The Men Don’t Know, But the Little Girls Understand, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise

December 31, 2011 Martha Thomases 13 Comments

After spending the last several weeks excoriating right-wing so-called Christians (see here for the most recent example), I thought it only fair that I berate my own people for the same sins.

In this case, I’m talking about the right-wing, so-called observant Jews in Israel who seem to think that the sight of an eight year old girl is a threat to their piety. In this case, they objected to girl children walking on public sidewalks, dressed in a way they considered to be immodest. If I’m reading the story correctly, they also thought that, as men, they were entitled to have the sidewalk to themselves, and that girls and women should step out of their way.

There seem to be an almost infinite number of weird-ass ultra-Orthodox Jewish sects, and I’m not familiar with this one. In most cases, it is considered the height of bliss to spend one’s day studying Torah (the first five books of the Jewish and Christian Bible). Over the centuries, a lot of traditions have developed around varying interpretations of these books. In fact, if there is any tradition to Judaism that nearly all Jews would agree with, it’s that Judaism keeps changing.

For example, some Orthodox Jews segregate the genders in their synagogues. Even this segregation, however, changes from shul to shul. In some, the women are on one side, the men on the other. In some, the women are upstairs in a balcony while the men are on the first floor. And, in some, the women are kept away by a curtain. The idea is that this separation prevents the worshipper from thinking about sex, and keeps the attention on the service.

Yeah, like that ever works.

In any case, if those are the rules of one’s congregation, one should observe them or find something else to do. The public sidewalks are different.

The cultural assumptions are different, too. It’s one thing to say that a religious service is a time to focus on the Torah, not sexual thoughts. It’s quite another to say that an eight year old girl, walking to school, arouses a person so much – and it’s the girl’s fault! A child who probably still plays with dolls (if her parents allow them) is being pelted with rocks while being called a whore.

At the same time, in the more developed part of the Muslim world, women are refusing to take it anymore.  In Egypt, they are demonstrating en masse, demanding to be treated like adults.  I just thought I’d point this out because it’s always good to see someone, somewhere, doing something right.

In Israel, I’m happy to say, most people are demonstrating against the fundamentalist nut-balls.  They’re denouncing them, and defending the girls who walk to school.  As Jews, we have the benefit of a religion with no hierarchy.  There are no Popes or Bishops who claim to speak for us.  Any one of us can call ourselves a rabbi.

I don’t, but I’ve spent a lot of time in religious school and theology class.  And I know that the book of Micah says,  “What does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  

Even leaving out the God parts, I think that’s something to which we can aspire.  Someone who is walking humbly should not have rocks in his pockets to throw at children.  

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Media Goddess Martha Thomases hopes to close out 2011 with a bit of champagne and an early bedtime.