NEW 1995 SEDAN DEVILLE

Biblical Women Sowed
The Seeds Of Feminism

RABBI RICHARD C. HERTZ SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

RGEST INVENTORY OF SEDAN DEVILLES IN THE WOR

e

40475 Ann Arbor Road in Plymouth 313-453-7500

C A D I L L A C

CREATING

A.

HIGHER STANDARD

Payment based on a 24 month closed end Smartlease on a Sedan DeVille (MSRP $38,462). Plus tax, luxury tax, GMAC acquisition fee, license, refundable security
deposit of $425, transfer plate fee & title fee. GMAC must approve lease. Option to purchase at lease end for $23,846.44. Mileage charge of 15C per mile over
12.000 miles. Requires 1st month lease payment and 51.500 cash down. Based on Cadillac Owner Loyalty. Total of payments is payment times 24. Expires 8/31/95.

*Op bbat
Sit down with us
t we
and see

Bring your Family to meet our It 't1

mily. Services at 8:00 p.m.

TEMPLE OL AM!

5085 WALNUT LAKE ROAD

WEST BLOOMFIELD

FOR INFORMATION AND MEMBERSHIP CALL (810) 661-0040.

f you want to know how Jew-
ish feminism started, you can
look to this week's sedrah. It
concerns the rights of women
in Judaism.
The daughters of Zelopheand
became the first Jewish femi-
nists. They proved that daugh-
ters count — that women have
rights! The Torah says, "You
shall given them a hereditary
holding among their kinsmen,
transfer their father's share to
them... If a man dies without
leaving a son, you shall transfer
his property to his daughters"
(Numbers 27:7-8).
What happened? Zelopheand
died in the wilderness of Sinai
when the Israelites were jour-
neying toward the Promised
Land. He died without any sons
to inherit his place. His five
daughters came to Moses and re-
quested that they be recognized
as his female heirs. They insist-
ed that their father's inheritance
of land belonged to them; how-
ever, the accepted practice of that
time dictated that land was in-
herited only through the male
line. If a man died without sons,
his brother was to marry the wid-
ow; and their sons would become
the heirs; but that did not apply
to the daughters of Zelopheand.
He had no sons. The daughters
felt they had a legitimate com-
plaint.
They went to Moses and plead-
ed that although their father had
died during the desert wander-
ings, he had committed no sins
and he had not participated in
the revolt of Korach. Moses, af-
ter consulting God, determined
that the daughters of Zelopheand
were right. Why should their fa-
ther's patrimony be abdicated
simply because he fathered no
son, only daughters?
The daughters introduced a
revolutionary principle for those
times. After all, laws were writ-
ten by men to regulate a society
dominated by men. The concept
of equality of the sexes never oc-
curred to them. Such an egali-
tarian low as that would be a
revolution.
In later Jewish life, history
shows other examples within
Jewish law that appear to make
women the equal of men. The
Mishnah, the first part of the Tal-
mud, is a compilation of statutes
and decisions reached by Jewish
scholars and rabbis between the
third century BCE and the end
of the second century CE. In the
500 years that transpired during
that period, Jewish law crystal-
lized on the status of married

women. After all, a single adult
was virtually unknown in those
days. The patriarchal system
made the man the head of the
family. While women's rights
were still protected in certain spe-
cific situations such as the mar-
riage contract, a ketubah, it
specifically protected the bride's
dowry so that she never would
become a chattel in Jewish law.
Still, she could not be married
without her explicit consent and
she had sexual rights as well.
Today many Orthodox Jewish
women feel that they are second
class citizens under Jewish law,
whether it is the Chalitzah cere-
mony or being unable to initiate
divorce proceedings against her
husband or being unable to tes-
tify in a Jewish court of law or
having her signature valid as a
witness to a legal document or be-
ing unable to be counted in a
minyan, or becoming an agunah.
Traditional Jewish women today
are seeking to become equal
tomen in all matters of the Jew-
ish religion.
In the last few decades of the
20th century a new awareness of
Jewish rights for women has de-
veloped. Women are examining
Halachah in order to determine
what constraints on women can
be changed. And there has been
progress!

Shabbat Pinchas:
Numbers 25:10-30:1
Jeremiah 1:1-2:3.

Women have now become bat
mitzvah. They have been partic-
ipating in prayer with minyans.
they have been called to the
Torah. They have taken leader-
ship positions in synagogues and
temples. They have become pres-
idents of congregations. More,
they have become rabbis and pro-
fessors of Jewish studies in Amer-
ican Universities.
Sexism in the language of Jew-
ish prayerbooks texts is being re-
examined to eliminate the
pro-male bias.
Jewish life today is in the
midst of a social revolution that
has changed attitudes toward the
position of women.Though the
Orthodox are not expected to ac-
cept the idea of women rabbis,
they are permitting and promot-
ing women to obtain greater ed-
ucational opportunities in Torah
and Talmud studies so that their
spiritual and intellectual needs
can be met.

