Jews, Women, or Both?
By: Allison J. Van Tilborgh
Tags: Books, History, Religion, Spirituality, Feminism

The Hebrew Bible & Rabbinic Tradition

To properly grasp the historical nature of the Jewish people, it is necessary to explore the ancient structures through which Judaism operated for thousands of years. The Hebrew Bible, also known as the Tanakh, is the collection of scrolls considered canon amongst the Jewish religious tradition. The Tanakh is an acronym for the three sections of the larger text: the Torah (teaching), the Nevi’im (prophets), and Ketuvim (writings). This collection is roughly 1400 years old (Bronner 20).

It is within the Torah, the holiest part of the Hebrew Bible, that ancient narratives and the bulk of Jewish legal writings can be found. These still guide the life of Jews in a modern context. In the Nevi’im, stories of military conquest, political order, and prophecy can be found. In the final installment, the Ketuvim (writings) mostly contain poetry and wisdom writing and include the two sole scrolls named after women: Ruth and Esther.

The Tanakh has always been important to the Jewish people, but before the destruction of their primary holy site, the Temple of Solomon, Jewish life looked very different. Jerusalem was the center of Jewish life, where the priests lived and performed sacrifices. After the final destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 AD, a seismic shift occurred in which Judaism became a religion in diaspora, using its sacred texts as the primary axis of religiosity.

This period, known as the early Rabbinic period, canonized the Hebrew Bible and began the codification of other important religious documents. In this new era of Judaism, priests no longer served as the religious order since there was no longer a temple to preside over. Instead, the role of rabbi (teacher) was engineered to lead groups of Jews as they spread to the ends of the earth.

The early rabbis believed that all Jews, throughout the entire Jewish history, were present at Mount Sinai when Moses received the Torah, a notion that the feminist theologian Judith Plaskow equips in her famous book, Standing Again at Sinai (1994). This Torah supposedly came in two forms: the written Torah, which is divinely documented in the Tanakh, and the Oral Torah, which further clarifies the written Torah.

This oral tradition had been passed down verbatim throughout all of Jewish history, from Moses up to the rabbis themselves. When this tradition was finally documented, it became known as the Mishnah. The Mishnah set a precedent for the most extensive Jewish text of the Rabbinic period known as the Talmud, which contains the written accounts of commentaries on the Mishnah. According to Bronner, this literature has existed canonically for about 700 years (2).

As it relates to women, the Talmud expands upon the narratives contained in the Torah familiar to all Jews, providing further legal clarifications of the proper actions of women (these codified legal discussions are known as halakhah), and folkloristic narrative which expands on the given texts, known as aggadah (Bronner xvi).

Midrash, which provides exegesis on the Torah, is heavily aggadic, meaning it is primarily built on folklore rather than merely legal precedent. Throughout this paper, examples of midrash will be provided to display the texture brought to Biblical women in the Rabbinic period, both in a positive light and negative one.

The Gender Economy of Jewish Religious Life

The Hebrew Bible indisputably depicts men’s lives and their activities more than their female counterparts (Bronner 1). The 613 mitzvot (laws) contained in the Torah are built on a gender economy. They were designed, mostly for men. This means that men were (and are) required to perform all mitzvot, but women were (and are) excused from many. For example, women are excluded from participating in time-oriented mitzvot such as communal prayer and are not considered part of the minyan (Bronner 4). They were also not allowed to engage with the Torah, which restricted them from theological knowledge and religious dialogue (Rabbi Elierzer went so far as to suggest that the Torah “be burnt rather than given to a woman”) (Bronner 5).

Like nearly all ancient civilizations, women existed in a profoundly patriarchal system, tasked with keeping with the home and rearing children. Their participation in traditional religious life was reasonably limited, though expressed differently depending on the period.

Bronner distinguishes, “In the Rabbinic world.. [women] were enablers, family-oriented and away from the centers of power and communal leadership. This is in contrast to the Bible where despite their being ineffective in the legal realm, more women display active leadership in the narrative sources” (2). In the Tanakh, at least, there exists a tradition of women who rose to consequential public roles: Deborah becomes a Judge of Israel, Esther saves her people from genocide, and Serah bat Asher stands in solidarity with other powerful “Exodus Women”.

In the rabbinic period, this gendered approach of Jewish legalism gained more definition (Kashani-Sabet & Wenger 115). The Rabbis sorted laws into four categories: laws that applied to men, laws that applied to women, laws that applied to men and women, and laws that applied to neither men or women (Kashani-Sabet & Wenger 106).

Moving from law to a more general social context, women were seen within four main archetypes: daughters, wives, mothers, or sisters (Bronner 2). They existed primarily in their relationships with men. This rigid system further ingrained the importance of gender in Jewish society, making any gender deviance fairly difficult. This gendered way of approaching Jewish life, and therefore religious life, produced ideal archetypes of men and women.

There exists a surprising number of courageous Jewish women in the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic tradition, too many to include in a snapshot of exceptional women in ancient and contemporary examples. Though the following section will primarily fixate on the characters of Eve, Serah bat Asher, Deborah, and Esther, honorable mentions include the Woman of Song of Songs and Joseph’s femininity.

Feminine Archetypes in Jewish Religious Texts

Eve as the Female Prototype

There are few Biblical characters as controversial as Eve. In the Torah, Eve was the first woman created by God, created alongside Adam, the first man. She was tasked with providing companionship and facilitating the multiplication of the human race (Genesis 1:28). While she acts as an archetype for women in general, her story has often been used as a framework for dos and don’ts for women (Bronner 22). She possessed a dangerous, creative energy that, to many, is interpreted as spelling out the destruction of humanity altogether.

In the written Torah, two creation stories are given for Eve. In the first, she is created alongside Adam at the same time.

