications) suggest it is probably preferable not to be a woman.
 

Moses_Young

Well-known member
Sep 15, 2019
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mm I think things have come a long way since adam and eve (and they fell pretty soon after creation) and also because of imbalances in populations (in some countries, girls are put to death, in others, its only boys) things arent ever going to be as equal as anyone would like.
But if we followed scripture rather than man's wishes, women would have been treated much better.

Jesus went so far as to raise up women and children to be treated as human beings, which in the past they werent, often seen as no better than animals (and sometimes animals were treated better. ) For a patriarchal society as the israelites were...it was a huge step.
I don't think this was God's will. Look how Abraham and Isaac were ready to give their wives to Pharaoh and the king to save their lives, but God rescued their wives from this fate - clearly not something God approved of. But when Shechem raped Dinah, her two brothers risked their lives to avenge her.

Being female in jewish orthodoxy is actually pretty tough. Boys get a bar mitsvah, they are recognised as men.
The bible describes the process for initiating both males and females into his people. While girls didn't have any prohibitions, boys could only be accepted in once they had been circumcised. While you may think this is not a big issue for children, it certainly would have made it easier for adult women to join the family of Israel than adult men. Bar mitsvah and bat mitsvah is not mentioned in scripture (traditions of men).

Girls just get a token bats mitsvah otherwise theyd really have nothing to recongise that they could have any say in anything they ever did,
I think this is a tradition of man, rather than a biblical tradition. Even for the covenant of circumcision, which some argue favours the males (when it was the males who were cut off, unless they received it), females were not prohibited from it. It wasn't a ritual to exclude females, as Zipporah demonstrated when she circumcised her son, and mohelets (female mohels) are popular in many Jewish congregations today because of her example.

unable to inherit land, and without a husband or children they were destitute, the only occupations open to them being prostitution or gleaning the fields. They were also not allowed to go to school and learn Torah...this was seen as preserve of boys.
Even this isn't strictly true.

Numbers 27:6-7
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 7 The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father's brethren; and thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them

Yes, the lands etc. defaulted to the sons to preserve the father's name. But the women were to be looked after, whether by their husbands, or their fathers (if unmarried). And women could have an inheritance also, as these verses demonstrate.