In the spotlight, rabbi gets to work
As the world's first black female rabbi, Stanton, 45, has been inundated with publicity. The London Guardian wrote a story about her. All the Israeli papers featured her. So did The New York Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Denver Post.
Stanton, who was ordained after completing her studies at Cincinnati's Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in June, dismisses the buzz.</p>"If I was the 50,000th African-American woman rabbi, I would still be doing what I'm doing," she said. "I keep my eyes on my job and on what God has called me to do."
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- Elizabeth Barrette (
ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
- Mood:
busy
First Black Woman Rabbi
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Content notes for "The Little Shadow Across the Grass"
These are the content notes for " The Little Shadow Across the Grass." Read about the Grunge. The Ghost Dance was meant to " roll…
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Setting notes for "The Little Shadow Across the Grass"
These are the setting notes for " The Little Shadow Across the Grass." Read about the Blackfeet Reservation. This map shows Glacier…
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Character notes for "The Little Shadow Across the Grass"
These are the character notes for " The Little Shadow Across the Grass." Many of the character names came partly from Blackfeet…
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Content notes for "The Little Shadow Across the Grass"
These are the content notes for " The Little Shadow Across the Grass." Read about the Grunge. The Ghost Dance was meant to " roll…
-
Setting notes for "The Little Shadow Across the Grass"
These are the setting notes for " The Little Shadow Across the Grass." Read about the Blackfeet Reservation. This map shows Glacier…
-
Character notes for "The Little Shadow Across the Grass"
These are the character notes for " The Little Shadow Across the Grass." Many of the character names came partly from Blackfeet…
September 29 2009, 13:05:01 UTC 11 years ago
September 29 2009, 17:59:34 UTC 11 years ago
And just at random, I like the name she gave her daughter, as well. It means "beauty".
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*sigh*
September 29 2009, 21:50:15 UTC 11 years ago
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Re: *sigh*
October 2 2009, 16:31:54 UTC 11 years ago
Rabbi Regina Jonas would argue with you about that, if she had not been killed in Auschwitz in 1944. As would Hannah Verbermacher, the Maiden of Ludmir, who was a Hasidic Rebbe in the 19th century. Or Asenath Barzani, renowned Kabbalist and Dean of the Rabbinical Seminary of Mosul, Iraq, in the 17th century.
Yes, women rabbis were rare until the 20th century. But today there are many, many women today who are rabbis. In fact, women made up over 60% of Rabbi Stanton's graduating class at Hebrew Union College.
So... I don't quite understand your objection?
Re: *sigh*
October 2 2009, 17:52:57 UTC 11 years ago
>>Or Asenath Barzani, renowned Kabbalist and Dean of the Rabbinical Seminary of Mosul, Iraq, in the 17th century.<<
Wow. I read that article you linked to ... she sounds like one amazing lady.
I would be delighted to see stuff like this appear as prompts in my poetry fishbowls, any time it seems relevant to the theme. (Or not, if the idea of a Pagan writing about Jewish motifs doesn't appeal to you.)
Re: *sigh*
October 2 2009, 22:44:00 UTC 11 years ago
I think what bothers me is when people assume that they know about Judaism because they know what Christianity says about it... that's sort of like thinking you know about Japan because you've read manga.
Re: *sigh*
11 years ago
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Re: *sigh*
October 2 2009, 22:35:39 UTC 11 years ago Edited: October 2 2009, 22:59:16 UTC
To answer you, you have to understand what "rabbi" means in Judaism. The word itself means "My Master" (in the sense of Teacher, not owner). Historically the role of rabbi has been more equivalent to "Sensei" than to "Minister".
Rabbis have the dual role of serving as experts in Jewish studies (scripture, law, and mysticism), as well as being leaders of their communities.
Note that it is not necessary to be a rabbi to perform Jewish ceremonies, or to lead the congregation in prayer. Since the public prayers are chanted, most congregations hire a cantor, someone with a good singing voice who has been specially trained to lead the prayers. When a congregation does not have a professional cantor, members take turns leading the chants. It is only when there are no members willing and able to lead, that the rabbi must do so.
However, as a leader of the community, the Rabbi is expected to be able to take over leading the prayers if no one else does. And here we run into an interesting dilemma. Traditionally, men and women must pray separately. Women may watch the men pray, but men may not watch the women. This separation is not required by the Torah or the Talmud, although the Talmud does the relate the story of how it came about. You can read more about this if you wish in this very good article about the significance of the mechitza, the half-wall or lattice that separates men from women in traditional Jewish synagogues.
A woman cannot lead an Orthodox Jewish congregation, because the men could not look at her as they prayed. (The Maiden of Ludmir used to sit behind a lattice to lead prayers, but there are all sorts of problems inherent in that, too.)
Orthodoxy has dug in its heels at separate prayer, which today is almost the only defining difference between a conservative non-Orthodox congregation and a liberal Orthodox one. Similarly, they have dug in their heels at ordaining women as rabbis. The reasons for this are more sociological than theological.
Women were not ordained in the past mostly for cultural reasons, not based on Torah or Talmud or even ancient rabbinic traditions. Women did not devote the many years of higher education that it takes to become a qualified Talmudic expert, for the same reasons why they did not become physicians or lawyers or botany professors. It was a point of pride to men that their wives, sisters and daughters did not have to work -- and those who were poor enough that they did have to work, certainly could not afford the time and expense of a seminary education. Women were expected to be too busy with childcare to work outside the home, and too modest to want to teach publicly. This has nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with social norms. (Granted, different societies at different times have attempted to find justification for their norms in their various religions, but they wouldn't find much support for that in the Torah anyway.)
