Social and Historical Developments 2 Flashcards
What is the Siddur Nashim?
Feminist version of the Sabbath prayer book referring to God using female pronouns and imagery - written by Margaret Wenig
When was the Siddur Nashim written?
1976
How does the Siddur Nashim present God?
As a mother, giving birth to the world
When was Wenig ordained as a rabbi and what did she propose?
- 1984
- a committee on homosexuality and the rabbinate should be formed
What did Wenig reflect on in 2009?
It was no longer assumed the rabbi is male or heterosexual and there had been a rise in women attending Reform seminaries
What sermon did Wenig deliver in 1990?
‘God is a woman and she is growing older’
What did Wenig’s sermon portray?
God as a loving, long suffering mother who who wonders why her children have lost touch
Who is Lila Kagedan?
The first female rabbi in an Orthodox synagogue, termed a ‘violation of tradition’
How are women marginalised in the Orthodox synagogue? (3)
- seated separately - away from Torah reading domain
- do not count in a minyan
- cannot be rabbis - ‘distracting’
Which rituals do women uphold within the Orthodox home? (3)
- lighting Shabbat candles
- taking challah
- keeping laws of ritual purity
What is argued about the role of men and women in Orthodox Judaism?
They hold different, but complementary roles
What roles have women been able to take in Reform Judaism since 1975? (3)
- publicly read the Torah
- sit with men in the synagogue
- become rabbis
How has the feminist movement developed the role of women in Judaism? (4)
- gender-less God
- Rosh Chodesh
- feminist Passover liturgy
- female birth ceremonies creating a parallel to Brit Milah
What is Rosh Chodesh?
Celebrated women’s holiday, work ends early
What is the Havurah movement?
Autonomous group based on equality, lead by the people not the rabbi - allow women a more active role
What does Agunah mean?
‘Chained’, refers to a woman whose husband is missing but not known to be dead, and so she is stuck in marriage
What is a get?
A document of divorce
What is conveyed in Deuteronomy 24?
Gives the husband the non-reciprocal right to divorce his wife
What is the liberal view of marriage in Judaism?
Done away with the get altogether, making divorce a civil matter
What is the conservative view of marriage in Judaism?
Inserted a clause into the ketubah which states a husband who disappears for a few years warrants a divorce
How do Reform Jews treat marriage?
‘The law of the land is the law’ - the secular law should take precedent
How can a pre-nup prevent agunah?
May be signed or inserted into the ketubah promising the husband will grant a divorce or the bet din will do so on his behalf
What did Judith Plaskow write?
‘Standing again at Sinai’ 1990
What is ‘Standing Again at Sinai’?
A distinctly Jewish, feminist theology
What provoked Plaskow to take interest in Jewish feminism?
Her husband was invited to join a minyan despite being a newcomer whereas she was overlooked and her purpose irrelevant
What is Plaskow’s aim in Jewish feminism?
Restating the history of women in Judaism and creating a community in which women are present and relevant
How does Plaskow argue the view of God affects society?
Viewing God as a dominating male encourages this within human society as a model
How has Plaskow’s work impacted Judaism? (3)
- partnership minyanim
- growth in women’s Torah exegesis
- female-orientated Jewish rituals
What is an example of a feminist Torah exegesis?
The Torah: A Woman’s Commentary
What governs most Jewish schools in the UK?
The United Synagogue
What percentage of curriculum at Jewish schools is Jewish education?
25%
What is a JCoSS?
Jewish Community Secondary School, free from auspices of any denomination or synagogue
What are 3 advantages of Jewish schools?
- protection from secularisation and discrimination
- kosher food facilities
- instruction in line with scripture
What are 3 disadvantages of Jewish schools?
- increases alienation
- creates a cultural divide
- takes over from the role of the family and synagogue
How can Shabbat conflict with secular society? (3)
- social restrictions and pressure
- difficult in secular employment
- difficult to fully enact in secular society
How may family purity hinder assimilation?
Often not understood or seen as alien
What is an example of a Jewish law that is not compatible with secular law?
Judaism holds that a burial should take place as soon as possible after death but this conflicts with coroners’ requests and autopsies
How do Hasidic men dress?
- beard and side curls
- shtreimel
- tzitzit fringes
What is a shtreimel?
Round fur hat
How do Hasidic women dress?
- modesty
- covered hair after marriage
How do Orthodox Jews keep Kashrut?
- food must be certified by a trained rabbi
- kosher supermarkets and restaurants
- separate cooking facilities
What is the KLBD?
Kashrut Division of the London Bet Din (certifies food as kosher)
What is a hechsher?
Stamp declaring a product is kosher
What is a shomer?
Someone who supervises kitchens to ensure kashrut is kept
How do Reform Jews keep kosher?
Flexibly, some may not keep it at all as it is a ritual rather than moral practice
What is the purpose of keeping Kashrut? (3)
- discipline
- commitment to the covenant
- distinguishing community
What is treifah?
