3. Does Judaism Give Women Time Off for Good Behavior?

Abstract

Rabbinic Judaism, and especially early rabbinic Judaism, is not compatible with feminist ideology. In the cosmos of the rabbis women were subservient to men. This was manifested as far back as the first known rabbinic document, the Mishnah, redacted in approximately 200 C.E. The tractates in this compendium of laws primarily reflect the different elements of the services and needs of the male rabbinic Jew. While there is no division or tractate entitled “Men,” there is a division called “Women,” devoted mainly to a woman’s place in a male-dominated society. In the opening mishnayot, the acquisition of women is already likened to the acquisition of slaves, who are also unquestionably in the service of their male masters. Rubin (2008) shows that in a patriarchal society, such as that of the Jews in the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods, women were simply objects belonging to their husbands.