A Comparative Study On Womanhood In The Hebrew Bible And Rabbinic Literatures

Since 1960s, Jewish scholars began to study woman in Judaism. Jewish Feminists criticized on the Jewish tradition and religion, for its male-dominated characteristic and patriarchal system. These studies dealt with the development of Jewish laws, the status of woman in Jewish family and also religious life. The topics ranged widely from women right of Torah study to family life. The studies paid well attention to the conflict between women’s familial role and their self-fulfillment. They also noticed the role of a mother in the transmitting of tradition as well as the tension between motherhood and self-fulfillment. They criticized that in traditional Judaism, men hold the dominant position in political, social and religious life, while women are subject to the patriarchal system, sometimes being used as a tool of childbearing. In Jewish tradition, woman’s main work is to nurse offspring and to maintain family, accompanied by sacrifice and dedication. Male is the principal part in the biblical narrative and constitutes the masculine tone of the narrative language in the Hebrew Bible. Throughout the biblical tradition, the voice of female is very weak, or even often ignored. Some feminists asserted that Jewish woman’s function is to fulfill and sanction the demands of patriarchy.There is no shortage of descriptions on woman in the Bible, the Talmud and other Jewish classic literatures. However, women in these literatures are usually described as wives or mothers, not as themselves. In general, Biblical Judaism has a strong characteristic of masculine power, while the sense of woman is weak and ignored. As a patriarchal tradition, Judaism tends to precede man to woman. Not only does the public realm belong to man, but even in the familial realm, where women play such an important role, men still hold the dominant power. In short, Jewish feminist thought the Jewish tradition as the religion of "oppressing women," so they called for a re-interpretation to the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic literatures, and try to seek the "gender justice" in Judaism.Jewish feminist critique is valuable and reasonable. We first need to recognize the patriarchal deviation and the obvious masculine characteristics in the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic literatures. It is true that the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic literatures recorded men more than women and they were written mostly in male Perspective. However, there is no doubt that woman plays an important role in maintaining family and the continuation of Jewish tradition, which was also recorded in the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew Bible is not totally silent regarding the importance of women. The Hebrew Bible records some impressive females. Those women, either using the gift of their reproductive ability and wisdom, or taking advantage of the relationship between mother and child, play an important role in the family and society. Their presence may reflect the power and status of women in the Hebrew Bible. In other words, the Hebrew Bible records some women who have power and status in biblical time. They can not only affect familial life, but also affect the social and political life.Thus, whether Jewish tradition is a religion of "oppressing women" or not, we should study Judaism according to the different stages of its historical development. We cannot simply judge the tradition without paying full attention to the specific differences in biblical Judaism and Rabbinical Judaism.The importance of woman in maintaining history and tradition is obvious and vital. The cognition of personal identity, the pursuit of knowledge, dream and career is an important part of woman’s individual integral personality and self-realization. What the Hebrew Bible chooses to record about the women of ancient Israel deserves close attention. In biblical Judaism, woman plays an important role in maintaining family and the continuation of Jewish tradition.In this thesis, I intend to show that women in the Biblical Judaism are not merely constructed as male-dependent pawns. Though they are confined to the parameters of a patriarchal system, they have room to operate within their own initiative. They accomplish real feats and emerge as memorable figures. Indeed, women in the Biblical Judaism, seem to enjoy power and unofficial influence by unorthodox methods. At no time were Biblical women entirely dominated and disempowered by a society that restricted a woman’s legal and public opportunities.To tap into any potential power, a woman must transition from daughter to wife to mother. When one begins to consider womanhood, one often begins with fertility, marriage motherhood, which is a strong social tie within a complex kinship system that entails the merging of two or more families and possibly two or more traditions. Becoming a wife is the usual prelude to becoming a mother of future children. For this reason alone the woman who is taken as a wife is empowered by the importance of her eventual role. Woman is the progenitor of the future, bringing with her a set of beliefs and customs to impart to her children. Through the institution of marriage, a comparatively powerless daughter rises to the respected stature accorded a mother. This is the kind of unofficial power that women in Biblical time can achieve, within the familial relationships. A woman in her lifetime, may go from the position of vulnerable daughter to the position of wife, and to the position of mother, which can assign her power and self-fulfillment.We start our study with