Гарри Кемельман - Tuesday The Rabbi Saw Red

"So that's why we ought to have discussions. Rabbi." Shacter offered.

The rabbi considered and then shook his head. "You mean that by combining your ignorance, you'll be able to achieve knowledge?"

"Well..."

"No, no. Let's proceed in the traditional way. When you have some knowledge, then perhaps we can discuss its interpretation." Procedural matters over, he launched into his introductory remarks. "Now one immediate difference between Judaism and many other religions is that we're not bound by an official creed, with us, it's largely an accident of birth. If you're born a Jew, you're a Jew, at least until you officially convert to some other religion, an atheist who was born a Jew is therefore a Jew, and conversely, someone who was not born a Jew but follows all our traditional practices and shares our traditional beliefs would still not be considered a Jew if he had not officially converted to Judaism."

He smiled. "And I might add for the benefit of any ardent exponent of Women's Liberation who may be among us that by rabbinic law, only one born of a Jewish mother— note, mother, not father— is a Jew."

"Who you kidding, Rabbi?"

He was startled by the interruption from an attractive girl in the first row.

"I don't understand. Miss— er—"

"Goldstein, and that's Ms. Goldstein."

"I beg your pardon. Ms. Goldstein." said the rabbi gravely. "I should have known."

"I mean isn't that just a line Jewish male chauvinists hand women nowadays to hide their second class status?" She went on. "Women are brainwashed into thinking they're more important because they're the ones who decide whether the kid belongs to the Jewish race or nation or whatever it is. Terrific! When actually wasn't it because with Jews a persecuted minority everywhere, there was greater certainty if you traced descent from the mother?"

"Oh, I see what you mean. Yes, I imagine that could be the rationale,” he admitted.

A frosty smile flitted across her face. "And isn't it true that women have no place in the Jewish religion down to the present day? In some synagogues they even hide them behind a curtain up in the balcony."

"That's only in strictly Orthodox congregations."

"In our synagogue they sit on one side." Lillian Dushkin said.

"And they're not allowed to take part in the service," Ms. Goldstein added.

"That's not true." said the rabbi. "The service is a recitation of a series of prayers. Women who attend the service recite the prayers along with the men."

"Big deal." said Lillian Dushkin. "They're never called up to read or anything."

"They are, in Reform temples." the rabbi corrected her.

"I know for a fact that the husband can divorce the wife by just sending her a letter." said Mark Leventhal, not because he had any great sympathy for the women but because they appeared to have their teacher at a disadvantage. "And she can't divorce him at all."

"And if her husband dies, she has to marry her brother-in-law," said Mazonson, for the same reason.

The rabbi held up both hands to bring them to order. "This is a very good example,” he said, "of the danger of discussions based on ignorance and limited knowledge."

They quieted down.

"In the first place,” he went on. "our religion is not ceremonial like the Catholic religion, for example, which requires a consecrated holy place, the church, to conduct its business, the center of our religious practice is more the home than the synagogue, and in the home, the woman certainly shares in whatever ceremonial there is, she prepares the house for the Sabbath, and it is she who blesses the Sabbath candles."

Ms. Goldstein whispered something to the girl in the next seat, she laughed.

"We are not immune to the influences around us." said the rabbi, raising his voice slightly. "All through recorded history, society has been patriarchal, but the Ten Commandments call for honoring thy father and mother, and father and mother is the way we Normally refer to them, rather than by that weak collective— parents. Even in biblical times a Jewish woman could not be forced to marry against her choice, the penalty for adultery was death, but both parties were equally punished. When a woman married she retained title to her property, and when she was divorced, she not only took it with her but also received a large sum which was stipulated in advance in the marriage contract in the event of a divorce."

"But a man could divorce his wife anytime he wanted to." said Leventhal. "and she couldn't ever."

"No, the mechanics of the transaction called for the husband to give the divorce and the wife to receive it. But he has to go to a rabbinical court and convince them before they will give him a get, a bill of divorcement, the wife can do the same, the difference is that the rabbinical court then orders the husband to give the divorce."

"What if he don't want to?"

"Then the rabbis can apply whatever sanctions they have. In modern Israel, they put him in jail until he agrees. I might add that even by contemporary standards, the grounds for divorce were quite liberal, more so than they are in most Western countries today, there was divorce by mutual consent, for example, the woman could also claim a divorce if her husband was physically repulsive to her or if he failed in his duty toward her which was laid down as the basis for married life. 'Let a man honor his wife more than himself, and love her as he loves himself No. Ms. Goldstein. I see nothing in the divorce laws that would suggest second class status for women."

"How about a widow having to marry her brother-in-law?" demanded Mazonson."Or the other way around?" said the rabbi with a smile. "It's all in how you look at it."

"I don't get it."

"You evidently don't know what the law was or its purpose, for that matter, the law called for the widow and her brother-in-law to marry only if she were childless. But the obligation was on both of them and the purpose, according to the Bible, was that she might have a child who would be named after her dead husband, 'so that his name should not be lost to Israel.'"

"Well, I heard—"

"Why would—"

"It seems to me—"

"How about Golda Meir?"

The rabbi rapped his knuckles against the lectern for quiet.

"So why do they keep us separated in the synagogue?" asked Miss Dushkin.

"Certainly not because they regard women as inferior," he said with a smile. "It goes back to primitive times when in many religions a service that included both sexes ended in an orgy, was arranged for that purpose, in fact, since it had to do with fertility rites. In more recent times, it was felt that the natural attraction of the sexes would interfere with the concentration on prayer." He spread his hands and added wryly, "How long ago was it that co-education was disparaged on the grounds that boys and girls sitting in the same classroom would be unable to keep their minds on their studies? But look here,” he went on, "you're all making the mistake of forming your opinions on isolated bits of information or misinformation instead of on your own experience. Think about your own families and then ask yourself if the women, your mothers and grandmothers, your aunts, are registered as inferiors by their husbands or their families."

As they trooped out at the end of the class, Harvey Shacter turned to Henry Luftig. "I thought you were going to set him straight."

Luftig shook his head. "I don't know. I thought we had him on the ropes in the opening rounds, but he came back strong, he might turn out to be one tough baby.

"How did it go?" Miriam asked when he returned Wednesday morning.

"It was nice,” he said, and then smiled. "I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed it tremendously. I’ve been thinking of it all the way home, Miriam, and I’ve concluded there are few quiet pleasures in this life to compare with that of imparting knowledge to a receptive listener. I remember noticing it the last time we had trouble with the heating system, as the plumber explained to me how the system worked and what was wrong, you could see he was enjoying himself."