From the past: a movement toward egalitarian Judaism

[deborahjross]

From Ha'aretz.com: Medieval siddur battles gender inequality via Jewish prayer

The traditional morning prayers include one recited by observant Jewish men, blessing the Creator for not making them women. The women's counterpart runs, “Blessed are You, Lord our God, Master of Universe [the "blessing" formula] for Creating me According to your Will.” No surprise, Jewish women through the ages have found this offensive, and men have used it as a justification for insisting on their own gender superiority.

Now it turns out this may be a modern distortion of Jewish values. A siddur (prayer book) written in 1471, specifies the women's prayer as, "... For You made Me a Woman and Not a Man.” The clear intent was for each person to appreciate and celebrate who they are. The siddur was written by Rabbi Abraham Ben Mordechai Farissol (1451-1525), a well-known Northern Italian scholar, cantor, and physician.

“This Siddur proves that the degrading attitudes towards women, which we are seeing in certain extreme religious communities in Israel today, are a modern distortion of Judaism,” said Rabbi [Julie] Schonfeld. “Ironically, treatment of women in certain extreme sectors of the community is far more denigrating to women today than even the attitudes of the late Middle Ages." Schoenfeld is executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, Conservative Judaism’s official rabbinical association.

To remain true to the spirit of the text, celebrating who we are, how are we to honor our transgendered brothers and sisters? One way might be to allow each person to choose the text that speaks for them. Another would be to move toward a universalist version, applicable to all people, expressing gratitude that we all are as we are, that we are all glorious and precious.

Comments

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Thanks, though I'd like to know whether the 1471 siddur was typical for its time and/or place, or an outlier.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

That's a great question. My only thought is that Ha'aretz describes him as "well-known," which indicates he was respected. Maybe you can contact Rabbi Schonfeld and ask. If you do, please let me know what you find!

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw that. Really interesting.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

Heee... I got the link from you!

[otana.livejournal.com]

That's really interesting, especially the note regarding transsexual inclusion. Considering how many translations of the Bible there are, I've always suspected that many religious texts have a social slant on them and that the sexism that spawns from them was simply men at the time twisting things in their favor.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

While Orthodox Judaism remains (as far as I know -- someone correct me if I'm wrong) firmly in the dark ages with regard to queer equality, more progressive forms are actively welcoming. The nearest synagogue, Temple Beth El, identifies itself as "queer-welcoming." There's also a great group called Keshet http://www.keshetonline.org/
that's done things like put together a series of LGBT Jewish Heroes Posters (Harvey Milk, Kate Bornstein, Leslea Newman); were active in "Do Not Stand Idly By," an anti-bullying program through Jewish youth groups; as a founding member of the Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality, helped pass Massachusetts’ Transgender Equal Rights Bill; and held a national contest for the first ever LGBT Inclusive Jewish Children’s Book in English.