Orthodox Jewish Feminists

The world changes. Because of that, the institutions we form have to adapt. Those which cannot adapt die. They loose relevance and are no longer meaningful to their people. Orthodox Judaism may be at a crossroads with respect to the relevance of women. How can Orthodoxy adapt?

Unlike with Christianity, the locus of Jewish life has always been the home. Many of the holiday rituals, the Sabbath, the food laws, and some rites of passage (like weddings and circumcisions) all took place in the home, not the synagogue. These were not communal issues. Much of what Judaism was about was centered in the home. Much of childrearing too was a domestic issue.

Anything that was a domestic issue was firmly in the domain of women. The role of the woman of the house was to tend to all the vital religious functions while the man was off earning a living. Women had quite a bit of religious authority and responsibility once upon a time. Kosher was a full time job. So was preparing for the holidays, and raising children, especially daughters.

Unlike the case of Catholicism, Judaism has no hierarchy. There is no pope or head rabbi whose word is law, and can decide policy and outlook for all of Judaism. Each community did as it saw fit. Each was a bit different. Each household could have been slightly unique as well. The individual customs and traditions were preserved by those who ran the house, with some credence given to the community.

After WWII (roughly) things changed. Judaism became more communal. Food preparation no longer required real knowledge beyond not mixing milk and meat and being able to recognize the OU and OK symbols. Major organizations take care of this. The synagogue plays a larger role in community life; women no longer educate their sons or more importantly, their daughters. The transmit ion of knowledge is no longer oral. It is written, and becoming more and more uniform and homogeneous. People have more access and give more weight to the “big poskim” to determine Jewish law. These halachic decision makers have more and more sway over larger and larger groups of Orthodox Jews.

So what happens to the Jewish woman here? They have fewer and fewer religious roles to play. They are still needed as mother and such, but qua religious person, they are becoming obsolete. All their religious roles have been co-opted by men or the community. Given this, their power has also diminished. A man need no longer defer to his wife for food rules, child-rearing advice, or the proper time for the Sabbath. Without a role, they have less and less authority.

Hence, I am more and more sympathetic with the modern Orthodox Jewish woman who feels somewhat disenfranchised by her perceived lack of religious prominence.

What is the solution here?

I think that there are a few options available. The first option involves reinventing Orthodox Judaism to accommodate the women. To some extent this is being done. Judaism does keep up with the time, albeit not in real time, but in Jewish time – ie, with a severe lag. But the bigger issue is that I suspect it does not keep up enough. If they do not go far enough in reinventing Judaism they are left unsatisfied. This is the plight of most of or Orthodox Jewish women who are concerned about this. Other women do attempt to reinvent Judaism in their own image - so much so that that the brand of orthodoxy sounds foreign to many of their co-religionists. Egalitarian prayer services? Or worse, being >porush from the klall and having an all women’s service? That is no way to assert your place in Judaism – by showing you are now a separate faction – minyan and all.

No, the Orthodox woman does not need more rights. They do not need to reinvent Judaism. They need to reinvent themselves and make themselves relevant. Their skills, knowledge, and their very usefulness has been outsourced to cheaper and more efficient and centralized rabbis.

Judaism is a religion of action. The orthodox feminist agenda, at least the one which thinks that Orthodox Jews need some sort of revolution such that they play a larger role in Jewish life and achieve gender equity, will not be fulfilled by writing a few philosophical treatises and expounding on how women are and are not equal and how they should be. A real revolution will not take place after someone ordains the first female orthodox poseket, or whatever. That will just create a new faction of Jews. Change will come when Change will come when orthodox women do what orthodox men do – that is perform a necessary religio-social role. Men today build Jewish schools, give a lot of charity (THAT alone buys a lot of rabbinic clout), teach Orthodox children, and write stuff written for the frum community, (not the touchy-feely crap written for bored overly-pious women). Few Jewish mothers are capable of learning with their children after school. A fifth grader still has to wait for his father to review his Talmud. I can’t imagine there were too many women completed the daf yomi last cycle.

Until women can integrate themselves in to the wider community and serve the wider roles that men serve, or if not that, then find new roles that are useful to Orthodox Jews, they are fighting for privilege that they have not earned. Men have earned their place in Orthodoxy, in the olden days, women did too. Women who take the household to be paramount in Jewish life and feel bound to it religiously have also earned their place in Orthodoxy. Modern women who feel the household is not particularly fulfilling and feel shut out of the community, have not had an opportunity to prove themselves to the Jewish community. Orthodox Jews legitimately ask themselves “How are they relevant to religious life?” It may not be anyone’s fault; it may be the fault of the entrenched Jewish sociological infrastructure. But that is the reality. There are no short-cuts here, no affirmative action. Jews have to earn their right to have a voice. Jewish men who can’t speak intelligently about Judaism, can’t contribute to the religious organizations, or the overall religious life of the community have little voice. Jewish women are in the same position.

If women learn to walk the walk and talk the talk, that and only that will compel the community to take them seriously. But if everyone, including girls, can only learn with their fathers, then they will grow up thinking that it is their fathers that need to be taken seriously in Judaism. The feminist revolution in Judaism, if it is to happen at all, needs to be internal, that is is has to come from within the community, and it must be without tracts, or slogans, but a silent one that makes the phrase “ben torah” sound anachronistic.

This revolution will be democratic and free-market. If enough women can be convinced that this project will be worthwhile, then it will happen – with or without loud feminist complaints. If Orthodox Jewish women cannot be persuaded that this is in their interest, then the feminist push to change Orthodoxy will stay a loud and persistant, but very minority voice shouting at themselves.

Addendum: I came accross the following in Anderson and Zinsser'sA History of thir own, Vol I: Women in Europe from the Prehistory to the Present which parallels what I said about the fate of Orthodox Jewish women:

The nineteenth century marked the nadir of European women's powers and opportunities. In earlier eras, alternative authorities and customs , as well as regional, governmental, and religious variations, created a range of circumstances that enabled some European women to achieve relative independence and relative dominance. Gradually, however, the growing centralization, rationalization, and uniformity imposed in government, law, the economy, and religion worked to erode those options and further limited women's lives. (p xiii-xiv)

For Orthodox religious women, this still holds. The uniformity, rigidness, and centralization of practice has all but made women irrelevant in the spheres which they used to dominate. Unfortunately, (at least not as far as I've seen yet) this theme is not picked up on by Anderson and Zinsser (which is a bit disapointing given their sensitivity to the notion of marginalization).