To give a small foundation for those who don't understand Jewish hashkafah regarding women: women are basically considered inferior to men in Judaism, since men have a commandment to learn and keep all the Torah's laws, while women basically are required to keep an abridged version. This being the case, Judaism actually looks down on women, because the whole "point" of a Jewish life is to learn Torah. So since women are not commanded to learn Torah, they are already less important, more dispensable, than an adult male who needs to serve god.
One of the most clear examples of this are the morning prayers. Men are required to say, "Blessed are you ... who did not make me a woman." What do woman say? "Blessed are you ... who made me according to his will."
Seriously?
What is that meant to imply? Either that women are inferior, or, at the very least, women have a different "status" in Jewish Law than men. Whichever one you choose, this much is clear: men and women are NOT equal in Judaism. At all.
Jewish law actually states that you must save a man's life before a woman, since he is obligated in Torah commandments.
Also, if a man and a woman are both in danger of being raped, guess who god says to rescue first? Yup! The man! (The "rationale" for this is that a woman being raped is still a "natural" way of things, but a man being raped is "unnatural" and thus, must be prevented. Seriously, you can't make this shit up. But if you want to learn more about how Judaism is homophobic, check out the other article here.)
It almost goes without saying that, if a man marries a woman, he is absolutely in a position of dominance over her. The Rambam (in Hilchot Ishut 21-10) explains that a husband may beat his wife according to Torah law.
As if all this wasn't bad enough, Judaism believes in witches, and there is a commandment in the Torah to kill witches (Exodus 22:18). Rashi, considered a huge Tzadik by Jews, explains why the Torah writes this in a feminine grammatical form, because "it is women who are most commonly witches." The Rambam in the Guide for the Perplexed (part 3, chapter 37) explains in length about what he believed witches were doing (sounds like harmless pagan rituals, but apparently he thought it warranted the death penalty), and he ends with a flourish about how the reader should "note also the greatness of the benefit [of these laws]." Wow.
Here's a small list of parts of Judaism that give a feel for the general attitude towards women:
1) The Talmud is rife with Rabbis making misogynistic remarks against women. In Shabbat 33b, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai said that women are "easily impressionable," (implying that men are not).
1) The Talmud is rife with Rabbis making misogynistic remarks against women. In Shabbat 33b, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai said that women are "easily impressionable," (implying that men are not).
2) Proverbs 19 says that "... the nagging of a wife is like the endless dripping of water." Seriously? Like all people can't nag and complain?
3) As if the domination is not complete, Mishnah Shabbat (Chapter 2) wants women to remember that Hashem might kill them in childbirth if they are lax in observing the laws of Mikvah (commandments of ritual immersion for women, which themselves are a whole other conversation).
The only way someone can think Judaism is for equality is either to be completely ignorant of the texts in the Torah, or be misogynistic themselves. It's exceedingly clear that, even though everyone under the halachot in Judaism are bullied, controlled, and enslaved, that the people who wrote the Torah definitely believed that women were second-class citizens at best, and dispensable beings who could be easily sacrificed to save a man instead, at worst.
This is why secular morality is so important for our future. Just as an example, the American Humanist website says, "We are critical of sexism ... we believe in equal rights for both women and men ..."
Simple as that! Because since there is no reason to think that women are in any way inferior to men, that means we automatically default to equality. By being rational, so much time and energy that was wasted (and harmful!) in the past is now channeled into important things, like human well-being. And that's a fact that all rational human beings can support.
The only way someone can think Judaism is for equality is either to be completely ignorant of the texts in the Torah, or be misogynistic themselves. It's exceedingly clear that, even though everyone under the halachot in Judaism are bullied, controlled, and enslaved, that the people who wrote the Torah definitely believed that women were second-class citizens at best, and dispensable beings who could be easily sacrificed to save a man instead, at worst.
This is why secular morality is so important for our future. Just as an example, the American Humanist website says, "We are critical of sexism ... we believe in equal rights for both women and men ..."
Simple as that! Because since there is no reason to think that women are in any way inferior to men, that means we automatically default to equality. By being rational, so much time and energy that was wasted (and harmful!) in the past is now channeled into important things, like human well-being. And that's a fact that all rational human beings can support.
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