In Search of Identity and Spirituality in the Fiction of American Jewish Female Authors at the Turn of the 21st Century. Dorota Mihulka
with permissible foods and food ←75 | 76→combinations, essential for running home according to Rabbinic ritual law. The laws of niddah (literally ‘the menstruating woman’), regarded as a central aspect of marital life in traditional Jewish practice, refer to punctilious obedience to the family purity laws ordaining physical separation between a menstruating, post-menstrual, or post-partum woman and her husband prior to her ritual cleansing in the mikvah at a specified time. Finally, hadlaqah (‘kindling’) indicates the ritual kindling of the lights marking the advent of the Sabbath, and, more generally, a woman’s participation in domestic rituals connected with the festivals and holy days of the Jewish calendar (cf. Baskin, 2003: 394; Spiegel, 2009: 22; Trepp, 2009: 329–330).
In contemporary Jewish communities both in the United States and Israel, it is Orthodox or, to be more precise, Ultra-Orthodox Jews who continue to follow traditional modes of Rabbinic Judaism. Because of the patriarchal nature of this branch, the position of Jewish women seems to be most problematic within the world of the Ultra-Orthodox Jews, where the practices discussed above are still central religious actions that define women’s lives. In Hasidism, it has been suggested that there are no Hasidic women, only mothers, wives and daughters of Hasids. Moreover, the analysis of the experiences of Hasidic women within historical Hasidism indicates that the two experiences women have most often described are exclusion and abandonment (Jacobowitz, 2004: 78).37
On the other hand, there are also supporters and advocates of this way of life. For example, Tamar Frankiel, a typical representative of contemporary ba’alot teshuvah, who after having accepted the practices of Orthodox Judaism as an adult Jewish woman, has written in her 1990 book The Voice of Sarah: Feminine Spirituality and Traditional Judaism of the spiritual benefits of the woman’s role in Rabbinic Judaism. Beginning with the premise that there are profound and inherent male-female differences in perception, abilities, and contributions that traditional Judaism has always recognized and celebrated, she demonstrates, by using various examples of biblical and post-biblical heroines, that Orthodoxy empowers and values women. In Frankiel’s view, traditional Judaism – perceived ←76 | 77→as a living tradition with rich resources for women’s self-understanding and self-realization – fosters these gender-based distinctions by prescribing domestic roles for women. Through the participation in the birth and nurturance of children, the preparation and serving of food, the creation and preservation of shalom bayit (domestic harmony), as well as in the Sabbath, and other Jewish festivals, she believes that women fulfill their distinctive roles in a cycle of Jewish life “richly interwoven with feminine themes” (1990: 58). Frankiel, similarly to other ba’alot teshuvah, glorifies the special benefits of the family purity rituals, believing monthly immersion in a mikvah to be an experience of renewal, and enforced marital separation a safeguard for the spirituality of sexual expression, but above all, an infallible means to preserve marital love (1990: 80–83). Although Frankiel is convinced that halakhic tradition is to be accepted with faith and trust, she is not impervious to the influences from the contemporary world (1990: 47–48).
Summing up, in contrast to Jewish men, who occupy the public domains of worship, study, community leadership, and judicial authority, Jewish women’s life in Rabbinic Judaism is expected to be situated in the private sphere of home, and family economic endeavors. While this patriarchal religious system has protected and honored women who have complied with its customs, the Rabbis have depicted females as essentially ‘other’ than males and connected females to the realm of nature as opposed to culture. In other words, inequality between men and women in Judaism is also based on the fact that women are often perceived within Halakhah in terms of their bodies, their physicality and sexuality, whereas men are perceived in terms of their mind and intellect (Elior, 2010: 381–455). There is no denying that the traditional Jewish sources invariably reflect male stereotyped conceptions and lowly views of women, rather than women’s understanding of themselves as individuals with their own rights, interests, and priorities. Taking into account that the classic image of woman in Jewish tradition is determined by rabbinic interpretation of biblical texts, it is therefore not surprising that the woman’s role and value are defined and limited mainly by male interests, needs, and perspectives.