Non-kosher food
What is shechitah?
Ritual slaughter - cut across the throat and inspection for defects then removal of blood
What is a Partnership Minyan?
A prayer group maintaining Halakhic standards whilst including women to the fullest extent possible
What do partnership minyanim allow?
Women to lead prayer, from behind a curtain
How do Reform Jews treat the minyan?
Done away with it
How do Conservative Jews treat the minyan?
Have allowed adult women to count
What is the purpose of the Jewish leadership council? (2)
- brings together representatives from major British Jewish Organisations
- supports continuity of a mainstream Jewish community in the UK
What institutions are the Jewish Leadership Council involved in? (3)
- synagogues
- political bodies
- community centres
What is the role of external affairs managers of the Jewish Leadership Council?
Carry out advocacy and networking tasks for the community and retain heritage in the region in which they are situated
What is the ‘Yesh Va’ Yesh Wohl Hebrew Programme?
Programme distributed by the JLC to improve Hebrew communication in Secondary school students
What is the chumash curriculum?
Enables students to gain deeper knowledge and understanding of the Torah
What is the role of men in an Orthodox family? (3)
- takes care of family
- ensures sons are circumcised
- teaches Torah and acts as role model
What is a ketubah?
Marriage contract promising care and maintenance of the wife in marriage and divorce
What is the role of women in an Orthodox family? (2)
- bear children
- domestic life
What is believed about marriage and motherhood in Orthodoxy?
They are necessary for a woman’s own personal development
How is womanhood portrayed in Halakhah?
A separate status with its own rules
What is the role of men in the Hasidic family?
Public duties - daily prayer and study of scripture
What is the role of women in the Hasidic family?
Private duties - home mitzvot, keeping house
How are women and motherhood treated in Reform Judaism?
Retains sanctity but can be shared between parents and women may also maintain a career
What is mikdash me’at?
‘Small sanctuary’ - refers to the importance of the home
What may the home be compared to?
The Tabernacle - portable sanctuary
What cause a greater emphasis on the sanctity of the home?
The destruction of the Temple - required faith values to be passed on by the family
What is chanukat habayit?
Ceremony of dedication for a new Jewish home
What is the central ritual of consecration of the home?
Fixing a mezuzah to the doorpost
Why is the home so important in Judaism? (3)
- God presence resides in the Jewish home
- Home traditions reflect the Temple
- Reflects celebrations and cycle of the year
What is kiddush?
Prayer and blessing over wine to sanctify festivals in the home
What is Birket Hamazon?
Blessing said after a meal in the home
What happens within the home during Sukkot?
A sukkah is built against the wall of the house
What is shiva?
7 day period following a burial
What is the role of the family in Judaism? (3)
- teach children how to support themselves in accordance with Talmud
- children honour parents
- begin the journey of Jewish life
What did Emil Fackenheim write?
‘Jewish Faith and the Holocaust’
What is Fackenheim’s Holocaust theology?
God was present during the Holocaust and issued the 614th Commandment, commanding the survival of the faith
What is Fackenheim’s 614th Commandment?
‘Jews are forbidden to hand Hitler posthumous victories. They are commanded to survive as Jews’
What are 3 criticisms of Fackenheim’s theology?
- no evidence for issuing of the commandment
- gives Hitler prominence in theology
- doesn’t explain or answer questions on the character of God
What is Elie Wiesel’s overarching Holocaust Theology?
Rejects God’s benevolence, presenting a cruel deity guilty of inflicting human suffering, however refuses to become an atheist
Who was Elie Wiesel?
Holocaust survivor an writer
What did Wiesel write in ‘Night’?
Memoir - maps transition from devotion to doubt and rejection of worship
What did Wiesel write in ‘Dawn’?
Examines how the establishment of Israel rejects God as it is not divinely authorised, projecting the need to relinquish dependence on God
How did Wiesel present God in ‘The Accident’?
A cruel and malicious deity
What is Wiesel’s ‘The Trial of God’?
A play, putting God on trial and finding him guilty - reflects personal worries
What are 3 criticisms of Wiesel’s theology?
- does not justify or provide a solution
- contradictory presentation and beliefs
- maintains belief despite conviction that modern man is in a religious void
What did Richard Rubenstein write?
‘After Auschwitz’ and ‘Approaches to Auschwitz’
What is Rubenstein’s theology in ‘After Auschwitz’?
It is no longer possible to sustain a belief in the God of the Abrahamic covenant, Jews today live in the time of the death of God who has retracted into the void
What does Rubenstein argue about the view of suffering as a just punishment?
Morally outrageous, presents Hitler as an instrument of God’s will
How does Rubenstein argue Judaism can be maintained?
Spiritual vitality can be found through observances and liturgy
What does Rubenstein write in ‘Approaches to Auschwitz’?
Replaces earlier view, writes of God as immanent, the ‘Holy Nothingness’
What are 3 criticisms of Rubenstein?