Edited to add: Almost forgot to make the point I had intended at the beginning of this comment, that recognizing women as scholars and teachers of any subject has been rare in the past, is still rare in much of the world. But there is a long tradition in Judaism of respecting learned women. The Talmud states that Abraham took Sarah's advice because she was wiser than he; 7 of the 55 people that Judaism traditionally recognize as prophets were women; and Bruria daughter of Hananiah was a noted Talmudic sage. Women have never been prohibited by the Torah from serving as teachers of Torah.
Re: *sigh*
11 years ago
October 1 2009, 22:16:00 UTC 11 years ago
I am interested in your interpretation of the Torah, and wonder how you came to it. Do you think that any branch of modern Judaism calls for the segregation and subjugation of women, or the murder of homosexuals?
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October 2 2009, 16:15:12 UTC 11 years ago
It's important when dealing with the Torah to include what is known as "the oral Torah" as well. Like most ancient peoples, Judeans relied on oral transmission of much of their cultural heritage. To this day, Orthodox schools place great importance on the memorization and recitation of this "oral Torah", now known as the Talmud. It was compiled from various oral sources and written down over the course of the first few centuries AD. The famous hair-splitting Talmudic debates were generally over which exact oral source to accept as authoritative.
All branches of Judaism believe that the "written Torah" -- the first five books of the Bible -- are incomplete without the Talmud and other books that Christianity generally dismisses.
Translations are also tricky things. The Christian Living Bible would tell you that "Homosexuality is absolutely forbidden, for it is an enormous sin" Lev. 18:22. But the plain Hebrew text says "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; it is ritually unclean".
The Talmud expands on this, stating that anal sex between two men was performed in Egypt as part of the worship of other gods. Therefore anal sex between two men is forbidden to Jews as blasphemous. As such it would be a capital crime, IF Judaism ever actually allowed executions for capital crimes. Instead, the oral Torah's restrictions are so severe that execution for any capital crime was vanishingly rare. There is no record of any Jewish court ever executing anyone for homosexuality. Ever.
No Jew, now or in ancient times, would ever condone the murder of homosexuals. Not for religious reasons. (Can't speak to insanity or personal cruelty, of course....)
Female homosexuality is not forbidden by the Torah, but was historically seen as improper and immodest.
The modern spectrum? Hasidic Jews believe that anal sex between two men undermines the balance of male and female creative energies in the universe, undoing the spiritual effects of the holiest act there is (loving sex between male and female), and is therefore such a severe sin that anything that might lead to it must be forbidden as well. Modern Orthodox views are more in line with those of Rabbi Menachem Burstein who recently said that, "There is nothing wrong with a close and loyal friendship between two men living with each other, just as long as they don't succumb to the temptation of mishkav zachar [anal sex between two men]". The American Conservative Jewish Rabbinical Assembly recently allowed homosexual marriage. The rabbinical seminaries of both the Reform and the Reconstructionist movements have been ordaining gay rabbis for over 20 years.
Are they far from the intent of the ancient writers? They would tell you that they are not; that they are following the ancient writers' own tradition of constantly questioning and re-interpreting divine commands.
This may be far more than what you want to know -- and in truth it is far less than what I'd like you to know. I've drastically oversimplified many things, such as Hasidic mysticism, Orthodox leaders who publicly hope homosexuality can be "cured", and the intense controversy between the American and British Conservative movements.
Besides the fact that Judaism is NOT a universal religion, and Jews do NOT believe that the commandments in the Torah apply to non-Jews anyway... but now I'm about to launch into that aforementioned rant, so I'll stop!
Hmm...
October 2 2009, 17:34:19 UTC 11 years ago
I remember hearing about that. It's one of the salient features of the religion: Judaism is heavy into discussion.
>>The Talmud expands on this, stating that anal sex between two men was performed in Egypt as part of the worship of other gods.<<
Now that is new to me. Do you happen to recall which gods?
>> Hasidic Jews believe that anal sex between two men undermines the balance of male and female creative energies in the universe, undoing the spiritual effects of the holiest act there is <<
That is ... a fascinating reason. As a student of energy flows, I don't think it applies in practice (gay men don't always have the same polarity as straight men), but the theory is not illogical. And it's the closest to a objectively practical reason that I have seen yet. I'll have to keep this one in mind. It wants more thought.
>> Are they far from the intent of the ancient writers? They would tell you that they are not; that they are following the ancient writers' own tradition of constantly questioning and re-interpreting divine commands. <<
This is a religious tradition I greatly admire. *ponder* I think it makes Jews, even nonpracticing ones, better than average at debate and spotting logical flaws in arguments. Which I suppose could make them unpopular with people whose religion forbids questioning, but I myself find it an asset.
>> This may be far more than what you want to know <<
I know this was a reply to a comment, instead of the main post, but it is still fascinating. Thank you for sharing.
Re: Hmm...
October 2 2009, 23:22:32 UTC 11 years ago
Whenever mishkav zachar -- anal sex between two men -- is mentioned in the Torah, it is accompanied by warnings to not act like the Egyptians.
However, the ancient Egyptians seem, for the most part, to have had the same attitude towards it as Romans did, that anal sex was basically a way for one man to dominate or humiliate another. Egyptian mythology includes stories of how the gods Horus and Set tried to anally rape each other, as part of their battles for dominance. It is possible that this was re-enacted in temples at some point; or it could just be that lurid tales got mangled in translation.
Re: Hmm...
11 years ago