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Blaming Jews

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Blaming Jews FOR INVENTING PATRIARCHY BYBLAMIN JUDITH PLASKOW G JEWS There is a new myth developing in Chris• too—whatever their ideological statements— tian feminist circles. It is a myth which tells us were capable of reacting to women as persons. that the ancient Hebrews invented patriarchy: The often-quoted story of Jesus' compassion that before them the goddess reigned in matri• for the woman taken in adultery (John 7:53ff), archal glory, and that after them Jesus tried to for example, finds a parallel in a rabbinic restore egalitarianism but was foiled by the anecdote told of Rabbi Meir. A man became so persistence of Jewish attitudes within the angry at his wife for staying out late attending Christian tradition. It is a myth, in other Meir's sermons that he vowed to bar her from words, which perpetuates traditional Chris• the house unless she spat in Meir's face. Meir, tianity's negative picture of Judaism by attri• hearing of this, sent for the woman and told buting sexist attitudes to Christianity's Jewish her that his eyes were sore and could be cured origins, at the same time maintaining that only if a woman spat on them. The woman Christianity's distinctive contributions to the was then able to go home and tell her husband "woman question" are largely positive. that she had spit on Meir seven times. The The consequence of this myth is that femin• theological point of this story is not the same as ism is turned into another weapon in the Chris• the New Testament one. But it is not very tian anti-Judaic arsenal. Christian feminism different in showing a rabbi react with concern gives a new slant to the old theme of Christian and sympathy for the trials of an ordinary superiority, a theme rooted in the New Testa• woman. ment and since reiterated by countless Chris• These deficiencies in feminist scholarship tian theologians. and it took considerable time before rabbinic are serious, and they suggest the need for major Invidious comparisons between Judaism authority was consolidated and came to repre• revisions in the treatment of Jesus' Jewish and Christianity most often appear in one sent more than a minority opinion within the background. Required, first of all, is honest, particular context in feminist work. Writers Jewish community. balanced, non-polemical discussion of those exploring the Jewish background of Jesus' Secondly, it is deceptive to speak of rab• texts which are in fact contemporary with attitudes toward women frequently exaggerate binic opinion, customs, or sayings as mono• Jesus. Such discussion should take into account the plight of women in Judaism in order to lithic. Even if one assumes that the Talmud variations in Jewish practice in different areas make Jesus' position stand out more positively gives an accurate picture of Jesus' Jewish back• of the ancient world as well as differences in the in contrast. If Jewish women are unclean ground, the Talmud is at least as ambivalent as setting and audience of Jewish and Christian chattels, then Jesus' treatment of them must be the New Testament on the subject of women. material. Only when Christian feminists have revolutionary. "Jesus was a feminist," as Yet writers dealing with Jewish attitudes deepened their understanding of Judaism can Leonard Swidler put it. towards women often select only the most they honestly evaluate the uniqueness or non- Understanding Jesus' relations with women negative rabbinic passages on the topic. Their uniqueness of Jesus' attitudes towards women. in the historical context of contemporary treatment of Judaism is analogous to conserva• At the same time that Jesus' milieu is being Judaism is surely a legitimate and important tive Christian arguments for the subordination reevaluated, the Talmudic rabbis ought to be task. But many feminist accounts of Jesus' of women which quote only certain verses compared with their true contemporaries—the Jewish milieu suffer from three serious scholar• from Paul. Perhaps the most egregious instance Church Fathers. ly errors or oversights which are rooted in of this type of distortion of Jewish tradition is Admittedly, this task is less rewarding than biased views of Jesus' Jewish origins. Virginia Mollenkott's statement that "the comparison of the Talmud with Jesus: exami• First of all, a number of discussions of Rabbis" would have been shocked and alienat• nation of rabbinic and patristic attitudes Jewish attitudes towards women use the Tal• ed by Christian belief in the mutual love and towards women leaves neither Christians nor mud or passages from it to establish the role of service of husband and wife. Is she speaking of Jews much room for self-congratulation. Jewish women in Jesus' time. The Talmud "the Rabbis" who said "Love your wife as Rather, what is immediately striking is the however, is a compilation of Jewish law and yourself, honor her more than yourself," or "If similarity between the two traditions—in