Judith Plaskow is a leading scholar of feminist theology. Her book, Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective, was the first book of Jewish feminist theology ever written.[1] He has also written another book, a collection of essays, co-edited three books, and published numerous articles in edited volumes and journals.[2] Plaskow believes that the Torah needs to be “recovered,” as it was written by and in the language of patriarchy in such a way as to marginalize women.[3] Ultimately, Plaskow's goal is to redefine the content of the Torah to include material related to women's experiences. On this topic she writes: “We must make visible the presence, experience and actions of women erased in traditional sources. We must tell the stories of women's encounters with God and capture the texture of their religious experience.”[4] Plaskow's views on feminism within Judaism are new, transformative, and ultimately push conventional traditions and values within the religion. In stark contrast to Plaskow is Orthodox Judaism, which continues to embrace women's traditional roles within the religion. However, Debra Renee Kaufman's article, Patriarchal Women: A Case Study of Newly Byzantine Women, reveals that women are moving in the opposite direction as Plaskow, but with a similar goal, to redefine Judaism in ways that give their power. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay While Plaskow often uses God-language alteration and myth-making to reinterpret the Torah, the converted Orthodox Jewish women cited in Kaufman's article take a related approach, however, in much more restrained ways. An example of Plaskow's unconventional methods of reinterpreting the Torah lies in the namesake of her book of essays, The Coming of Lilith. Plaskow wrote a new myth, known as the Midrash, based on the story of Lilith, demon of the night, who was Adam's first wife according to rabbinic legend.[5] Plaskow writes: “Through its story, we might express not only our new image of ourselves, but our relationship with some elements of our religious traditions… We seek to express through our myth the process of our coming to do theology together. Lilith in exile can do nothing. The true heroine of our story is sisterhood, and sisterhood is powerful.”[6] The Midrash of Plaskow transformed Lilith, once a demon, into a wife who refused to be commanded by her husband and so flew away.[7] While it is true that Orthodox Jewish women still do not have the right to divorce their husbands the way Lilith left Adam, they have nevertheless found ways to work within their religion to reinterpret texts once deemed misogynistic. While the New Orthodox women in Kaufman's article did not take such drastic measures to find their feminist identity within the Torah, they reinterpreted the parts of Jewish law that were often considered the most sexist, and found power in them . For example, all women had an alternative interpretation of the term "nidda", commonly defined as "family purity laws governing the separation of husband and wife during and for 10 days following the woman's menstruation", a period in which the woman is often considered “impure”.[8] Many women explained that unclean was a better translation because it places menstruation in a more sacred context.[9] Furthermore, one woman stated: “Blood is the symbol of both birth and death. This is recognized in the balance between “nidda” and “mikva”; the first is mourning..
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