- extreme stance, far removed from traditional understanding
- does not provide hope or a viable theodicy
- encourages observances but passively undermines them
What did Eliezer Berkowitz write?
‘Faith after the Holocaust’
What is Berkowitz’s Holocaust theology?
The concept of ‘hiding of the face’, God gives humans space to develop and grow and the Holocaust is the manifestation of evil resulting from free will
What are 3 criticisms of Berkowitz’s theology?
- God should be able to create human freedom without evil
- surely limitation of free will is preferable to the Holocaust
- contradicts the Torah
What did Ignaz Maybaum write?
‘The Face of God after Auschwitz’
What is Maybaum’s theology?
Jews were sacrificial victims, ‘suffering servants’, allowing God to bring about the modern age
What is a churban?
An event of mass destruction
What does Maybaum argue are the 3 churbans?
- Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Jerusalem
- Roman destruction of Jerusalem
- Holocaust
What does Maybaum argue about the churbans?
The decisive progress was made after each, strengthening the Jewish community and moving humanity forwards
What does Maybaum believe was the outcome of the Holocaust?
End of medieval structure of Jewish society allowing greater acceptance into the Western world
What are 3 criticisms of Maybaum’s theology?
- not compatible with the covenant
- uses Christian ideas
- little evidence of progress
What is the Jewish name for the Holocaust?
Shoah
What was the Nazi ideology of Jewish people?
They were responsible for German defeat in WW1 and racially inferior
What is the traditional understanding of suffering in Judaism?
That it is a form of punishment, failure to uphold to covenant
What is the prophesy of Jeremiah?
Disloyalty to God will be punished, but God will always protect the Jews from extinction
What is the purpose of Holocaust theology?
Developed in the 1970s to respond to questions raised by the Shoah
How is Holocaust theology largely considered?
An insoluble problem, God can never be understood
When did Oliver Cromwell allow Jewish people to settle in England?
1656
What was the state of the Jewish population in 19th Century England?
Well-integrated, wealthy and respectable - Disraeli became prime minister in 1863
What caused a growth in the Jewish population in the UK between 1880-1914?
150,000 arrived fleeing persecution in Europe
What anti-immigration act was passed in 1905?
Alien’s Act
Roughly how many people identified as Jewish in the 2011 UK census?
260,000
Holocaust theology is successful:
- Berkowitz
- Maybaum uses scripture
- Fackenheim
Holocaust theology is not successful:
- Berkowitz and omnipotence
- Maybaum and Hitler
- Fackenheim provides no solution
Holocaust theology is legitimate:
- Implications on the character of God
- Seeks hope and faith
- Recognises challenges
Holocaust theology is not legitimate:
- Suffering is a punishment
- Churbans have happened before
- Tests of faith (Isaac, Job)
It is possible for Jews to assimilate:
- Ritual vs moral mitzvot
- Compromise
- Progressive revelation
It is not possible for Jews to assimilate:
- Kashrut
- Practices vs secular law
- Hasidic dress and communities
Family life is a main strength of Judaism:
- Sacred duty, Temple
- Celebrations
- Maintains faith
Family life is not a main strength of Judaism:
- Secularisation
- Synagogue strength
- Mitzvot strength
Women can be equal to men in Judaism:
- Partnership minyanim
- Reform
- Separate but equal
Women can’t be equal to men in Judaism:
- Marriage and divorce
- Synagogue
- Minyan
Assimilation equates to loss of identity:
- Distinction
- Mitzvot
- Kashrut and Shabbat
Assimilation does not equate to loss of identity:
- Ritual vs moral
- Celebrations
- Progressive revelation
Kashrut - Robinson
‘a kashrut observing Jew is brought face to face with his belief in the Almighty every time he lifts the fork to his mouth’
Dress - Robinson
‘this mode of dress proclaims his a servant of God’
Leviticus 19:27
‘you shall not round off the side growth of your head, or destroy the side growth of your beard’
Proverbs 22:6
‘train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it’
Home - Lyon
‘The home, where we raise out children and where we feed our spiritual hunger is […] a small sanctuary’
Home - Sinclair
‘the Temple in miniature’
Women - Plaskow
‘excluded from prayer and study, women are excluded from the heart and soul of traditional Judaism’
Siddur Nashim
‘blessed is she who in the beginning gave birth […] whose womb covers the Earth’
Holocaust Theology - Epstein
‘for many contemporary Jews, the Holocaust represents the greatest impediment to understanding God’
Rubenstein
‘the time of the death of God does not mean the end of all Gods. It means the death of the God who was the ultimate actor in history’
Wiesel
‘why should I bless his name? The eternal lord of the universe, the all powerful and terrible was silent’
Maybaum
‘the martyr dies to give us, the remnants, an atoned future, a new day, wonderful like every morning in which God renews his creation’
Isaiah 45:15
‘truly you are a God who hides himself’
Berkowitz
‘the hiding God is present; though man is unaware of him. He is present in the hiddenness’
