FOR INVENTING PATRIARCHY BYBLAMIN G

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 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 Meir. A man became so persistence of Jewish attitudes within the angry at his 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 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 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 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 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. It projects onto Judaism the "backslid• Eds.: Women of Spirit: Female Leadership tion to Jewish society in his support of women. ing" of a tradition which was to develop sexism in the Jewish and Christian traditions (Si• Even Leonard Swidler, who acknowledges in new and virulent directions. It thus allows mon and Schuster, 1979). in Biblical Affirmations of Women that Jesus the Christian feminist to avoid confronting the Starhawk: The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the was "an observant, -true . . . stand• failures of her/his own tradition. This is the Ancient Religion and the Great Goddess ing very much in the Jewish, Pharisaic tradi• real motive behind biased presentations of (Harper & Row, 1979). tion of his day," claims that Jesus was unique Jesus' Jewish background: to allow the feminist Stone, Merlin: When God Was a Woman among his peers in his positive attitudes to• to present the "true" Christian tradition as (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978). wards women. Not even Jesus' expressions of uniquely free from sexism. Otherwise, why not Strober, Gerald S.: Portrait of the Elder Broth• concern for the widowed, long a part of Pro• present positive Jewish sayings about women er (American Jewish Committee, 1972). phetic tradition, are attributed to his Jewish along with the negative ones? The former are Swidler, Leonard: Biblical Affirmations of heritage. just as conspicuous as the latter in English Women (Westminster Press, 1979). The term "Judeo-Christian heritage" crops anthologies of rabbinic thought. And why not up again and again in these books, as if Juda• compare the Talmud with the Fathers instead ism and Christianity were one. This simplistic of Jesus? Clearly, because that would not There has been an explosion of exploration usage ignores the fact that Jews and Christians permit as dramatic a contrast between the two by feminists seeking alternatives to theologies do not share a unified common historical ex• traditions. rooted in and reflecting the male experience. perience, nor do we interpret in the same way The "Other" who is the recipient of these These 10 works, and most especially the two the Scripture that we do share. Judaism and projections is, of course, the same Other who anthologies—Women of Spirit and Woman- Christianity are not monolithic in their treat• has received the shadow side of the Christian spirit Rising—provide a diversity of religious ment of women and also discriminate against self since the beginnings of the Christian tradi• options while making obvious the differing women in different ways. The sexism in Chris• tion. Feminists should know better! During the agendas of the reformists and the revolutionar• tianity, therefore, cannot be attributed solely period when witch persecutions were at their ies. to its Jewish roots, as many of these authors peak, witches and Jews were the Church's The reformists, mostly Christian feminists, do. interchangeable enemies. When the are examining their heritage, researching and The old Christian charge of Deicide, that ran out of Jews, it persecuted witches—and reconstructing the past in an effort to remove the Jews murdered God incarnate in the ulti• vice versa. This fact alone should alert femin• layers of sexism in religion and to uncover mate masculine body form of Jesus Christ—re• ists to the need to examine and exorcise a form what they regard as the essential core of their jected in recent times by many denomina• of projection which bears close resemblances traditions. While rejecting any misogyny with• tions—is now being resurrected by some revo• to misogyny. But besides this, what Other is in their faith, they remain loyal to their reli• lutionary feminists in different form: the accu• more truly a part of the Christian than the Jew. gion, seeking change from within the system. sation that the Hebrew people were responsible Where should the withdrawal of projection The revolutionary feminists reject such loy• for the destruction of the ultimate feminine de• begin than with Judaism. Yet women who are alty, considering all religious tradition irre• ity, the Goddess. concerned with the relation between feminism deemably sexist, and turn to other sources in Merlin Stone, in When God Was A Wom• and every other form of oppression are content their search for spirituality. Some, seeing di• an, describes the Hebrews as ruthlessly sup• mindlessly to echo traditional Christian atti• vinity within women, seek new symbols, new planting Goddess worship with the monotheis• tudes towards Judaism. rituals based on women's experiences, dreams, tic male Hebrew deity: The purpose of these criticisms of feminist fantasies and literature. Others, seeking free• "Into the laws of the was writ• scholarship is not to suggest that traditional dom from the past, are returning to ancient ten the destruction of the worship of the Jewish attitudes towards women are praise• symbols of womanspirit such as witchcraft Divine Ancestress, and with it the final worthy. Of course, they are not. But Christian {The Spiral Dance) and Goddess worship. destruction of the matrilineal system." attitudes are in no way essentially different. Some even^uggest that a modern form of poly• While acknowledging that the elimination They are different in detail, and these differ• theism is necessary to reflect the diversity of of Goddess worship started long before the ap• ences are extremely interesting and worthy of imagery. Still others offer Jungian psychology pearance of the Hebrew people and continued study. But weighed in the feminist balance, as a replacement for religion, although Naomi until the last Goddess temple was destroyed by both traditions must be found wanting—and Goldenberg warns in Changing of the Gods 'the Christians in the fifth century, C.E., Stone more or less to the same degree. The real trag• that this system supports stereotyped notions fails to note (as Raphael Patai does) that mono• edy is that the feminist revolution has fur• of masculine and feminine. theism involved the destruction of all idolatry nished one more occasion for the projection of of both male and female deities. Christian failure onto Judaism. It ought to Annette Daum is Co-ordinator, Department of This charge of Goddess-murder has been provide the opportunity for transcending Interreligious Affairs, Union of American He• added to the feminist arsenal of accusations ancient differences in the common battle brew Congregations. She also staffs the Task against the Hebrew people. against sexism. D Force on Equality of Women in Judaism, The most blatant distortion of Judaism oc-

12 . LILITH #7