Women in Judaism
Women in Judaism have affected the course of Judaism over millennia. Their role is reflected in the Hebrew Bible, the Oral Law, by custom, and by cultural factors. Although the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic literature present various female role models, religious law treats women in specific ways. According to a 2017 study by the Pew Research Center, women account for 52% of the worldwide Jewish population.
Gender has a bearing on familial lines: in traditional Rabbinic Judaism, Jewish affiliation is passed down through the mother, although the father's name is used to describe sons and daughters in the Torah and in traditional Hebrew names, e. g., "Dinah, daughter of Jacob".
A growing movement advocates for increased inclusion of women in positions such as rabbis, cantors, and communal leaders. This challenges historic practices. Perspectives on women's roles evolved over time due to discussion and reinterpretation of religious texts.
Levi status is given only to a Jewish male descended patrilineally from Levi; likewise a Kohen descends from Aharon, the first Kohen. Bat-Kohens and Bat-Levis inherit that status from their Jewish father with the corresponding title HaKohen/HaLevi.
Biblical times
Compared to men, relatively few women are mentioned in the Bible by name and role. Those mentioned include the Matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah; Miriam the prophetess; Rahab who assisted Joshua; Achsah, daughter of Caleb; Deborah the Judge; Naomi; Ruth great-grandmother of King David Huldah the prophetess; Abigail ; Rahab; and Persian Jewish queen Esther. Ruth and Esther are the only women with books that bear their name.Women are portrayed subverting male-dominated power structures. Many Jewish women are considered foundational by feminists because they provide insights into life during those times. They are notable for breaking the male dominance of historical documentation. This is notable given the poor documentation of most women's lives at the time.
According to Jewish tradition, a covenant was formed between the Israelites and the God of Abraham at Mount Sinai. The Torah relates that Israelite men and women were present at Sinai; however, the covenant bound men to act upon its requirements and to ensure that household members also met these requirements. In this sense, the covenant bound women, though indirectly.
Marriage and family law in biblical times gave men powers that it did not give to women. For example, a husband could choose to divorce a wife, but a wife could not divorce a husband without his consent. The practice of levirate marriage applied to widows of childless husbands, but not to widowers of childless wives; though, if either did not consent to the marriage, a ceremony called chalitza was done instead. The widow removes her brother-in-law's shoe, spits in front of him, and proclaims, "This is what happens to someone who will not build his brother's house!"
Laws concerning the loss of female virginity have no male equivalent. Many of these laws, such as levirate marriage, are no longer practiced. These and other gender differences found in the Torah suggest that biblical society viewed continuity, property, and family unity as paramount; however, they also suggest that women were to be subordinate to men. Men were required to perform specific duties for their wives, but these often reinforced gendered roles. These included the provision of clothing, food, and sexual service to their wives.
Women participated in ritual life. Women were required to make pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem once a year and offer the Passover sacrifice. They would also do so on special occasions in their lives such as giving a todah offering after childbirth. Hence, they participated in many of the major public religious roles that non-Levitical men could, albeit less often and on a somewhat smaller and more discreet scale.
According to Jewish tradition, Michal, the daughter of Saul and David's first wife, accepted the commandments of tefillin and tzitzit. However, these requirements applied only to men. Many of the mitzvot applied to both men and women; however, women were usually exempt from requirements to perform a duty at a specific time, as opposed to doing so at a convenient time or requirements to abstain from an act). Two prominent theories attempt to explain this: pragmatism and spirituality.
Women depended on men economically. Women generally did not own property except in the rare case of inheriting land from a father who did not bear sons. Even in such cases, "women would be required to remarry within the tribe so as not to reduce its land holdings".
Talmudic times
Women were required by halacha to carry out all negative mitzvot, but were excused from doing most time-bound, positive mitzvot. A woman was not, however, prohibited from doing a mitzvah from which she was excused. Halacha also provided women with some material and emotional protections related to marriage, and divorce that most non-Jewish women did not enjoy during the first millennium of the Common Era. Penal and civil law treated men and women equally.Evidence suggests that, at least among the elite, women were educated in the Bible and in halacha. The daughter of a scholar was considered a good prospect for marriage in part because of her education. Stories in the Talmud present women whose husbands died or were exiled and yet were able to educate their children because of their own education.
