Sunday, February 4, 2007

Comment to be commented on by readers!

This is in regards to a comment I left on the blog of Jewish Philosopher

First of all, please check out the original post here. The part that is relevant is the last pharagraph.

What follows is my comment:

Hello, I am enjoying your site, and am relatively new to the blogger world. Especially the Jewish blogger world. I would have to take issue though with this idea that women are "childish"
From what I understand about the Torah perspective, the issue is not childish/adult but logical/emotional.

In regards to the following points:
A woman may not be a judge.
A woman may not be a witness.


A person who is logical may be rational or irrational, as well as a person who is emotional may be rational or irrational--but women and men (to my understanding) are meant to each hold one of these two positions. So a woman should be "understanding" of a person who does wrong, and the man should give clear "judgement" according to halachah about the deeds a person has commited. This is in no way judging the person, but just clearly separating out the deeds.

When a woman marries, any money she earns belongs to her husband.
If understand rightly, the money does not belong to her husband, but to her, and she would receive it all back in case of divorce, but she has given it over to his "stewardship". This does not mean that he can do what he pleases, but he is taking on the responsibility of investing it--and of course consulting with her as he would for other family issues.
When a woman marries she may not use her own property, which she owned before the marriage, without her husband's permission.
this I am unsure about.

A daughters inherit nothing if there are sons.
(The point is that virtual all property in the Jewish community is controlled by men.)

First of all, the fact that it is, does not mean that this is the way it should be. We are not perfect, yet... :)
Also, I don't know if this would be an answer, but if you look at the "woman of valour" there are references to women doing business activities (controlling property).

I think Judaism considers women to be on the average slightly more childish and emotional than men and therefore in most cases it is preferable for men to make important decisions.
Women make and have made decisions biblically, but women are not supposed to make Halachic decisions, due to the point mentioned previously about emotional/logical aspects of women and men.
Also, science experiments (of course this can be questioned as to the validity of the studies done) have shown that women do well in the emotional+logical mode, while men are better at and often use their emotional and logical modes separately...which would possibly mean that a man is better at things like fighting and legal decision making on a continuous basis--while a woman might find her expertise better used in a situation where children are being raised, due to the constant patience and forgivness that are required (as well as very important decision making on a moment to moment basis--since a child's life is made up of all these small details and that is what their eventual character and outlook on life is shaped by).
So the male/female roles are not defined by what they can and can't do, but by what role best uses their various strengths.
I would be very interested in your response, as well as the response of other individuals in the Jewish blogging sphere. With peace,


2 comments:

SemGirl said...

Im sorry I have been trying all day to post your comment on my blog and it isnt working...

F said...

Thanks so much for trying to post the comment! I appreciate your effort!
The comments went well on the J.P.'s actual website--with lots of back and forth in a friendly manner. I would be interested in people commenting ont he conversation to bring out any new sides of it...