-
Examine the role of women in Jewish families and discuss how far in conflict these are in 21st century views of the woman’s role
(30 marks)
Many of the views in the bible suggest women are inferior to men and are thought to be sexist and unfair. Because Judaism incorporates many of these things into the rules of its religion, creating rules such as women not being allowed to be Rabbis, and being traditionally seen as housewives, the 21st century view largely conflicts with the traditional one.
Many Jewish women do not want to be seen in the light that they used to be, and see themselves as important to the community as men are and consider that they have just as much to offer. In the past, in all religions, reasons have been put forward to suggest that women are inferior, such as beliefs that they are too emotional to cope in areas such as business and politics, or even that their brains weigh less. Over time, women have proved themselves more capable, but still are discriminated against, particularly where religion is involved.
One major example within Judaism is that if a women wishes to be divorced from her husband, on whatever grounds, she must obtain a get before she can remarry as a Jewish woman. Men however are still allowed to marry whom they want without having to obtain anything, showing a large level of discrimination against women, as they appear to be being punished for their failed marriage whilst men are not. Many women are therefore too scared to remarry without a get as they feel they are letting down their family, as their future children will not be considered as properly Jewish.
Orthodox Jews also have many rules against the favour of women enforced in their synagogues. Women and men are separated as it is thought that the women will distract men from their worship, and 10% of Orthodox synagogues do not count women as proper participants. Women do not tend to attend the synagogue as much to worship, as are usually busy at home cleaning, cooking and caring for children. They often have little opportunity to work or take part in non-religious activities outside of the home environment. Many Jewish positions are greatly sexist. For example, Orthodox Jews do not allow women to become Rabbis, and of those Conservative Jews that do, it has been found in the USA that male Rabbis get paid more than $10,000 more than those who are females. However, it is thought that women are closer to God spiritually, as naturally have more binah (intuition, understanding and intelligence) so can more easily worship from their own home unlike men who are more required to go to the synagogue for their worship. This was shown in various events such as women refusing the worship the golden calf in the desert whilst men did and were punished for doing so. Therefore, women can balance their worship and family care. Some also say that they are glad for being able to stay at home, as it enables them to spend more time with their family, raising their children better as a stay-at-home mum, and keeping their home clean. It also means they can spend the week properly preparing for Shabbat each week instead of having to rush the day before because of being at work or busy all week. However, women have also been described by various Rabbis as being lazy, vain, gluttonous and prone to gossip. Women are kept from higher education and work because it is feared this will cause them to neglect their home and family orientated duties. Women are exempt from following all positive and time related commandments, as their family duties are considered more important so these must come first.
Although women do have specific mitzvoth reserved especially for them -example lighting the candles (nerot) and breaking the dough (challah) and niddah. All these mitzvot are related to the home and family. Women take part in ceremonies in such ways whilst it is men who recite the prayers and blessings and head the table. In many homes nowadays, marriage is seen as a partnership, with both people equal, not as the man being in charge. It is said that a woman has enormous spiritual influence over her family, which is why she should run it. It is said in the Talmud, that is a good man marries a wicked woman he will become wicked, but if a wicked man marries a good woman he will become good. This implies that the wife is much more important a role to play when it comes to acting like a role model to her children than the husband does as she can have a greater influence over them.
In traditional Judaism, women are seen usually as separate but equal. Therefore, even though their responsibilities are different from men’s they are just as important, sometimes even more so. Women are seen just as important as men because Judaism believes that God is not exclusively male or female, but actually has a mix of both. In traditional Judaism, Jewish women in fact had more rights than those of other females in western civilisation as had to right to buy, sell and own property, which other women did not have until around 100 years ago. Within the home, Jewish women also have the right to decline sex even if this is within marriage, as sexual intercourse is believed to be the woman’s right and not the man. In other religions, it is thought of as natural that the couple should both consent to sex, so the wife refusing may not be seen as acceptable in a marriage. In this way, Jewish women have more rights within their marriage than other women.