both, argument which was not given final form until your wife is small, stoop and whisper in her the developing association of women with the sixth century. Passages in it may be much ear?" Certainly, there are many dreadful sexuality and the fear of woman as temptress. older or at least reflect reworkings of earlier rabbinic sayings about the relationship be• Christianity compensates for the image of the material. But this can be determined only on tween husband and wife, but there are also a temptress with that of virgin; Judaism, with the the basis of painstaking scholarly sifting of large number of precepts celebrating the joys of good wife with whom sex is permitted and individual texts. Such sifting clearly has not a loving match. And if the negative statements even encouraged. But while these images been done by authors who can blithely refer to influenced Jesus and the New Testament saddle women with different disabilities and the whole Talmudic tractate Sabbath as con• authors (a questionable assumption!), then the provide them with different opportunities, it temporary with Christ or who can say that positive ones must have as well. would be difficult, and certainly pointless, to certain taboos against women were incorporat• The third error frequently made by feminist label one superior to the other. ed into the Talmud "and from there passed on scholars is more subtle. It lies in comparing the The persistence of biased presentations of into Christianity." words and attitudes of an itinerant preacher Judaism in feminist work is disturbing. But Similarly, references to rabbinic customs or with laws and sayings formulated in the rare• were sloppy scholarship the only issue at stake sayings as contemporary with Jesus also reflect fied atmosphere of rabbinic academies. Many in feminist anti-Judaism, it could easily be a misunderstanding of the development of discrepancies between Jesus and "the Rabbis" corrected. Much more important, the popular• Judaism. The Rabbinate emerged as an institu• on the subject of women can be explained by ity of such research indicates a profound fail• tion only after the fall of the Temple in 70 C.E., the fact that Jesus was constantly in contact ure of the feminist ethic. The morality of patri• with real women, speaking to and about them archy, Mary Daly argues, is charactrized by "a Judith Plaskow has a Ph.D. in religious studies in the context of concrete situations. Rabbinic failure to lay claim to that part of the psyche from Yale University and teaches religion at discussions about women, on the other hand, that is then projected onto 'the Other.'" Manhattan College. She is a co-author of were often largely theoretical, taking place in Throughout the history of Western thought, Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in institutions where no women were present. women, blacks, and other oppressed groups Religion, and author of Sex, Sin and Grace Where we do have rabbinic stories of actual have had attributed to them as their nature (Washington, DC: University Press of Amer• male/female interaction, we find that rabbis human traits which men could or would not ica, 1980). LILITH#7 II FOR THE DEATH OF BYBLAMIN ANNETTE DAUM G JEWS acknowledge in themselves. Sexuality, bodili- A common thread weaves through this di• ness, dependence, moral and intellectual fail• versity of material: Judaism is singled out by ure were all peculiarities which belonged to Christ, Carol P. and Judith Plaskow, Eds.: many feminists—reformists and revolutionar• everyone except ruling class males. The femin• Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in ies, religious and anti-religious—as the source ist ethic, in contrast to this, is supposedly an Religion (Harper & Row, 1979). of society's sexism. ethic of wholeness, an ethic based on the with• Engelsman, Joan Chamberlain: The Feminine In their desire to prove that Christianity is drawal of projection and the recognition that Dimension of the Divine (Westminster not innately sexist, some Christian feminists the full humanity of each of us embraces those Press, 1979). have all too often unintentionally but unques- despised characteristics patriarchy ascribed to Goldenberg, Naomi R.: Changing of the Gods tioningly incorporated the anti-Semitic preju• a host of "Others." (Beacon Press, 1979). dices of Christian male theologians of the past. Christian feminist anti-Judaism, however, Ochs, Carol: Behind the Sex of God (Beacon References abound in their works purporting represents precisely the continuation of a patri• Press, 1977). to trace the sexism of Christianity to its Judaic archal ethic of projection. Feminist research Patai, Raphael: The Hebrew Goddess (Ktav, heritage. Paul's negative statements about projects onto Judaism the failure of the Chris• 1967; pap.: Avon, 1978). women are attributed to his Jewish heritage, tian tradition unambiguously to renounce Ruether, Rosemary and Eleanor McLaughlin, while Jesus is depicted as standing in opposi• sexism.
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