It is true, however, that apart from the derogatory remarks, negative images and judgements of Jewish women pronounced by men, many examples of moving expressions of genuine love, respect and admiration for women can be also found in the Talmud. For instance, Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Yebamoth 62b cites appreciative comments concerning women in the role as wives: “Any man who has no wife lives without joy, without blessing, without goodness [of life] [and finally] without life. […] A man who loves his wife as himself, and honors her more than himself […] – of him does Scripture say: ‘And you will know that your home is in peace.’ ” The Talmudic sages have even devised a paradigm of an ideal Jewish woman, eshet chayil, whose virtues are praised in a poem “A Woman of Valor” (Proverbs 31:10–31). The section of the poem in praise of the perfect woman who “labors long hours in caring for her family and household […], is sung by the father and children every Friday night in the Jewish home in appreciation of their ←77 | 78→wife and mother” (Unterman, 1997: 61).38 Moreover, Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Berakoth 17a remarks that women earn merit “[b];y sending their sons to learn in the synagogue and their husbands to study in the schools of the rabbis.” It is clear from the above examples that, within the framework of traditional Judaism, the place of a perfect Jewish woman is to be situated in the private domain where her role is strictly limited to taking care of her family and enabling the males of her family, that is her husband and sons, to participate in culturally valued activities in the public sphere. Thus, Jewish women have been, as Tamar Ross aptly points out, “culturally and religiously nurtured into acceptance of their prime function as ‘enablers,’ [whose] merit accrues mainly in a vicarious way through the religious achievements of their husbands and sons” (2004: 21). Such behavior is regarded as a sufficient religious act in itself and constitutes a model of female nobility in observant Jewish communities even nowadays. The model of an ideal Jewish woman can be best encapsulated in one verse from Psalms (45:14): “The entire glory of the daughter of the king lies on the inside,” which has been used by the rabbis throughout the ages to emphasize the appropriate private nature of the woman’s role in Orthodox Judaism (Plaskow, 1991: 84).
Despite the glorification of the role of the woman at home by the rabbis, in reality, Jewish women are accorded no greater halakhic status in the domestic realm. On the contrary, men are the official heads of the families, leaving women with few independent rights or privileges. After marriage, the woman’s obligations towards her parents are superseded or – to use a more precise term – overridden by her subjugation to her husband and her obligation to obey his authority. Legally, it is the father who bears the exclusive responsibility for the raising and educating of the children. Another reflection of the woman’s lack of autonomy and, in fact, her subordinate status within the family is her financial position, which posits that all of a woman’s earnings belong to her husband in exchange for his supporting her (Ross, 2004: 17–18).
Since the 1970s, Jewish feminists, influenced by their feminist peers from the general feminist movement, have begun to level significant attacks at Judaism and demand radical changes within it. By 1974, several articles analyzing and criticizing the patriarchal nature of Judaism had appeared in various American Jewish newspapers and magazines. According to Paula Hyman, two articles pioneered in ←78 | 79→feminist analysis of the status of Jewish women, namely Trude Weiss-Rosmarin’s “The Unfreedom of Jewish Women” published in the Jewish Spectator and Rachel Adler’s “The Jew Who Wasn’t There: Halacha and the Jewish Woman,” which appeared in Davka, a countercultural magazine (“Jewish Feminism,” 1998: 694). Both articles released at the beginning of the 1970s concentrated on examining traditional Jewish life and values. The former focused on criticism of Jewish marriage laws indicating their unfairness towards divorced and abandoned women, who “resent the legal inferiority and disabilities to which Jewish law subjects them. They want legal equality, especially with respect to the laws of marriage and divorce” (Weiss-Rosmarin, 1970: 2–6). The latter, on the other hand, severely criticized the status of women in Judaism by contrasting male and female models of traditional Jewish piety. Adler’s article also urged that Jewish women should confront their peripheral status in Halakhah by demanding or creating legal decisions that would “permit