Gender equality from the perspective of the Old Testament
Since the Old Testament, the woman was admitted a certain status, though opinions are not uniform in this regard.
One of the Proverbs of Solomon says that “a woman of valor is the crown of her husband” (Proverbs 12.4.). The Book of Kings [Melachim 1 3:12] shows that Solomon, son of David and King of Israel was only twelve years old when God promised him that he would be given great wisdom. The Bible portrays him as great King in wisdom, wealth, and power, but in the end as a human who had sinned.
This phrase has been interpreted by the Maggid of Mezeritch, the successor of the Ba’al Shem Tov as referring to the form of the seventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet, called “Zayin”. Similar to zayin is the letter “Vav” which represents the man. The only difference in their form is where the vertical line protrudes from the Iod. Therefore Zayin, is the man who has been crowned king, been given the scepter of total authority and who carries as his choice of weapon, a sword (meaning of the letter Zayin) (1)
In the First of the Five Books of Mosses, Genesis, we find how humans appeared: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” (Genesis 1:27). Thus appears that God created woman and man at the same time, and they are equal because they were created as being the image of God. Behold equality between men and women begins at the highest level possible.
It is true though that Judaism never presents God as exclusively male or female, unlike traditional Christianity. “God has no physical form. God has no body, no genitalia, therefore, the very idea that God is male or female is patently absurd. We refer to God using masculine terms simply for convenience’s sake, because Hebrew has no neutral gender, God is no more male than a table is.”(2)
However, in the second chapter of Genesis, we are taught that first God created the man: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). But God decided to give man a help [And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him (Genesis 2:18)], because he was alone, so He created the woman: “And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man” (Genesis 2:22).
And from here, has come to be interpreted the term “help” as meaning the woman was created as inferior to man, because of the fact that in the Bible the same term appears several times when referring to help from a superior. God created man and then created animals in order to bring him a “companion”, to no longer feel alone. Seeing that they are not enough, He created the woman as a companion.
Although this topic has been debated endlessly by scholars, we can not remain indifferent that there is a conceptual difference at least, if not of substance between the Chapter one and Chapter two of the Genesis (3). However, we do not believe in the opinions who seek to completely denigrate the status of women from the perspective of creation.
Nahmanides, also known as Rabbi Moses ben Naḥman Girondi nevertheless pointed out that there are no two separate stories of the genesis, but only that the second represents a further explanation of the first. He comes with a kabbalistic explanation that the first Chapter of Genesis uses the verb bara (to create out of nothing), while the second Chapter uses the verb yitzer (to form from material already created). In Nahmanides commentary on Genesis 1:26, he thus explains that “[humanity’s Creation at first was male and female, and the soul was included in both of them. However, in the Formation, the adam was formed, and then God built the woman from its side, as Scripture tells later”. (4)
The ten emanations in Kabbalah, Sephirot or the Tree of Life, strengthens also the idea of two parts of God, both female and male. Revealed more than 2000 years ago, the Zohar shows that the Sephirot are understood as ways to describe God’s various attributes, faces and names.
A sephirah (plural Sephirot) is a channel of divine energy or life-force. Each sephirah has both masculine and feminine qualities and each is associated with a body part of both a male and a female.
The names of the Sephirot are: Keter(Crown), Binah(Understanding), Chochmah(Wisdom), Da’at (Knowledge), Gevurah (Might), Chesed (Lovingkindness), Tiferet (Beauty), Hod (Splendour), Netzach (Victory), Yesod (Foundation), Malchut (Kingdom).
We observe that although there are eleven sephirot names, in literature we find them often to be referred as the Ten Sephirot. The explanation for this is that the sefirah of keter and da’at are actually one, representing differing dimensions of a single force.
Generic, of all the sephirot, Malchut is seen as feminine and because of this, the name of God corresponding to Malchut is Scechninah, the Divine Feminine or the indwelling spirit of God. The word itself means “queenship”, as Malkah means “queen”.(5)
What Kabbalah and the Tree of Life does is to help us discover the importance given to women in general and to femininity in particular. In the Tree of Life, the male and female energies complement one another, preserving harmony in the universe, despite their intrinsic differences, enhancing thus the idea that the pairing of male and female is natural and necessary. While the masculine side of the Tree represents pure energy: force, expansion, and expression, the left one, the feminine side, represents limitation, restraint, and strength, all of which provide guidance and direction to the energy on the right side. The two sides need each other and thrive off of what each provides the other. (6)
Up to present, the Bible represents the only literature in the world that considers women and men equal as human beings. According to Edith Hamilton, the Old Testament writers considered them just as impartially as they did men, free from prejudice and even from condescension.(7)
REFERENCES:
(1) Alphabet of Kabbalah, https://gnosticteachings.org/courses/alphabet-ofkabbalah/725-zayin.html/
(2) Christine J. Haven, Conveyance of Eternal Love, Owl Creek Press, 2007, 226.
(3) WONIL KIM, READING THE HEBREW BIBLE FOR A NEW MILLENIUM. FORM, CONCEPT AND THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE, 269 (Trinity Press International, 2000).
(4) JUDITH S. ANTONELLI, IN THE IMAGE OF GOD: A FEMINIST COMMENTARY ON THE TORAH, 5 (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1995).
(5)TIRZAH FIRESTONE, RECLAIMING JEWISH WOMEN’S WISDOM, 96 (Harper Collins, 2003).
(6) http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/kabbalah/section6.rhtml
(7) Referred to in STEPHEN L. TANNER, WOMEN IN LITERATURE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT (University of Idaho, 1975).
© Isabelle Vladoiu, 2019