The Talmud states:
- Greater is the reward to be given by the All-Mighty to the women than to men.
- Ten measures of speech descended to the world; women took nine.
- Women are light on raw knowledge – i. e., they possess more intuition.
- A man without a wife lives without joy, blessing, and good; a man should love his wife as himself and respect her more than himself.
- When Rav Yosef b. Hiyya heard his mother's footsteps he would say: Let me arise before the approach of the divine presence.
- Israel was redeemed from Egypt by virtue of its righteous women.
- A man must be careful never to speak slightingly to his wife, because women are prone to tears and sensitive to wrong.
- Women have greater faith than men.
- Women have greater powers of discernment.
- Women are especially tenderhearted.
Middle Ages
Since Jews were seen as second-class citizens in Christian and Muslim societies, it was harder for Jewish women to establish their own status. Grossman claimed that three factors affected how Jewish women were perceived by society: "the biblical and Talmudic heritage; the situation in the non-Jewish society within which the Jews lived and functioned; and the economic status of the Jews, including the woman's role in supporting the family." Grossman used these factors to argue that women's status overall during this period rose.During the Middle Ages, a conflict emerged between Judaism's expectations of women and the reality in which they lived; this was similar to the lives of Christian women of the period. This prompted the kabbalistic work Sefer Hakanah to demand that women fulfill the mitzvot in a way equal to men. In some communities of Ashkenaz in the fifteenth century, the wife of the rabbi wore tzitzit like her husband.
Religious life
Prohibitions against teaching women Torah eased, and women started to form prayer groups. Women participated in Jewish practices publicly at the synagogue. Women probably learned how to read the liturgy in Hebrew.Bowker stated that traditionally, "men and women pray separately. This goes back to ancient times when women could go only as far as the second court of the Temple." In most synagogues, women were given an area named Ezrat Nashim, most likely a balcony; some synagogues had a separate building.
Separation from the men was created by the Rabbis in the Mishnah and the Talmud. The reasoning was that a woman and her body would distract men and give them impure thoughts during prayer. Due to this rabbinical interpretation, scholars viewed the women's role in the synagogue as limited and sometimes non-existent. Later research reported that women had a significant role in the synagogue and the community at large. Women usually attended synagogue, for example, on the Shabbat and the holidays.
Depending on the location, women either attended the same service as the men or conducted their own. In larger synagogues, a designated woman who was able to follow the cantor would repeat the prayers for the women. Women had always attended services on Shabbat and holidays, but beginning in the eleventh century, women became more involved in the synagogue and its rituals. Separate seating for women became a norm around the beginning of the thirteenth century. Women, however, did much more than pray. One of their main jobs was to beautify the building. Women sewed Torah ark curtains and Torah covers; some survive. The synagogue was a communal place for both men and women where worship, learning and community activities occurred.
The rise of Kabbalah, which emphasized the shechinah and female aspects of the divine presence and human-divine relationship, and which saw marriage as a holy covenant between partners rather than just a civil contract, had great influence. Kabbalists explained the phenomenon of menstruation as expressions of the demonic or sinful character of the menstruant. These changes were accompanied by increased pietistic strictures, including greater requirements for modest dress, and greater strictures while menstruating. Philosophical and midrashic interpretations depicted women in a negative light, emphasizing a duality between matter and spirit in which femininity was associated, with negative connotations, with earth and matter. Gentile society was seen as a negative influence on the Jewish community. For example, it seems that Jews would analyze the modesty of their Gentile neighbors before officially moving into a new community, because they knew that their children would be influenced by their surroundings.
After the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, women became virtually the only source of Jewish ritual and tradition in the Catholic world in a phenomenon known as crypto-Judaism. Crypto-Jewish women slaughtered their own animals, and followed as many of the Jewish dietary laws and life cycle rituals as possible without raising suspicion. Occasionally, these women were prosecuted by Inquisition officials for suspicious behavior such as lighting candles to honor the Sabbath or refusing to eat pork. The Inquisition targeted crypto-Jewish women at least as much as it targeted crypto-Jewish men, because women were accused of perpetuating Jewish tradition while men were merely permitting their wives and daughters to organize the household.