{"id":64821,"date":"2019-10-27T12:56:24","date_gmt":"2019-10-27T10:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=64821"},"modified":"2023-05-22T16:45:46","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T13:45:46","slug":"the-torch-of-misogyny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-torch-of-misogyny\/","title":{"rendered":"The Torch Of Misogyny\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[483,402,908,600],"acf":{"old_id":"64821","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":41525,"related_cahpter":"337","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"When we look to Isaiah, is it any wonder that we have such a dearth of women leaders in the western world today?","content":"

As for my people… women rule over them.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

So says the prophet Isaiah (3:12) in a messianic diatribe against the people of Judah. Warning that they have gone astray, and promising redemption if they will forsake their wickedness, Isaiah uses a metaphor of women\u2019s power — that the people of Judah have come so low that it is as if they are being ruled over by women — to illuminate how far his people have fallen.<\/span><\/p>\n

What, after all, could be worse than being ruled over by a woman?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Such was the position of the men who wrote the Book of Isaiah hundreds of years before the Common Era, and such was the position of the Rabbis a thousand years later.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As the torch of misogyny passed from the prophets to the Rabbis, the depiction of women in Jewish literature remained oppressive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When interpreting Isaiah 3:12, the Rabbis wrote that \u201cfour women [ruled] in the world… Jezebel and Athaliah\u2026 and Semiramis and Vashti…\u201d (Esther Rabba 3:2). In the eyes of the Rabbis, the only women rulers the world has ever known were a murderer and thief who was eaten by dogs, a woman who murdered her own family, a woman whose downfall was having self-respect, and a woman who seized her throne through treachery and deceit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Several hundred years later the baton of misogyny passed to one of history\u2019s greatest Jewish commentators. Rashi relied on Isaiah 3:12 as the basis for his assertion that \u201ca Torah scholar\u2026 should never have just an inner heart like women\u2026\u201d (Rashi on Taanit 4a:1-2).<\/span><\/p>\n

More than 2,500 years after Isaiah 3:12 was written, it is beyond time to ask: Is this what our tradition has to teach about women\u2019s leadership? That there is nothing worse than being under a woman\u2019s rule? That only treacherous women wield power? That a leader should never have the heart of a woman?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s three major world religions can all trace their origin to the stories of the Hebrew Bible. It is impossible to overestimate how these stories have shaped western culture. And we can barely begin to grapple with how pervasively their oppressive depictions of women have been woven into the fabric of our society.<\/span><\/p>\n

Given this, when we look to Isaiah 3:12, is it any wonder that we have such a dearth of women leaders in the western world today? From the boardroom to the oval office, women continue to be plagued by a perpetual glass ceiling. We live in a society that has spent thousands of years telling itself that there is nothing worse than being under a woman\u2019s rule, that women\u2019s power is treacherous, that a woman\u2019s heart is not a leader\u2019s heart. Is it any wonder that women face a perpetual double standard and are considered \u201cunelectable\u201d presidential candidates?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The time has come to give a whole new meaning to the idea that \u201cas for my people… women rule over them.\u201d #TimesUp<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":64833,"id":64833,"title":"is3-glass ceiling","filename":"is3-glass-ceiling.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is3-glass-ceiling.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-torch-of-misogyny\/is3-glass-ceiling\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is3-glass-ceiling","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":64821,"date":"2019-10-27 10:56:12","modified":"2019-10-27 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