these famous women in the Biblical period, such as Sarah, Rachel, etc. The study focuses on their desire to have a baby, better a son. We see these women work to direct, shape and secure the destiny of their families. They play an important role in a patriarchal society. They emerge as unique individuals, but also share some similarities. By studying these women experiences of having a child, we hope to offer a comprehensive picture of the women in ancient Israel.Fertility is God’s sacred commandment to the nation of Israel. It is also the most important duty for Jewish women in the Hebrew Bible. On the one hand, women provide a continuation of the Jewish nation and tradition by giving birth to children; on the other hand, women can establish their status and find their own self-value and identity via biological and social relations brought by fertility. Women in the Hebrew Bible were only given limited powers, but they can make an impact and sometimes achieve their goals by having an influence on their son’s life. Thus, in the biblical time, the significance of birth not only means a physical and biological level, but also has a certain degree of social and religious impact. Jewish women could build their social status and exert their own influence in the community, political and religious activities via fertility, and even the fertility itself can become a way of women’s self-realization. In the Hebrew Bible, we can find relevant paragraphs and words which can tell that fertility has positive implications for women. For example, in the story of Eve the first woman, we can analyze the positive implication of fertility. In the story, the Hebrew term "creation" implies a positive sense of joy. And the stories of Sarah, Rachel, Hannah these famous Jewish women’s effort to fertility, may reflect the influence of biblical women in familial life, social activity and ethical relationship.Discussion on womanhood is often linked to marriage, because of the importance of marriage for women. Marriage covers a range of social relations and traditional continuations, and also contains a major shift in women’s status. Women’s main identity in family life, daughter, wife, mother, is basically covered in the marital relationship. It is no doubt that the Hebrew Bible records the importance of parenthood on marriage. The emphasis on women chastity and virginity does reflect the subject status of woman in biblical period. Moreover, in biblical times, woman’s marriage is usually decided by his father and sometimes girl is considered as her father’s private property. Nevertheless, we can still find some specific examples from the Bible text, such as Rebekah’s marriage and family. These unique examples can illustrate that the lives of Jewish women in biblical texts cannot simply be defined as "oppressed" or "sex discrimination."Fertility and marriage can give biblical Jewish women a special power, which is embodied in the relationship between them and their children. Women can convey their beliefs and habits to children via motherhood. Through marriage, a daughter who is relative powerless can become a respected mother. This is the approach for Jewish women to resign their informal power in biblical time. Through an analysis of the mother-child relationship in the Hebrew Bible, we can find that in biblical times, women can achieve their influence and control within and outside the familial realm via mother-child relationship. This is the certain powers and status what Jewish woman can have in Biblical period.Women in the Ancient Israel often used their ingenuity to influence people around her, because they were not granted official authority by society; but they challenged their cultural, social political and religious environment and made livable reality for themselves. In a word, not only were women held in high regard in ancient Judaism, they were not totally relegated, as some feminists criticized, to an inferior position within the ancient patriarchal system. They were able to acquire some measure of power and status, which is particularly true in their role as mother. Some women attain their position and respect through giving birth to a boy, which is necessary for the continuation of family and tradition; while some women may gain power by using their wisdom and prophecy talent.In addition to the "hidden power" which woman can have, the Hebrew Bible also records another important aspect of women’s direct influence on the public domain outside of the family. This influence reflects the wisdom of Jewish women in the biblical period, which is an important trait of view of women in the Hebrew Bible.The wise women in the biblical time were known out of their families. They achieved a known measure of social power so that they could act as household and community leaders. Wise women could wield influence in both the private sector and the public realm. These women greatly influenced society, which can serve as supporting the idea of women’s self-fulfillment. The Hebrew Bible primarily depicts men and their activities, and the language of Bible is strongly masculine. The Israelite community is addressed as men, and even God. Despite the hierarchy that is revealed in Language and the disabilities imposed by law and custom, the Bible attests to these special women acting in public spheres. Some came to this by way of their familial relatedness; but others came to the position of prominence through their own strength of personality or character, or wisdom. Some of these women played leading role in the political life of the nation, such as Deborah and Huldah.Probe into the wisdom of the woman in the Hebrew Bible can reveal this trait view of