Re: Kol Isha

[TROMBAEDU <TROMBAEDU...>]

In a message dated 2/21/01 8:56:10 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
zelwel (at) earthlink(dot)net writes:


> But I always thought one of the beautiful things about Judaism is the
> presence of wonderful female role models from day one (starting in the bible
> with Sarah) that were the true voice of conscience in their households?????
> 
> 

I think that there is a great deal of beautiful Torah that could be said 
about this issue. However, it's a little complicated. Sarah and Rivkah, 
especially, were the voice of conscience, but most especially when it came to 
getting their husbands to take a good hard look at their children, and root 
out the bad influences.
But, ironically, even I would say that this just demonstrates that women 
could not function as equal partners in a power relationship with the Avot, 
but, again especially in Rivkah's case, had to resort to subterfuge in order 
to get what they wanted. Hardly a ringing endorsement for the Torah being 
pro-woman.
Of course, and this is totally not part of this list's purpose, the whole 
book of Genesis needs to be understood in terms of the disfunctionality of 
it's characters, and not in their perfection. God realizes, even if man does 
not always, that we will learn more from human models than saints.

Jordan

Jordan