tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9267923.post2546172868269278707..comments2024-01-04T19:35:00.635-08:00Comments on ThanBook: The Maharatsthanbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06197564008203120013noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9267923.post-10097475198922504852010-05-25T13:53:14.486-07:002010-05-25T13:53:14.486-07:00When a group agitates for change, one must ask why...When a group agitates for change, one must ask why.<br />Sometimes it's easy. When slaves want to be freed and treated with dignity and respect, for example.<br />Early feminism was similar in this respect. In a secular society there was no reason women should be treated differently from men when it came to employment opportunities, professional development, salaries or the right to vote. <br /><br />Radical feminism, on the other hand, is about jealousy. It's about wanting what men "have" while wanting to deny it to men at the same time. Hence the emphasis on affirmative action quotas, hiring restrictions, selective allocation of resources to favoured groups etc.<br /><br />The religious Jewish feminist movement is currently in the early feminist stage. Like secular early feminists, it has identified inequalities in the system and seeks to eliminate them.<br /><br />But the significant problem with this is that inequality is fundemental to the system. Men are not women and vice versa. Judiasm proclaims different, unequal (but NOT necessarily superior/inferior) roles to each. A man cannot fulfill a woman's role in the Jewish family or community and a woman cannot replace a man. This isn't predjudice but God's understanding of how society should be set up.<br /><br />Are Maharats and Rabbas really interested in being more Jewish or in assuaging their secular annoyance at the inequality Judaism espouses? Rav Schachter seems to favour the latter and has spoken against it. A Judaism that endorsed complete equality in roles and titles between men and women would not be real Judaism, just a feel-good equivalent to it.Garnel Ironhaertnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9267923.post-2765961301557294812010-05-23T21:48:18.265-07:002010-05-23T21:48:18.265-07:00Actually, RHS employed a reductio ad absurdum -- n...Actually, RHS employed a reductio ad absurdum -- not a comparison. Since the only point of reading the kesuvah is to create an interruption between eirusin and nissuin, it is "valid", ie a real interruption, even if the reading were done by monkey or parrot. Lo kol shekein a woman.<br /><br />-michamicha bergerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11612144735431285113noreply@blogger.com