“So God created Mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Genesis 1:27, Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation

In the second, she is pulled from Adam’s side when he is in a deep sleep.

“So the Lord God cast a deep sleep upon the man; and, while he slept, He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in that spot. And the Lord God fashioned the rib that He had taken from the man into a woman; and He brought her to the man.” Genesis 2:21–22, Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation

The difference is significant. If one is to believe that Eve was created alongside Adam, as in the first creation myth, then it would be reasonable to assume them to be equal. But if one is to believe that she was taken from his rib, then a particular flavor of subservience is salient, as is ascertained later in the creation narrative (Genesis 3:16).

This seeming contradiction between the accounts gave rabbis much to consider, which resulted in several creative theological solutions. In one Rabbinic explanation, the Hebrew word ‘rib’ is instead translated as ‘side’ (Bronner 28). In this version, Adam was not created as a male but a hermaphrodite containing male and female qualities (Bronner 27).

Since the Hebrew word ‘adam’ translates to ‘human’ in English, many theologians have gravitated to this version of the narrative, including modern feminists. From the androgynous Adam came two ‘sides’, which became man and woman. To suggest that God made man and woman at the same time, as in the first version of creation, would also suggest that the male sex was created at the point of separation, not as a precursor.

Given the problem of Eve’s existence being a sexual one in nature, many of the rabbinic narratives surrounding the fall of man are sexual. To paraphrase the text: Adam and Eve are instructed to eat from any tree in the Garden of Eden aside from one, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. A serpent deceives Eve, convincing her to eat from the forbidden fruit and then handing it to Adam, who eats as well. At this moment, they realize they are naked and try to hide from God, who is stomping through the Garden looking for them. He eventually finds them and expels them from the Garden after providing ‘punishments’ to both Adam and Eve:

“And to the woman He said, “I will make most severe your pangs in childbearing; In pain shall you bear children. Yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” To Adam he said, “Because you did as your wife said and ate of the tree which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed be the ground because of you; by toil you eat of it all the days of your life: thorns and thistles shall it sprout for you. But your food shall be the grasses of the field; by the sweat of your brow shall you get bread to eat, until you return to the ground — for from it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:16–19, Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation

It is first important to recognize the ambiguity surrounding the sin’s nature (Bronner 24). Ancient sources grapple with this. Some rabbinical sources consider Eve’s decision to eat from the fruit to be entirely driven by lust, thereby bringing lust and death to creation (Bronner 26). In a more aggadic version, Satan (attributed to the serpent) found himself lusting after Eve, had sex with her (“injecting lust into her”), which thereby causes all the events of the Fall of Man to ensure (Bronner 26).

While this may be seen as a redemption of Eve to some extent, her presence is considered enough to entice Satan, thereby still deserving the blame onto her. This story is transformed into a construction of modesty, whereby Eve is prescribed rules to prevent men’s enticement, like Satan, including covering her hair and keeping out of the way of men (Bronner 32).

One midrash states, “in the same way Eve disgraced herself and caused her daughters to cover their heads” (Bronner 32). The female body is associated with death, destruction, and danger — something that must be covered and hidden. Modesty becomes the primary occupation of many rabbinic midrashim (Bronner 31). To many, this is the true essence of women — their prototype, and therefore the archetype for all women.

Before continuing, it is worth arguing that modesty within the rabbinic tradition is not consistent throughout the Hebrew Bible examinations. Rabbinic interpretation is often a product of one’s time, needs, and crises. In a world of utter disorder, it would make sense that rabbis would want to add more rigidity to men and women’s roles.

But one must look no further than the Song of Songs, to encounter an unapologetically sexual woman within the Jewish canon and plenty of rabbinic support behind it. Rabbi Akiva famously defended the canonization of this sexually loaded scroll saying,

“For all of eternity in its entirety is not as worthy as the day on which Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the Writings are holy, but Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies.”

Back within the creation narrative, the Medieval midrash of Lilith complicates the story of Eve. In medieval Kabbalist sources, some rabbis engineered a new aggadic figure — the true first woman, Lilith.

Lilith was the original wife of Adam, created from the dust of the earth (Bronner 33). She was brash, insistent on equality, and argumentative. In one particular argument about who should have the ‘active’ sexual position, she becomes so frustrated that she flies away and leaves Adam (Bronner 34). She is the embodiment of the rabbinic tradition’s fears, deviant women becoming an archetype of female rebellion. Unsurprisingly, in the 20th century, Lilith’s meaning transforms again and becomes seen as a positive rebellious role model for women trying to correct the injustices of modern patriarchy — modern nation-saving.

Against the backdrop of Lilith, Eve is seen as marginally better. There is some degree to which her actions appear inevitable, attributed to her female nature. One rabbinic interpretation of God’s ‘punishments’ to Adam and Eve redefines them as prophecy rather than rejection. In this version, God merely describes how the relationship between man, woman, and the earth will evolve (Bronner 24). ‘He shall rule over you’ not because God ordains it to be so, but because that is simply how things will unfold. In His anger, God tells the couple the hard truth, regardless of whether or not He sees it as just.

Contemporary feminists take this interpretation a step further, arguing that God was detailing the injustices men would commit against women, rejecting the idea that this is the way things must be but merely the broken way things are at the moment.

To many contemporary women, then, Eve is a symbol of where all women start, constrained, surveilled, made to imagine their bodies as some evil vessel. Eve is curious, hungry for knowledge of right and wrong. What she discovers is horrifying. In the face of crisis, men will blame and subjugate women to stay in power and have their own needs met. Eve becomes the original victim of men, the woman contemporary feminists are working break free. These Jewish feminists ask, “Can the same fruit that banished us from the garden, bring us back?”