Judith Plaskow, a Jewish feminist, searches for ways to incorporate her mostly male-based and male-interpreted faith with her feminist’s ideals in her book of essays, The Coming of Lilith. Her essay covers a wide variety of topics concerning contemporary Judaism and its possibility for flexibility, especially concerning unfair gender roles. Plaskow also discusses how religious traditions can perpetuate a hatred of the “other” religions and how that negatively affects both parties. Judith Plaskow challenges her religious tradition and contemporary culture that is a product of all religions by using sources of Jewish ethics such as the Torah and the Talmud to back up her feminist criticism. In the first section of her book, Plaskow argues that …show more content…
She argues that the human’s constant need to categorize “otherness,” especially religious “otherness” can have dire consequences, both for society and the feminist theology movement. Plaskow discusses her fear of anti-Semitism and its effects on the feminist theology movement in her essay Anti-Semitism, The Unacknowledged Racism. She argues that Anti-Semitism, while not as severe as it was in the 1940’s still has debilitating effects on the Jewish population today. Because of certain historical circumstances, Jews are seen as the “buffer group” between the white and African American communities. This, unfortunately, in Plaskow’s eyes, makes Jews “the representatives of the exploitative white community to the black community” (Plaskow, [Anti-Semitism], 1984, 95). This situation has caused for relations between the groups to be strained. While this example of hers is a little outdated, there is no question that anti-Semitism is still a threat to today’s Jewish population. The memories of the Holocaust still have an enormous effect on Jewish lives today and in their relations with other people. There are some people in the world today who still live by Nazi ideals, and Jewish or not, that is scary and difficult to deal …show more content…
In discussing the Jewish sentiment about paganism, Plaskow reveals that hatred of other religions, reinforced by religious texts and aspects of culture can cause Jews to not know how other traditions have shaped their own. Plaskow argues that by hating paganism, the Jewish community misses out on parts of their own history. By pushing away paganism, Jews disguise “the important role that concrete artifacts played in ancient Jewish practice” (Plaskow, [Jewish Anti-Paganism], 1999, 111-112). By ignoring this fact, Jews prevent themselves from seeing the entire picture and the history of their tradition’s beginnings. Additionally, by being uneducated on how women played roles such as “dancers and diviners, musicians and priestesses” in the early days of their religions, Jews have allowed their tradition to exclude “women from religious leaderships” (Plaskow, [Jewish Anti-Paganism], 1999, 112). While Plaskow does not believe that paganism be directly incorporated into the Jewish tradition, only that the paganism should be attended more “closely and critically” in order for the tradition to not suppress “real human beings and distort our understanding of ourselves” (Plaskow, [Jewish Anti-Paganism], 1999,
Although she always denied claims of having a distinct Jewish calling, being a second generation German Jewish immigrant, she has always been associated with Jewish New York. Wald has never laid claim to being a crusader for the Jewish people, and yet most of the information published about her comes from the Jewish community trying to sell her as an activist for the Jewish cause. Marjorie N. Feld gives readers a critical look into the life and work of woman dedicated to revealing the similarities of people not their differences. Lillian Wald’s story is an important one because she spent her life working towards a universal vision that would group people together and yet remembered by her difference from other progressive reformers of the time, being Jewish. In this book Feld describes Wald not as person fighting for a particular group, but a person fighting for humanity's equality.
Women have always played a major role in the practice of Judaism. They have many responsibilities and obligations to fulfill due to of their faith. Yet, they also must raise their families and often work to provide for their family. Overtime, Jewish women have become an example of women’s ability to live very demanding lives and still sustain her religious devotion. Jewish women have had to overcome numerous obstacles in incorporating the changes inherent with ever-evolving life with their static religious duties. Thus was the case for any Jew who chose to move away from their community and start a new life. Many pioneers found it hard to remain practicing Jews when there were no other Jewish people around them. Some observances became difficult to exercise given the surrounding and Jews would sometimes have to compromise their traditions with physical practicality. This led to great personal struggle for women who had always felt that the family’s religious sanctity was her responsibility. But these fascinatingly resourceful and dedicated women found ways to overcome the hindrances that their new home provided and still plant the seeds that would grow into a rich and strong Jewish community regardless of where they lived.
This proposal will identify the social construction of gender roles for women as the “other” in the primary source writings of Simone De Beauvoir’s The Second Sex and Arrogant Beggar by Anzia Yezierska. Beauvoir’s Second Sex provides a primary source evaluation of the historical distortion of women’s role in society as the “other” through patriarchal traditions that have no basis in genetics or science. Yezierska’s experiences as a Jewish woman in New York “workhouses” define the subjective gender roles assigned to women as being submissive and “invisible” in patriarchal American culture. These two primary sources define the subjective and non-scientific distortion of women‘s roles as the “other” in patriarchal European culture as a historical
Women were the subject of marginalization ever since the very beginning of Christianity. They were viewed as a “second Eve” (92) who did not deserve the same attention as men. Women were treated as second class citizens. They were willfully ignored by members of the Christianity
“The Coming of Lilith” is a powerful retelling of the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It is an intriguing retelling that combines the characters we know and has them interacting in ways that we would never have imagined. Judith Plaskow tells the story in a way that is skeptical of the patriarchal society that we live in as but provides empowering role models for women in the independent versions of Eve and Lilith. This story is a prime example of Midrash and the ever-continuing efforts of women to find their place in male dominated
One of Magliocco's main arguments is that these Neo-Pagan cults all have roots in both anthropology and folklore in their early development. Magliocco offers a detailed historical analysis and examines influences found all the way back to classical traditions. She concludes this analysis by bringing her reader back to the contemporary and offers us insight into how both the fields of anthropology and folklore have helped shape Neo-Paganism into what it has become today.
