“Nashim daatam kaalos”- TRS

I have learned a lot of Gemara and Halacha, and every time I come across a sexist statement I cringe. Truth be told the Torah is full of sexist remarks, and it is hard believing is something that clearly does not make sense.

Last year I and my good friend Schenur were learning about woman testifying before a court, and how they are not believed unless they state the information by way of gossip or chit-chat.

We got into a whole discussion if my hypothetical wife saw a murder and she wanted to testify in Beis Din, can we say today she would not be accepted? How does that make sense? I know her (hypothetically) to be a trustable source; I know that she is brilliant, what would I say?

It was a tough one; we started discussing a lot of social and scientific claims in Judaism that do not make much sense. The problem is that they claim it empirically true or they claim it based on rational, not on Torah which we supposedly could slime out and say it does not necessary have to be reasonable.

I am not a feminist; I do not agree with everything the movement stands for. But like Voltaire said “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”

It really felt good to read seforim blog’s post about how we have changed, and that maybe even Torah would agree today that woman are equal in this regard.

I think that anybody who says these sexist statements based on Gemara or Poskim should really think twice if they are embarrassing our Chachomim. It is a Chillul Hashem and might be against Torah to state their opinions as if it is relevant today. (Just look at all the Anti-Semitic blogs and sites that use this as ammo)

Seforim blog:

“The fact is that earlier generations often thought very differently about things. For example, we are much more sensitive to matters such as human rights than they were. They took slavery for granted, while the very concept of owning another person is the most detestable thing imaginable to us. Followers of R. Kook will put all of this in a religious framework, and see it as humanity's development as it gets closer to the Messianic era”
“As noted already, I have observed this personally when haredi figures, and not only of the kiruv variety, have asserted that certain ideas and concepts are in opposition to Jewish values, and have then been flustered when I showed them that great figures of the past have actually put forth what today is regarded, even in the haredi world, as immoral statements.”
“These are incredible words. R. Kook was also "confident that if a particular moral intuition reflecting the divine will achieves widespread popularity, it will no doubt enable the halakhic authorities to find genuine textual basis for their new understanding.”