women. Women’s wisdom firstly is illustrated as an ancient female sage, who was king or official’s admonition, using their wisdom to influence the fate of the state or nation. Beside of the female sages, the intelligent queens and ladies in the Hebrew Bible can also demonstrate the wisdom of women in biblical period. Each of those women exist as an individual live in the Hebrew Bible text, and practice their own wisdom and abilities. These women together have demonstrated women power and status in Biblical times. They prove that women are not subject and quiet to the patriarchal society, but activated in both familial and social life. Through their efforts to contribute the nation’s history, those women may achieve their self-realization, and can find the harmony between sacrifice and self-fulfillment.Since women in biblical period enjoy a certain status and power, then what causes the contemporary feminist criticism of Judaism? Why so many feminist scholars believe that the Jewish tradition is a religion of oppressing woman? The main reason for this phenomenon is the later rabbinical interpretation to the Hebrew Bible. Through the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in the late rabbinic literatures, these vivid women, who have wide influence in their society, became humble and dependent housewives within the rabbinic social values. The situation is quite different in the rabbinic period. In the Talmudic system, public position and leadership were deemed inappropriate for women. Women in the social and religious framework of the rabbinic period functioned primarily as daughters, wives, or mothers. Women, who acted as leaders, were quite rare, compared to the Biblical time. This shift of social attitude towards women resulted in the feminist critique. Therefore, we need to clearly distinguish the differences on the view of womanhood between biblical Judaism and rabbinic Judaism.Rabbinic literatures is based on the explanation and interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. The 613 laws developed by the rabbis has been leading Jewish people for thousands of years. Different from the Hebrew Bible, Rabbis interpreted the biblical women with strict limits and regulated women to domestic realm. Rabbinic literatures can be roughly classified into two traditions, namely the Halakhah Tradition and the Aggadah tradition. Halakhah refers to edited canon law, while Aggadah contains folks, stories and legends. Therefore, the views of womanhood in rabbinic literatures also can be divided into two aspects, the Halakhah view and the Aggadah view. The explanations and interpretations of the Hebrew Bible developed a series of exegetical works, such as the Mishnah, the Talmud, the Tosefota and so on. In these documents, due to the reality of their history, rabbis provided a new description of womanhood, which is significant familial-orientation.The rabbinic resources praise women for being supportive of their menfolk and for obeying their husbands and fathers. As a result, women in the rabbinic time was restricted from the freedom of action and lacked political, economic or social independence. They were restricted in the acts they must, or must not. Women were exempt from participating in commandments contingent upon time, and excluded from Torah study. They were limited to the domestic responsibilities.In the rabbinic literatures, the integration of a gender perspective and the need of social values is obvious embodied. Under the deliberate efforts of rabbis, Jewish tradition confined women to the inside of family life, eliminating their personality, and formed many laws to isolate women away from public areas such as politics, religion, etc. Rabbinical tradition values the ideal woman for a model of housewife, and even neglect the wisdom and independence of woman. Family is seen as key to the continuation of Jewish tradition. In the family, woman play an important role as a wife or a mother. Through exegesis of efforts, rabbis regulated women within family life, and excluded them out from the public domain, such as religious activities, political leadership, education and learning and other areas. This rabbinical effort is the main reason for the character of "oppressing women" in Judaism.Rabbinic view of womanhood is not unified in different literatures. For example, from the Talmud to the Tosefota, rabbinic views of women are not fixed. Sometimes there may be confrontation or conflict between different rabbinic views. This is a major feature of the view of womanhood in rabbinic literatures. Therefore, careful analysis of rabbinic literatures and related sources is a hard work, and also an impossible task in the short term. This paper tries to retrieve some of the rabbinic literature passages, limiting in the frame of women’s identity and power. The purpose is to demonstrate how the rabbis deal with the women recorded in the Hebrew Bible, thereby to clarify the rabbinic new interpretation of the female images in the Hebrew Bible, and further to show the different views on womanhood in biblical period and rabbinic times.There are many laws in the Mishnah related to woman. These laws on the one hand reflect the rabbinical treatment of women with cultural attitudes, on the other hand can also reflect women’s real life in that time. Though the laws in the Mishnah cannot fully reflect the rabbinical views of women, these laws can summary the efforts of the rabbis. The Mishnah laws limited Jewish women within the family and give them certain powers; at the same time, the laws excluded Jewish women from active participation in the public domain and self-expression. Thus, under the rabbinical tradition, women