If you ever heard the statement, that women are inferior to
men, the weaker kind, you did not hear it from anyone who is truly familiar
with the Jewish tradition.
The Bible begins with, “It is not good for man to be alone,
let us make a helper at his side.” She isn’t there to be less, and he can’t do
it all alone. The two are both there, to make things happen, one with the
other.
The Talmud relates, once a potential candidate for leader
was approached for the position. He responded, “let me take counsel with my
wife” and was proud to say so.
“More (than men) understanding was given to the woman”, and
the Talmud teaches and so it is quoted in the code of Jewish law, “a husband
must respect and honor his wife even more than he does his own self.”
If a man and a woman present themselves to the treasurer of
charity for help, the woman must be helped first and then the man.
Here is another big one. Who does the Bible consider more
mature at an earlier age? The woman.
At the age of 12, a girl is considered mature enough to be
counted as an adult, while the boy is still a child until the age of 13. Only
at those respective ages are they counted in as part of the grown up community.
The difference in maturity and intellectual grasp is
recognized for example in the fact that the vows of a girl take on a serious
legal position and are officially valid one whole year before those of a boy!
Until 13 years of age the boy is still, just babbling.
When G-d created the world and made the male and female
species of birds, animals, flowers etc. they were all separate, detached, and
distinct from each other. The only one exception in creation, was when G-d made
the human being. “Male and female He created them.” G-d created the male /
female like Siamese twins, connected as ONE.
Our sages explain, the reason for this anomaly is very deep
and significant. The only purpose to pair males and females for all creations,
would be for the sake of pro-creation. In the case of humans however in
addition to the furtherance of the species, wholeness and perfection of each
one of the genders is reached, in the companionship and oneness with each
other. Even after they fulfilled their duty to have children, there is more to
be gained, psychologically AND physiologically in remaining in a committed
monogamous relationship.
It was only after this dual creation spent a little time
together, that G-d separated them into two different people, each one to
complement the other through the special gifts G-d endowed into each one
individually and exclusively.
Maimonides explains, that a man is harder on the outside
while a woman is softer. The man is compared to the heavens and the woman to
the earth. The man is compared to the brain and the woman to the heart.
There is no doubt, men and women are different from each
other physically and, in their internal intellectual and emotional mechanisms.
It is a man’s role to provide the rain, and the role of earth
with its infinite potential and capabilities to develop what is planted inside
of it. Although originally the water comes from the “earth” the clouds are what
bring it in its proper measure, for the earth to develop. Our sages teach us to
be very careful with how we treat our wives, “because it is in their merit that
we receive (to begin with) our physical blessings.”
Life begins in the heart, but the brain supplies the
rational thought, to direct the emotions in the heart, which experiences much
more movement than the organ of the brain.
The Talmud says “a man without a wife is like a house
without walls.”
A man needs the very special qualities of a woman for his
own wholeness and completeness. A woman can and will only be happy and
satisfied and reach self-fulfillment when she lives as a woman was designed to
be.
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