I am currently a student studying at the University level “Women in Religion”. Being of jewish background I found myself face to face being told a lot about a religion I know very little about. We are studying “texts of terror” which outlines women who were mistreated in the torah. 4 females we came across were Hagar, Tamar, Levites Concubine, and Jepthah’s daughter. I would like to know if judaism is one of the most “accepting” and “pro female/equality” religion why there are stories about women being brutally raped, or thrown to be ‘known’ as is said in the torah as sacrifices by fathers, and spouses.
You could ask the same question about any textbook about, say, abnormal
psychology or criminal law. Why do such textbooks contain explicit case studies
of behavior that is abnormal or criminal? The question answers itself.
The Torah contains stories of good people and bad people, selfless and
righteous behavior as well as reprehensible behavior. To get to the bottom line
— what does the Torah mean by telling us these stories? — you have to read
the stories in context. To understand how Jews have always understood their
most holy texts, you also have to read classic Jewish commentaries. The most
famous such commentator was the great medieval scholar, Rashi, whose writings
have been cherished by Jews for centuries. He, in turn, usually bases his
comments on Talmudic discussions that were written down about 1500 years ago,
and that in turn go back to 3000-year-old oral traditions explaining and
elaborating on the written Torah texts.
It would take many pages to discuss each of the women you mention, and I
can’t compete with your professor in the space of a short letter, but I want to
mention at least a few points. Perhaps you can find a knowledgeable person
in your area with whom you can discuss each of these issues in further depth,
as it comes up during the semester.
Hagar initially was treated far better than she had any right to expect.
Think about it. She was a maid. Her mistress, Sarah, was a beautiful,
wealthy, well-known and prominent woman. Sarah herself chose a second wife for her
own husband in an act of breathtaking selflessness–because she wanted her
husband to be happy, to have children, and she saw that she herself could not
have children.
How many women could do what Sarah did, bring another woman into her home
that way, give up her own intimacy with her beloved husband of so many years?
And of all the women she could have chosen, she chose the one she considered
most suitable to be a mate for Avraham and the mother of his children —
Hagar.
This incredible gift she gave Hagar, raising her from servant to co-wife and
paying her the ultimate compliment thereby, was repaid — how? The Torah
says that when Hagar became pregnant, she belittled Sarah and treated her with
contempt. (Rashi says that Hagar assumed that Sarah must not be as righteous
as she seemed, or G-d would have given her a child, just as He gave a baby
to the “righteous” Hagar. What do you think of a person who assumes that if
anything bad happens to someone, that person somehow *must* deserve it?!)
So Sarah responded with absolutely justified anger, and Hagar ended up
running away. Who mistreated whom here?
Anyway, an angel told Hagar to return to her home — suitably chastened this
time, and more respectful and appreciative towards Sarah — and we hear
nothing further about “mistreatment” for fifteen years. Then the Torah says
that Sarah saw how Yishmael (Hagar’s son) was “playing” with Sarah’s little
boy, Yitschak — and Sarah objects. Rashi says Yishmael, a teenager, was
playing William Tell games with his toddler brother, shooting arrows at him
“playfully.”
Sarah well understood that her son’s life was in danger. Avraham, however,
loved his older son — understandably — and didn’t want to hear what Sarah
said. Finally, G-d himself told Avraham in a prophetic message, “Listen to
Sarah.” Sarah was wiser than her husband, say the Sages of the Talmud. So,
reluctantly, Avraham sent Hagar and Yishmael away — at
G-d’s command. However, Avraham asked G-d to bless and protect them, and
G-d did so.
Later, after Sarah’s death, the Torah says that Avraham married a woman
named Keturah. Rashi (and the Talmud) says that this woman was in fact Hagar,
that she had repented for whatever sins she had earlier committed, and that she
was a tzadekes — a righteous woman, which is why Avraham considered it
appropriate to remarry her. Her new name reflected her new, higher spiritual
level.
I would bet my bottom dollar that if your professor is any kind of a
feminist or political creature, she is not going to discuss the story of Hagar the
same way that classic Jewish sources do.
–Toby Katz