Shabbat Toldot
Role of Women
For most of human history women have been treated in a different way to men and not always complementarily. However much modern society has tried to address the issue and often successfully in some parts of the world, the issue of sexual difference, priorities and power struggles, remains very much a matter of debate and disagreement today. Particularly in religious societies.
On the one hand, one could look at the Bible and see how it seems to be a man’s world. Man was created first and it is the male line that is emphasized in the chronologies. And they seem to dictate the narrative. Even if outstanding women are given credit and places of honor.
Even if today in much of the orthodox world there’s been phenomenal progress in leveling the playing fields particularly in areas of scholarship. Still in many areas male chauvinism plays an important and determining role. I’d like to find a different way of addressing the issue.
When you consider the current chapters that we are reading these weeks, women play a very important but specific role. And whereas the men focus on matters of power and succession, women of the Bible do so in a different way.
Sarai plays a crucial role in determining the succession of Yitzhak over Yishmael. We are introduced to her beauty but also fragility. But at the same time, we feel her pain and the struggle that she has producing an heir for the next generation.
The Torah focus is on the character of Rivkah and the human qualities of kindness, hospitality and human respect. Interestingly the Torah mentions the role of her nurse, Devorah (who travels with her and clearly was an important influence on her). Her death is recorded (Bereishit 35:12). Rivkah too has problems, she suffers in childbirth. God comforts her and predicts which of her twins would become the successor, rather than addressing her husband.
She plays a crucial role in ensuring that it is Yaakov who becomes the bearer of the monotheistic tradition. Some regard Rivkah’s role as one of deception and undue influence. But it’s clear from the Torah point of view that her decision was the right one and her instincts were in fact superior to Yitzchak’s.
She is going against the traditional male priorities of handing over leadership to the first born. Later in the time of the kings, primogenitor was the priority. In this sense, she lays the ground for Moshe who was not the first born either but the better choice to lead. And later we will come across Tamar daughter-in-law of Yehudah (Bereishit 38) where she takes the moral high ground and is not only vindicated but is the direct link to King David. In Exodus we are shown the fortitude on the midwives and the role of Miriam as a guardian, a prophetess and a leader.
There are nowadays those who find it problematic to speak of God in male terms, king, lord master. But most of the Hebrew names for God do not make this sexual distinction and if translations choose the male for that is a cultural phenomenon. Even the tetragrammaton name of God is gender neutral despite the way most translations into modern languages still prefer to use the masculine. It is the mystical tradition that focuses on the female element of God. In the beginning of Bereishit God is given a female dimension when it talks about “Ruach Elohim merachefet,” in the female tense, that the spirit of God hovers over the waters (Bereishit 1.2).
It is the mystical tradition that elevates the female to equality with the male stressing that God has a female aspect as much as a male one. The Sephirot, the mystical categories of Divine interaction, are both male and female. The female represents the intuitive and emotional. You might say that the male represents the rational although in truth in mystical terms they are interchangeable.
This is not to differentiate qualitatively between the sexes but to emphasize that if the Torah places so much emphasis on the contribution of women both to the development of the tradition and in protecting leaders and the people both with their wisdom and their emotional support, it is for a reason.
This is a theme that too often is overlooked and underestimated. It is clear from the Torah this week that we require both the emotional, as much as male aggression to ensure the legacy of Avraham and the future of the Children of Israel.
Rabbi Jeremy Rosen lives in New York. He was born in Manchester. His writings are concerned with religion, culture, history and current affairs – anything he finds interesting or relevant. They are designed to entertain and to stimulate. Disagreement is always welcome.
