UPLIFTING WOMEN &  PERFECTING MEN

The nation of Israel has been accused relentlessly of dropping the ball when it comes to public relations. There have been occasional efforts to juxtapose Arab leader’s statements for the western press versus their concomitant statements for their own countrymen in their media. Nevertheless, Israel’s spiritual and secular leadership have permitted a virulent Arab public relations war to go unchallenged for four decades. Israel's negligence permitted the Arabs to win the minds and souls of most academics and so-called thinking people for whom it has become fashionable to unpack their deep seated Jew hatred and present it as though it were the utmost  expression of justice.

Altogether now our so - called friends and enemies are mushrooming around us and within our ranks and liberally orchestrating what they silently believe will be our demise. That the enlightened liberal intellectuals are actually encouraging terrorism which is justified as a valid reaction to "the occupation" does not make them pause. 

Just as women among the Palestinian Arabs have been brainwashed to offer their sons and daughters to Moloch as homicidal, suicide bombers, so have most western academics and school children been brainwashed to see the virtue in the Islamic war of genocide against the Jews as being a justified reaction to Israel’s struggle for survival in its rightful, Divinely mandated, homeland.

It is unfortunate that the typical Jewish response to danger has been to intensify prayer, ritual and charity and point out that the Moshiach is obviously coming. It is unfortunate that secular knowledge has been undervalued if not disparaged by our "spiritual" leaders. Rambam explained that without a knowledge of science we are lucky to approach the courtyard of God’s Temple; and that with a science background we have the potential to enter the Holy of Holies. The nation of Israel has dropped the ball of secular knowledge and prevented HaShem from blessing us with success in the worldly realm of secular matters and events. And while the list of Jewish Nobel and other prize winners is long and illustrious, can any yeshiva boast that HaShem has ever been provided with the intellectual environment to bless their students with the insights and knowledge critical for survival and advancement, let alone the blessings for which the gentile world is dependant on the nation of Israel ?

Barak was a leader and warrior of great merit, yet he was humble enough to acknowledge his need, not only for Deborah’s prophetic judgment and wisdom, but for her presence in the war against Canaan. While Jacob and Bilham (Genesis 49:9 and Numbers 24:9) called the men of Judah a lion cub, our women were called lionesses. These metaphors are never without spiritual and worldly significance. And while not every man will be a Barak anymore than every woman will be a Deborah, Yael or Esther; we do see the clear intention that women be provided with the opportunity to become the complete and unfettered helpmates which HaShem designed them to be.

Unfortunately Jewish women have been adorned with finery and likened to the Shabbat Queen, yet she has been cut off from the intellectual realm of Torah. Let’s see if this is not a dangerous condition which we may decide to remedy in our own generation. The great sage Shimshon Raphael Hirsch explained that God called man a ‘zachar’ because it was remembering to manifest the will and intentions of God that qualified him to be called a man. His helpmate was called a ‘nekevah’ which signifies line, i.e., the female’s subliminal consciousness is hardwired to be in tune or at one with the Creator and His "kavanah", i.e., His intentions. This means that man’s helpmate is to see that he remembers to fulfill his role.

Institutionally preventing females from studying is like trying to resolve critical problems with half your brain which doesn't even possess what a female brain has. This failure to apply half of a society’s resources to deal with and resolve intellectual, social, civil and other matters is not only wasteful, but in light of our exclusively male leadership’s inability to provide us with security during our countless holocausts, large and small, it is not only proof that we are without basic blessings (Deuteronomy 28) and out touch with Deuteronomy 4:5-8), it is downright idiotic.

I do not advocate for a woman’s right to be a rabbi simply because it is no one’s business to know when she is unable to make physical contact with communal things. However, I believe it is of utmost importance to create opportunities for our women to access the knowledge of all realms of Torah, because the female instinct for survival, defense and nourishing her pride - of cubs, that is - will enhance the Jewish world’s ability to deal with our never-ending existential and lesser challenges if she has first hand knowledge of our Creator’s ways, laws, intentions and spirit.

Eve was willing to risk death to obtain God’s knowledge and although she went about it illegally, she did show the proper appreciation for how vitally important knowledge is to a family’s survival. Adam’s withholding of part of God’s commandment, apparently to insure his wife’s compliance did not only demonstrate an unauthorized revision of God’s original law, but also a serious lack of good judgment.  Apparently Adam lacked confidence in his helpmate’s mental faculties; lacked faith in God’s ability to produce someone of Adam’s own stature,  lacked the humility to share authority; lacked the humble recognition of his own limitations, and lacked the ability to remember that he was God’s representative and not His editor in chief. In any case, Adam reacted to his feeling of inadequacy and was complicit in Eve’s failure because he denied her access to God’s knowledge. Part of the equation of the tikkun ha’olam includes the tikun of Adam and Eve. With the State and people of Israel standing at the brink of another existential crossroad, I believe it is time to ask our  women to draw upon their resources and provide additional input to help us resolve our increasingly dangerous situation.

This recognition of women’s inherent potential will need to be demonstrated sincerely by lifting some burdens from them. One of these burdens is the power of husbands to deny a 'get' despite their own right to remarry. The issue of agunot must end immediately, because we cannot know how angry God may be over this institutionalized injustice and oppression. And we may not know how this may complicate our critical existential issues in these increasingly challenging times. Another burden is the imposed identity of homemaker, breeder, cook, housekeeper, driver and even breadwinner. Sure she should be doing her share, she is our helpmate; but she is not our bond maid. She has a right to satisfy her own yearning for knowledge. I believe that if Golda Meir had a solid Torah education she would not have attempted to please the world by risking the security of her people. And I believe that educated, God fearing Jewish women would have removed the threat of terrorism far from their beloved families at first opportunity without engaging in any apologetics to anyone on earth. I don’t believe they would be willing to pay for the same God granted real estate more than once. Our men folk on the other hand, seem willing to sacrifice our sons and daughters over and over again despite every available lesson from history, Torah, instinct, and reason. I for one would like to get our lavies up to speed as soon as possible because I foresee a catastrophe of such apocalyptic proportions that it will require all the leadership skills we can muster to survive. And who knows if HaShem would say, “No” to the heart felt and eloquent supplications for guidance and salvation uttered by sincere, well educated and articulate Jewish women humbly and proudly demonstrating their higher level of consciousness and true freedom to serve Him with all their potential. And in addition to freeing up of women to be complete servants of God, this gesture would free up the psychic energies in men which have been allocated to keep women feeling small and which have been used to justify the establishment of a cultural suppression of women to make small men feel less threatened. Men’s souls would then truly enlarge to the fullness of spiritual excellence to which they have been limited by their exertions to only posture themselves as being superior. This transformation of our spiritual smallness to our potential greatness is of strategic importance in our intensifying war with Islam and their supporters for the simple reason that God tells us the secret of our victory in Deuteronomy 33:29. “Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee? A people saved by the a Lord, The Shield of thy help, And that is the sword of thy excellency! And thy enemies shall dwindle away before thee; And thou shalt tread upon their high places.” This sounds like a good enough reason to me for freeing up our psychic energies wasted on keeping women small. Let’s grow to our full stature and win by the Grace of God!