There is various organisations set up to attempt to change the rights of Jewish women, and make themselves heard, such as Jewish Women Watching. These fight for the right to not be discriminated against, for rights such as ceremonies to celebrate the birth of a girl, similar to Pidyon Haben, and equal rights in the synagogue. Even though women may have to work hard to take care of their home and family, with little break from domestic duties, this is rewarded by a minor festival on the first day of each month called Rosh Chodesh, which is ‘the women’s holiday’ given to them by God as a reward for them not worshipping the golden calf when the men did. Despite Jewish women perhaps being more involved with their home and family than other modern women, they get this deserved rest, which is perhaps more than many other women get who have to look after their families and homes and go to work.
The role of Orthodox Jewish women does seem to be in conflict with the 21st century role of women, to some extent, though within Reform Judaism this is not the case so much. With many relaxed rules there are women Rabbis, non-separated synagogues, and equal parenting rights. Some Jewish women feel honoured to be considered closer to God and feel that their rightful place is in the home and that if God made women second to man then this is the way that it should be.
Jewish Theologians and the Holocaust
- Explain what problems were created for Jewish theologians by the holocaust
(20 marks)
When the holocaust happened during WW2 (1939-1945), Jewish people became confused. They had strong faith in their God, yet he did not appear to be helping them through a time where they needed him most. During the holocaust, concentration and labour camps were set up to murder the Jews who Hitler believed were the main cause of Germany’s problems because of the powerful positions they many of them held. Six million Jews were killed altogether,
Therefore a lot of questions were raised about the holocaust. Jewish theologians had to come up with new theories to explain the tragedy, and a range of reasons was created. Many Jews began to question their religion or even whether their was a God at all. Some, like Rubenstein, believed that God must have died, or else he surely would have saved them from such persecution. Judaism traditionally teaches that God is all-powerful and he would therefore have the power to stop anything, including the holocaust. The holocaust meant that some of the theologians had previous views that God would always be present proved wrong, making them look wrong and like they could not be trusted. No clear answer could obviously be come up with, as there were so many conflicting arguments and things that made no sense to anybody who strongly believed in God. The questions raised were unanswerable. The whole of the Jewish faith was being questioned and it was difficult even to decide whether to treat the holocaust as one single event or just another in the growing list of persecutions that had taken place throughout Jewish history, such the Crusades and the Russian ‘Pogroms’.
Despite the questions being unanswerable, some believed that they must be answered, such as Friedlander, who said that if questions are not asked and answers not thought of, nobody will face up to what evil had happened, causing even more hurt than was necessary. Also, along with others such as Norman Soloman, he believed that the answers must also come from non-Jews, as they would also have some important points and interpretations to share, and that the Jews on their own could not answer all the questions. Jews and Christians ha to communicate if they wanted to ensure a future with less anti-Semitism.
For around 20 years after the holocaust, very little was said by theologians on the matter, which has been described as ‘mystery wrapped in silence’ by Jonathon Sacks. Many of those who have written on the matter have been reluctant to call themselves Jewish theologians and no proper account looking at all aspects from every angle in a systematic manner has ever been written.
- The holocaust raises serious problems for Jewish theologians. Outline the major theological responses to the holocaust and assess how successful these are as responses to the problems.
(30 marks)
After the holocaust there were many different views on why such a thing had taken place, and been allowed to by a God who supposedly loved the Jews so much and had promised to protect them.
One of the most famous theologians was Richard Rubenstein. He believed that God was dead, and had died during the holocaust, so was now infinite nothingness. God was inactive or at least unwilling to intervene. Abraham had made a covenant with God, that the Jews would follow the commandments and mitzvot and their sons would be circumcised, in return for God looking after and protecting the Jews, leading them to the Promised Land where they would create a great and powerful nation. Therefore, by abandoning the Jews when they needed him most, God had not kept his half of the covenant, betraying them. Therefore, from then on man would have to shape his own destiny and take responsibility for his own actions, and all existence is ultimately meaningless, because God has no plan or purpose for the world and does not care. However, this explanation does not explain why the Jews were able to gain Israel as a result of the holocaust if it was nothing to do with God and out of his control.