lose the public status and personal pursuit. This is the core issue of Jewish feminist critique.The laws give Jewish women many powers in the private sphere. This phenomenon is quite rare in other patriarchal cultures. In rabbinic period, a wife can enjoy all deserve marriage rights and obligations. For example, the laws entry on the rights and obligations of sexual intercourse in the provision of life, and view it as the basic power of the wife, claiming that the husband must fulfill their obligations. Compared to the absolute power in the domestic sphere, the halakhah laws limit Jewish women’s rights in the public sector with a lot of restrictions. In short, the laws block Jewish woman from the possibility of leadership in the public domain and other aspects. In this context, universities and higher education belong only to men, so Jewish women are systematically isolated on the outside of the intellectual and spiritual world of the Jewish culture. Jewish women are not allowed in public prayer and also prohibited from the Torah learning, so that women are isolated outside synagogues and schools. Rabbis even prohibit women from having their own organizations and groups to carry out learning. Leadership of women in the political, military, social and other fields are more strictly prohibited.The halakhah laws provide the basic regulations of women in rabbinic period, and the Aggadah sources add to complete the rabbinical views of Jewish womanhood. These documents together show us the cultural role of women through rabbinic perspective. We can learn from those documents the ideal model of woman and her ideal virtues that rabbis advocate. Whether it is in the Hebrew Bible or in rabbinic literatures, women are rarely identified by name; and these few women appear more places in Aggadah literatures. In general, as what the Jewish feminism criticize, rabbinic literatures reflect significant masculine perspective.In rabbinic period, women is restricted from public religious activities. Women were exempted from certain laws. They are excluded from daily prayers who men have to do. It resulted that Jewish women rarely participate in weekly religious activities and come to synagogue. Moreover, Jewish women were excluded from hearing and reading the Torah, so that they were actually isolated from public religious activities. Thus, public religious activities became man’s territory, women have become subordinate to public realm. Similarly, rabbis effected on the empowerment of women and limited them in the home range.Torah is the core item of Jewish religious life. Learning the Torah is understood as a traditional way of worship. Throughout the Rabbinic literatures, women are not only exempted from the Torah study, and some rabbis even thought that women learning Torah have a strong feeling of resentment. Some rabbis believed that women only need to know the practice of some laws which are closely related to their familial role, but they do not have to learn the wisdom of Torah.Different from the halakhah laws, the Aggadah literatures provide many detailed descriptions and new interpretations to biblical women. Rabbis reconstructed the stories of Biblical women, in order to make them conformed to the roles established for them by law and custom. Women were enablers, familial oriented and away from the center of power and communal leadership. This is contrast to the Bible, where despite their being ineffective in the legal realm, some women display active leadership and wisdom. The rabbis recast the records of Biblical women to suit the laws and situations of their own times. Their efforts were embodied by the rabbinic works, the Talmud, the Midrash, the Tosefota, etc. The Talmudic works restricted the proper role of women to that of wife and mother. Through the new interpretation of rabbis, biblical women, such as Eve, Ruth, were endowed new virtues. Those virtues are quite fit the social value in rabbinic period. In the rabbinic tradition, humility serves as the core virtue of Jewish women. The emphasis on humility can guide Jewish women away from public life and back to family life. However, as for female prophetess, Rabbis did not use the general standards of humility, but to give them a re-interpretation in the Aggadah sources. Besides, the Aggadah literatures also recorded a very special woman, Serah bat Asher. She seems to have been standing outside the rabbinical tradition and deserves our well attention.While the patriarchal character of the Bible has been well documented, the range of feminine imagery of God is worthy of being noted. In general, the Bible offers a picture and a precedent for both fatherly and motherly love. In the Appendix of this thesis, we will shortly study on the female characteristics of God in the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic literatures. In the Hebrew Bible, the relationship between God and Israel is usually compared to the relationship between mother and daughter. God is viewed as a mother, who gave birth to Israel, and Gold is also a caregivers to the nation. Although the main text of the Hebrew Bible gives God male identity, but some feminine divine presence still can be found. In a word, God in the Hebrew Bible is the ultimate parents, and along with the characteristics of both mother and father. When given feminine traits, God is never cast in the role of wife, daughter or sister, rather, God is cast as Mothers. The Bible describe God as a mother performing her duties to family and society. The picture of God as fulfilling the functions of a mother is clearly implied in the Bible passages. This metaphor high-lights the special status of women in the Biblical Judaism.