Dear Reader: If you want to pretend Judaism is feminist, go away; it is not. And if you think you can use this truth to attack Judaism, you hardly need my help. If you want the truth for its own sake, however, read on.
“Shelo Asani Isha“: Dishonest apologists would have you believe this blessing says nothing “against” womankind at all, at least according to some commentators. Actually, it does, and cheap Mussarite/Aggadic books do not count as dissent in any way.
Question:
Wait. If you are right and manage to prove your point, what of the damage you might do (on the margin, anyway)? Why create or exacerbate feelings of inferiority?
Answer:
Everyone, all humans, should be feeling inferiority, not self-esteem. But we are inferior in different ways (this is called the division of labor). Judaism is theocentric, and therefore biased against all human beings.
As Jews say on Rosh Hashana:
אדם יסודו מעפר וסופו לעפר. בנפשו יביא לחמו. משול כחרס הנשבר. כחציר יבש וכציץ נובל. כצל עובר וכענן כלה וכרוח נושבת וכאבק פורח וכחלום יעוף. ואתה הוא מלך אל חי וקים.
The ArtScroll Machzor translates:
A man’s origin is from dust, and his destiny is back to dust, at risk of his life he earns his bread; he is likened to a broken shard, withering grass, a fading flower, a passing shade, a dissipating cloud, a blowing wind, flying dust, and a fleeting dream. But you are the King, the living and enduring God.
The key to this matter is my explanation of the flaw in [genuine] racism:
There are differences, negative and positive between people. But the response should not be: Therefore I’m better. Rather, we’re all lacking.
We have said the same thing in the past to those who stress the faults of communities not their own and I would say the same to those who stress the faults of womankind.
“The Unlimited” has limited us all in different ways. We are meant to stand together for the right goals, compensating for our weaknesses.
The Rambam introduces the Bracha’s text in Hilchos Tefillah 7:6:
ומברך אדם בכל יום ברוך אתה יי’ אלהינו מלך העולם שלא עשני גוי ברוך אתה יי’ אלהינו מלך העולם שלא עשני אשה ברוך אתה יי’ אלהינו מלך העולם שלא עשני עבד.
The simple, straightforward meaning of “For not having made me a woman” (Shelo asani isha) – especially as versus the customary feminine “For having made me according to His will” (She’asani keretzono) – is obvious. We are thanking Hashem for being obligated in more commandments, while women meekly “justify Hashem’s harsh judgment” (Tur here: ואפשר שנוהגים כן שהוא כמי שמצדיק עליו הדין על הרעה).
The same holds for manifold similarly “offensive” texts. Any radically different interpretation of Scripture and Chazal is an unintentional (?) anachronism. Try to imagine the “Ba’alei Hashemu’ah” standing before you, and then tell me – with a straight face – they meant “women are more spiritual”, or some such modern, egalitarian idea. Even Maharal and the like, coming about fifteen centuries later, would agree their “expositions” here and elsewhere are but homiletic.
Yes, we are all equal as regards our capacity to come close to the Divine, relatively speaking, as says the known Rambam in Teshuvah 5:2 כל אדם ראוי לו להיות צדיק כמשה רבינו או רשע כירבעם, and therefore in our general obligation to do so, but not in our station while doing so. There are kings, priests, poor and rich, etc. Some are born non-Jewish (and must convert). Some mitzvos were only given once, to one generation or to one person. Tough!
Moreover, women are often the legal “Other” (עם בפני עצמן הן) in the androcentric Jewish code of law — as seen even in the casual, standard language of the above Rambam: מברך אדם בכל יום, cf. Magen Avraham 46:9.
“Inspirational” speakers say women are “different but equal”, who have less mitzvos because they have less to “rectify”, which is like saying low-level workers earn less, not because they are less valuable, but because their jobs just so happen to be less responsible, and the company needs all kinds of jobs performed, blah blah… Surprise: Life is not “fair”.
Oh, but women are physically weaker, more empathetic, [shallowly] altruistic, catty (eh, scratch out the last one), so they are born more Godly! That’s what’s “Kertzono” means. They have way more potential than men! Didn’t Shlomo Hamelech say: _אדם אחד מאלף מצ… (eh, never mind that last one)?
Hello, your list of “godliness” attributes is Cursedian! Quit the empty slogans. Are we really going to analyze a word from a made-up bracha which isn’t מטבע שטבעו חכמים (like הנותן ליעף כח), see Pri Chadash (O. C. 46)? And the “potential” for what, exactly?
We might as well pretend the proposed “Shelo asani bur” blessing (who has not made me an ignoramus) in gemara Menachos 43b is, likewise, in no sense opposed to ignorance…
Bottom line: We should each look down on our inherently worthless human selves, and thank Hashem for granting us the undeserved gift of his many mitzvos.
All genders get to sing: “Shelo asani Goy (or ‘Goya’!)”, as we recall the inscription in Hashem’s tefillin (so to speak), and as Hashem listens closely to our words, and grins (so to speak).
P.S. For more references on this, see Marc Shapiro here.