In history the pagans have been viewed as godless infidels. Many who practice paganism live in fear related to the judgment of others that hold differing views on religion. Much of the persecution of the Pagan has been related to their practice of magic. What is amazing is that much of the magic once practiced by pagans was similar to that of modern medicine (Some Basic Pagan, n.d.). Despite their apprehension and fear of persecution, it has been reported that Paganism has been described as one of the most rapidly growing religious movements in the world today (Eilers, p.
Ancient Greek mythology has made its way into public conscience and knowledge. So much so that any person on the street would be able to name at least one deity from their pantheon. From this public knowledge, much is known about the religions including its stories and mythologies. But less is known about a person’s role in Ancient Greek religion and even less about a woman roles in their religion. What roles the Ancient Greek people did play can be gathered from the Greek stories and myths. But more specifically what roles did Ancient Greek women play in their religion. The Ancient Greek myths and stories tell of priestess and women who remained virgins as a way of worshipping their gods. But more questions come from these, why did these women become priestess and what rituals did they perform? Both the reasons behind these motives and the process one goes through to become a priestess must be explored to better a woman’s role in Ancient Greek religion.
The number of feminist scholars critically assessing Biblical narrative has risen since the second feminist movement of the 1970s (Scholz 2014). A common theme of their scholarship has been to what extent the Bible may be seen to favour men. Some feminist scholars may not be able to legitimately assess the Bible and remain faithful to it because of such outdated views on women in a time when women’s equality is encouraged. I will firstly discuss the difficulties of being a feminist scholar and a Christian or Jew with particular reference to belonging to men, being of less value in society, and finally with a focus on key issues arising from Genesis 2 and 3 whereby gender roles and woman’s blame for the Fall of Man have been central to feminist interpretations. I will then assess ways in which such difficulties may be overcome with a different interpretation, beginning with refuting claims concerning the Creation story. This will be followed by analysing how the Bible is read and the value of historical context when doing so. By discussing these aspects, I will reach a conclusion as to how far you can be both a feminist scholar and a faithful Christian or Jew.
After experiencing the sermon and interviewing Rabbi Neely, I noticed some similarities to what we read about in Living Religions. In our book, there is an entire section dedicated to women in Judaism. In recent history “women’s participation in synagogue worship have become quite common in contemporary Judaism,” (Fisher 296). When I attended the sermon, I noticed that women were the majority there. Even Rabbi Neely emphasized how his institution “affords women equal opportunities and responsibilities,” (Neely, Email). Actually witnessing this, shows me that the book is accurate about how Judaism is revolutionizing and incorporating more women in its religion. In Living Religions, we are taught that the main goal in Judaism is to live for
Throughout most of documented history women of all cultures and civilizations have lived under patriarchal circumstances. In almost every religion and civilization women's status was not equal to that of a man's. Women in most cultures are looked at as subservient, obedient creatures that were put on this world for very few reasons, mainly to bear children and do what their husbands require of them. In fact, religions are a big part of the reason of this oppression due to the religion's reinforcement and justification of patriarchal conditions. In this week's selected readings from different aspects of Islamic, Byzantine Christian, and Western Christian cultures, it is very apparent as to how these three religions did reinforce and justify the patriarchal conditions in which women were struggling to live in. Also, by reading the selections one can see how different religions could make a difference for women and how they lived their lives.
The reading, The Burden of Eve, sheds light upon the mistreatment and inequality women especially in Israel are faced with, brought upon by religious standards and the influence of Judaism and the cultural following of Orthodox fundamentalism. Alice Shalvi notes that religious based cultural beliefs drive inequality onto the lives of women, creating standards of modesty and gender roles that must be explicitly followed, enforced by the common threat of violence by men. The religious driven inequality of women as noted by Shalvi, translates into women remaining in roles as homemakers, and therefore separated from opportunities that male counterparts may be granted. Shalvi also reports however, that modernization has created a push against common ultra-Orthodox viewpoints that reside in the currently extremely conservative state of
In her article, “Feminist Hermeneutics and Biblical Studies”, Phyllis Trible discusses the issues centered toward women in the bible (Trible). She addresses issues not just concerning equality, but also how men viewed women in biblical times. Trible examines the role of women in the bible, and the misconception they carry, that leads many into harms way.
... a merely a reflection of Hebrew society of the time (Stanton). Jesus Christ, being a reformer, should have improved the status of women with his message of love and acceptance. However, there is no denying that the stigma is carried with women into the present day. Women’s position in society can be greatly attributed to their depiction in religious text. Holy word is still a factor in making women more susceptible, more culpable, and more sinful an impure than men. Even as women move up in the social order, religion is timeless and ever bearing on the struggle women fight for sexual equality.
I wake to the sunlight bursting through the windows onto my face. Something is off.. The air feels wrong, like evil lingered in the room. Adrenaline rushes through my body with such urgency that I throw myself up from my bed. My head slammed against the bedpost as I stood, but because of the adrenaline that rushed through me, I felt no pain. What is that smell? So unfamiliar. The only thing I can make out in it is Lilith's familiar scent, but it’s as if something strange mixed in and is masking it’s tantalizing odor. I can’t stop shaking. Maybe I’m still trapped in the final seconds of a nightmare so terrifying, that even as I stand here wide awake, I cannot escape its hold. I get a small glass of water and take a moment to gather myself. It