On the Emancipation of Women in Jewish Worship

Introduction

Theology teaches us that when God the Eternal formed man He gave him an extra rib. This rib was destined for the formation of woman in order that this creature, who was to become the rich ornament of humankind, had none of the dust God had used to create man.

Woman is thus a chosen being and the most remarkable one ever known.

In all religious societies there are prejudices, but there are some so entrenched in the minds of the faithful that one must be a practiced writer with a well-honed gift of persuasion to undermine and destroy them. I shall nevertheless make the attempt, however unavailing my pen, and hope that, by raising the serious issue of woman’s emancipation in Jewish worship, I shall lead the eminent men of our faith to my way of thinking. Conclusive evidence will prove that woman, this divine emanation of the Eternal’s breath, must return the faith to its former splendor through her participation, and, through her power of attraction, lead back to the Lord’s temple those whose indifference has kept them away.

What ineffable joy one feels in the presence of woman: her delightful charm, her grace, her sensitivity, and her virtue endow her entire being with an aura of love that makes her resemble the Creator who made her and makes us love her, as one loves all that is charming and graceful, sensitive and virtuous! And you would have such a creature excluded from the Lord’s house, isolated, and declared incapable of joining in our public adoration of the All-Powerful! This kind of thinking is an aberration that only the ancient prejudices of men could have engendered. Woman, with her keen sensitivity and infinitely receptive nature, should—even more so than man—participate in our religion’s great acts of worship.

My father was a worship leader whose particular mission was to preside over the women’s service. For thirty years he carried out his holy ministry. On Saturdays and solemn holy days, he recited the prayers and spoke the word of God in Provençale, the language of the people, for women at that time in the Comtat region knew no other language. Their only instruction was that of the family: cleaning house and feeding the children was all that their fathers and husbands required of them. They thus had no education at all, and religion—that pure religion full of love and spirituality—was, for them, entirely material.

My father officiated in a simple space adjacent to the temple. The women were so completely separated from the men that at the very moment of sanctification, the moment when the Book of Laws was elevated, they could only witness this great act of devotion on the other side of a partition purposely placed between their area and the men’s synagogue.

This is the handiwork of those prejudiced men of old, this is how woman, who bore us in her womb, who nourished us with her milk, the most beautiful half of the human race, has been excluded from the Lord’s temple, completely erased in Jewish worship, and viewed as a nullity, a slave at the command of man! And the prejudicial exclusion of women, making them incapable of participating fully in the worship service, still survives and prospers. We must now bring this custom to an end and emancipate woman, whose sweetness and sensitivity make her more suited than man for the holy acts of praise we offer up to the All-Powerful in His sacred temple.