From: dic5340@hertz.njit.edu (David Charlap)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: sexism
Date: 13 Oct 92 16:33:04 GMT
Organization: New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, N.J.

In article <1992Oct13.002501.11405@ils.nwu.edu> allender@ils.nwu.edu (Laura Allender) writes:
>I agree, Orthodox Jewish Law, when interpreted by men for men is
>degrading to women.  (How else could men arrange to study all
>day while women scrub floors, bathe children, and prepare food.)

You have a very skewed view of Orthodox Jewish life.  Very few men
spend all their time studying.  Most go out and have jobs like the
rest of humanity.  Before modern times, this job involved long hours
in fields or in factories.  In contrast, a wife would raise the
family.

Now before you have a knee-jerk response and call me a sexist pig,
allow me to continue my argument.

1) In the home, the woman has the final say.  Her husband does not
   have the last word on how the house is to be kept, how the children
are to be raised, etc.

2) A woman's place in the home is considered to be just as important
   (if not more so) than the man's place in the workplace.  The keeper
of the children is the one responsible for the next generation of
human beings, and this is not a position to be put down.

3) It is a man's obligation to keep his wife happy and content.  This
   means providing for her needs and as much of her desires as is is
possible.  As a good example, in some communities, women aren't
allowed to drive cars - so their husbands are obligated to drive them
wherever they want to go whenever they want to go.  Whose life is
worse here?

4) Women are "excluded" from prayer sevices because they are not
   obligated to participate.  Since women have certain obligations to
the children, they are not obligated to perform mitzvot which have
specific times (of day) attached to them.  Judaism believes that one
who has no obligation can not lead one who is obligated.  This is the
ONLY reason why women are usually not allowed to lead services, etc.

If you ask why not obligate them, well consider this:  If you're
taking care of the family (which may involve nurisng the baby at
3:00AM, something a man can never do), it would be cruel to obligate
her to get up in order to pray every morning at 7:00AM.

5) Separate seating is done because it is a disturbance to
   concentration.  I know from my own experience that it is difficult
to concentrate on prayers when a beautiful woman is seated in my
line-of-sight.  The Rabbis knew this also.  The same probably also
goes for women trying to pray while looking at a good-looking man.

Etc. Etc.  Far be it from me to change your mind, but get all the
facts before you jump to a conclusion.

If there are any specific sexist actions you'd like me to address,
post them and I'll see if I know a reason you might not be aware of.
I do know that women are praised quite often in the Torah, and that
Women are considered much stronger and more capable in many ways.

>Note: Reform Judaism is not exempt from sexism either, I was at
>a Hillel service sponsered by B'nai Brith and the xerox had 
>"Kulam" translated as  "all the children of men" -- like those men
>had the children all by themselves!  Grumpf!

Let's not go overboard here.  Translations are translations.  When you
have a language where there is no neuter terminology and the generic
plural assumes the masculine plural, it would be exceedingly difficult
to get translations proper, inserting neuter forms in some cases and
using male forms in others.

But if you want to consider Hebrew an inherently sexist language and
simply consider all use of it sexist, go ahead, but let's not continue
arguing a moot point.
-- 
David Charlap         |"there aren't 50,000 things for which it's worth writing
dic5340@hertz.njit.edu| software; and the computer industry doesn't have enough
----------------------+ programmers to create that much good software.
Therefore, most of it must be worthless" -- Boris Beizer "The Frozen Keyboard"
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish