Jewish feminism is a movement that seeks to make the religious, legal, and social status of Jewish women equal to that of Jewish men in Judaism. Feminist movements, with varying approaches and successes, have opened up within all major branches of the Jewish religion.
In its modern form, the Jewish feminist movement can be traced to the early 1970s in the United States. According to Judith Plaskow, the main grievances of early Jewish feminists were women's exclusion from the all-male prayer group or minyan, women's exemption from positive time-bound mitzvot (mitzvot meaning the 613 commandments given in the Torah at Mount Sinai and the seven rabbinic commandments instituted later, for a total of 620), and women's inability to function as witnesses and to initiate divorce in Jewish religious courts.Plaskow, Judith. "Jewish Feminist Thought" in Frank, Daniel H. & Leaman, Oliver. History of Jewish Philosophy, Routledge, first published 1997; this edition 2003.
According to historian Paula Hyman, two articles published in the 1970s were trailblazers in analyzing the status of Jewish women using feminism: "The Unfreedom of Jewish Women", published in 1970 in the Jewish Spectator by its editor, Trude Weiss-Rosmarin, and an article by Rachel Adler, then an Orthodox Jew and currently a professor at the Reform seminary Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, called " The Jew Who Wasn't There: Halacha and the Jewish Woman", published in 1971 in Davka. Also, in 1973, the first [American] National Jewish Women's Conference was held, in New York City; Blu Greenberg gave its opening address.
Jewish feminist theology
There are many variations of feminist theology within Jewish communities, and it has not been formalized. In general, Jewish feminist theology considers "central Jewish categories, themes, and modes of expression." Ronit Irshai noted "one of the most conspicuous attributes of Jewish feminist theology is the belief, held by most of its advocates, that the repair can come from within, and that the main effort is to propose a theological structure that does so."
The feminist theological movement originated in the secular feminism of the 1960s and 1970s. An early theological topic to be discussed, starting in the 1970s, was God language. In 1979, Rita Gross published her previously circulating article arguing that the Jewish lack of female imagery for God is the "ultimate symbol of the degradation of Jewish women." Judith Plaskow explained this by positing that the hierarchal relationship between God and humanity, along with the masculine terms used for God and feminine for humanity, led to a "causal connection between the conception of God and the patriarchal social structure." Plaskow called for a new religious language, including female "God-talk," which included creating a new religious memory, ceremonies, liturgy, and Midrash that could lead to new conceptions of the divine. A contrasting immanent theological theory, expressed by Tamar Ross, is that of "cumulative revelation," which claims revelation is "an ongoing and cumulative process, a gradual and dynamic development of the original Torah, such that the Torah’s ultimate meaning is revealed only over the course of time," that adds to knowledge.
A major inspiration for many Jewish feminist theologians was Raphael Patai's book The Hebrew Goddess, which contributed to knowledge about Jewish conceptions of a feminist divine in ancient and medieval tradition.
In 1976, Naomi Janowitz and Margaret Wenig, then undergraduates at Brown University, expressed this concept by writing Siddur Nashim. Later liturgists have further experimented with female God language. They use terms like Shekhinah, a feminine aspect of Judaism taken from mysticism, Rahmana, meaning "mother of wombs," "Yah," and "ein hahayim." Jewish feminist theology also considers female or gender-neutral metaphors for God. Neil Gillman notes that Jewish feminists, "reject... the king metaphor because of its hierarchical associations, and the paternal metaphor because it excludes their distinctive female experience. The world has changed, and so must our divine images."
By the 1990s, the Reform and Reconstructionist movements included feminist liturgy and God language in their siddurim. The Jewish Renewal movement uses Shekhinah to identify God.
There are other methods of Jewish feminist considerations of God's gender. There is a growing subfield in the study of gender and Judaism, which sees the binaries of male and female as crucial constructs in Jewish thought.Kosman, Miriam, Circle, Arrow, Spiral, Exploring Gender in Judaism, Menucha Publishers, 2014. ^Steven F. Friedell, "The 'Different Voice' in Jewish Law: Some Parallels to a Feminist Jurisprudence," Indiana Law Journal, October 1992Neusner, Jacob, 'Androgynous Judaism: Masculine and Feminine in the Dual Torah,' Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1993. ^ For example, Sara Yehudit Schneider "does insist that God has a dual nature of male and female that ideally should be equal and should be united. Another perspective can be seen through Joy Ladin's transgender theology, which considers a God who "cannot be comprehended in gender binary terms" and who can be more deeply understood using trans language. An alternative feminist theology can be seen in the Kohenet movement, which “conceives of God/dess as a unity” in an earth-based context.
Jewish feminist theology also considers the relationship between halakha and theology. Philosophers such as Rachel Adler, Ronit Irshai, and Blu Greenberg consider halakha and their interaction with how the perception of God influences culture. This idea is further explored by Akedah Theology, which "associates obedience to the divine imperative embodied in Halakhah with the binding up (Hebrew akedah, referring to the Binding of Isaac, Gen 22:1–19) of all our specifically human inclinations, desires, and needs, including our moral principles."
Feminist impact on liturgy and ritual In 1854, Fanny Neuda wrote the first Jewish prayer book known to have been written by a woman for women, called Hours of Devotion; it was translated into English and published in the United States 12 years later. In 2015 a plaque honoring her was unveiled in Loštice, where she lived while her husband was a rabbi there.
In 1946, the new Silverman siddur of Conservative Judaism changed the traditional words of Birkot Hashachar of thanking God for "not making me a woman", instead using words thanking God for "making me a free person".
Feminist Judaism has also led to many communities adding the imahot, or matriarchs, to the Amidah and other prayers mentioning their male counterparts. According to Eric Caplan, this began in individual communities and spread through gatherings of the Chavurah movement.
Contemporary liturgists such as Marcia Falk have also written liturgy that introduce feminist concepts.
In the early 1970s, new rituals began popularizing. Jewish women staged public ceremonies for the birth of their daughters, sharing the ritual of "brit millah" which was historically reserved for newborn sons. They started forming special groups for prayer and study on Rosh Hodesh, the beginning of the new month, with their newfound freedoms to congregate.
In 1976, the first women-only Passover seder was held in Esther M. Broner's New York City apartment and led by her, with 13 women attending, including Gloria Steinem, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, and Phyllis Chesler.This Week in History – E.M. Broner publishes "The Telling" | Jewish Women's Archive. Jwa.org (1 March 1993). Retrieved on 18 October 2011. Esther Broner and Naomi Nimrod created a women's Haggadah for use at this seder.Non-Fiction: The Many Seders of Passover. JBooks.com. Retrieved on 18 October 2011. In the spring of 1976 Esther Broner published this "Women's Haggadah" in Ms. magazine, later publishing it as a book in 1994; this Haggadah is meant to include women where only men had been mentioned in traditional Haggadahs, and it features the Wise Women, the Four Daughters, the Women's Questions, the Women's Plagues, and a women-centric "Dayenu".The Women's Haggadah (9780060611439): E. M. Broner, Naomi Nimrod: Books. Amazon.com. Retrieved on 18 October 2011.Esther M. Broner | Jewish Women's Archive. Jwa.org. Retrieved on 18 October 2011. The original Women's Seder has been held with the Women's Haggadah every year since 1976, and women-only seders are now held by some congregations as well.Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution (Jewish Women's Archive). Jwa.org (17 June 2005). Retrieved on 18 October 2011.Women celebrate non-traditional Seder – Britt Durgin Journalism . Brittdurgin.com (2 October 2010). Retrieved on 18 October 2011.
Some seders (including the original Women's Seder, but not limited to women-only seders) now set out a cup for the prophet Miriam as well as the traditional cup for the prophet Elijah, sometimes accompanied by a ritual to honor Miriam.Miriam's Cup: Miriam's Cup rituals for the family Passover seder . Miriamscup.com. Retrieved on 18 October 2011. Miriam's cup originated in the 1980s in a Boston Rosh Chodesh group; it was invented by Stephanie Loo, who filled it with mayim hayim (living waters) and used it in a feminist ceremony of guided meditation. Miriam's cup is linked to the midrash of Miriam's well, which "is a rabbinic legend that tells of a miraculous well that accompanied the Israelites during their 40 years in the desert at the Exodus from Egypt".
Furthermore, some Jews include an orange on the seder plate. The orange represents the fruitfulness for all Jews when all marginalized peoples are included, particularly women and gay people. An incorrect but common rumor says that this tradition began when a man told Susannah Heschel that a woman belongs on the bimah as an orange on the seder plate; however, it actually began when in the early 1980s, while when speaking at Oberlin College Hillel, Susannah Heschel was introduced to an early feminist Haggadah that suggested adding a crust of bread on the seder plate, as a sign of solidarity with Jewish lesbians (as some would say there's as much room for a lesbian in Judaism as there is for a crust of bread on the seder plate).Jewish Rituals for On the Seder Table . Ritualwell.org. Retrieved on 18 October 2011. Heschel felt that to put bread on the seder plate would be to accept that Jewish lesbians and gay men violate Judaism like chametz violates Passover. So, at her next seder, she chose an orange as a symbol of inclusion of gays and lesbians and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community. In addition, each orange segment had a few seeds that had to be spit out—a gesture of spitting out and repudiating the homophobia of traditional Judaism.
Orthodox Judaism
The position on feminism within the Orthodox denomination of Judaism is broadly divided along the factional lines of the modern Orthodox and Haredi communities, with the modern Orthodox favourable to certain advances for women, provided they are maintained within the framework of Jewish law (halakha). Haredi Judaism maintains a stricter stance on issues pertaining to feminism.
Modern Orthodox approaches Orthodox feminism works within the halakhic system and works with rabbis and rabbinical institutions to create more inclusive practices within Orthodox communal life and leadership. Orthodox feminism tends to focus on issues, such as the problems of agunah, fostering women's education, leadership, and ritual participation, women's leadership and making synagogue more women-friendly. Unlike other denominations, Orthodox feminists retain the partition in synagogue and do not count women in a minyan. The all-women's prayer group—Women's Tefilla Group, is an Orthodox practice that began in the 1970s and continues today.