Emil Fackenheim claimed that the holocaust required Jews to search for new beliefs in God. He said that God is beyond human understanding so we can never understand his actions. In opposition to Rubenstein however, he claimed that because the Jews got the promised Holy Land (Israel) then God must be alive as kept his part of the covenant by giving this to them. The holocaust must therefore have been planned as a way to give this land to the Jews as promised in the covenant. Through building Israel, God can be helped to be given back the power that he lost during the holocaust, to make him all-powerful again.
These views all agree in that God was not able or willing to intervene during the holocaust, but that he was present beforehand, and that it was not his fault that he did nothing the help the Jews in their time of need.
In contrast to these is the view of Eliezer Berkouits, who proposed that the holocaust proved that God did exist. He believed that although God didn’t cause the holocaust, he still allowed it to happen. Man was given free will and as a result, persecution has happened throughout human history, especially to the Jews. For example, slavery in Egypt in 2000 BC and being taken into exile to Babylon in 587 BC, as well as the temple being destroyed at least twice. The only thing that makes the holocaust special is the huge scale on which it took place is comparison to past events. Because of what man was doing with the free will granted, God ‘hid his face from the world’ because he was so ashamed of what the humans he created were doing. This explanation is logical because once the war was over, Israel was given to the Jews suggesting God stopped hiding his face once man had stopped doing such shameful things. It has been suggested that the holocaust was simply a test to see whether the Jews would remain faithful even at times when it looked doubtful that there was a God. There are stories in the Old Testament telling of such tests, such as in the book of Job, where God took away from somebody everything that was good in their life to test the strength of their faith. Psalm 126:6 also talks of suffering.
Despite the amount of death and pain caused, the holocaust was a very important part in Jewish history, as many theologians recognise. Alan Unterman says that the holocaust and establishment of Israel were the two most important things to have happens in Jewish history, serving to highlight Jewish self-consciousness and self-identity. Israel was created in 1948, and now over 50% of all Jews live there, mainly those who are Zionist and Orthodox, now with their own sense of belonging. Ignez Maybaum who held the belief that the holocaust was a sacrifice to God for the sins of Germany agreed with the holocaust being important, and believed that those who died were ‘Holy Martyrs’. Therefore, the holocaust was needed to save the world from sin, and the Jews were most worthy to do it, therefore dying for God was an honour.
Another view, opposite to that of the Jews being a sacrifice, was the point made by Esther Jungreis. She said that the holocaust ultimately saved the Jews by forcing them to rethink their ‘Jewishness’ so that they had to work harder to survive. Through this they ensured that they weren’t to die out as a race. Many Jews went to like in the USA, where there is now a large population of American Jews, encouraging larger the growth of the religion. A counter view to this however is that the Jews could possibly build up too much success in countries that are not their own such as the USA, creating jealously and resentment from non-Jews and therefore causing another holocaust to take place.
Albert Friedlander talks about that we need to move on from the holocaust, and although always remember what happened, not keep looking back and wondering why it took place. It has happened and nothing can be done so the best needs to be made of the future instead. There are many memorials, such as huge holocaust museums, Yad Vashem and sites devoted to remembering those who died. However, the most important thing is to build new hope for the future and make the Jews stronger so that such a thing is prevented from ever happening again. Ezekiel 37 talks of resurrection and hope for a new life in the future, which can be applied to the Jews new life, after the holocaust had taken place. Two more types of Jew were also created as a result of the holocaust, as previously most were orthodox but now, reform and liberal Jews are both common.
None of the views from Jewish theologians can be judged right or wrong, because nobody is certain even whether God exists, let alone his apparent reasoning behind things that happen. Therefore, although some views can be assessed as more believable than others, it is up to the individual what they believe to have happened to let the holocaust take place.