July 2009

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Last week's Person of the Week was Gloria Steinem and while I didn't have the space to talk about the subject of Judaism and its view of women very much in that article, I'd like to address that topic in depth today. While there is no doubt that ancient Judaism was, like every culture of the time, quite misogynistic, it is incorrect to assume that the much more egalitarian views of the modern Progressive movement are merely reactions to similar trends in the secular world. Not only is a non-sexist application of Judaism more palatable to 21st century society, it is also philosophically sound within the faith regardless of era.

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Judaism, among all Abrahamic faiths, pays particular attention to the iconic women in its scriptures and history. While biblical texts can hardly be called non-sexist in even the loosest modern context, the stories of the Torah are downright radical for their time concerning social issues. It should come as no surprise, then, that Jewish women have stood at the forefront of political progress throughout history. Many of the most important individuals in thought and in action during the major strides in civil rights in the 20th century were Jewish women. Of them all, none are as famous or as overtly influential as Gloria Steinem.

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Judaism, like any philosophy, is an evolving field of concepts stimulated by debate. Likewise, it also harbors its fair share of staunch opponents to change. For a significant portion of its existence, Judaism has struggled to define itself. As the world around the earliest Judaic documents changed and new ideas filtered into the intellectual communities that studied Torah, Jews began to struggle with the very definition of what is and what is not Judaism. Our greatest philosophical documents, like the tractates of the Talmud, are nothing if not debates between great thinkers. However, some great thinkers were never even invited to the table because their ideas were too radical for their contemporaries. Among the most influential, controversial figures in not only Jewish thought but philosophy as a whole, few are as well-known as Baruch "Benedictus" Spinoza.

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As we saw with the Person of the Week last week, Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, being a Jew in medieval and Renaissance Europe was difficult and often dangerous. But revered scholars and community leaders like Nachmanides were often spared the gruesome fates of common Jews. In Middle Ages Spain there was a significant Jewish population thanks to the comparatively lenient laws of the Muslim dynasties that controlled much of the country. With the Reconquista, Catholic rulers returned to Spain from the north, bringing their much harsher policies with them. Jews were persecuted, expelled and even mass-murdered for their beliefs. As a result, many became Conversos, Jews who outwardly professed Catholicism but practiced Judaism in secret. One of the most influential among them was a Conversa named Gracia Mendes Nasi.