I agree with BethSheba "Patriarchy has traditionally worked to obscure the original traditional gender equality in Judaism." My mother who died 15 years ago studied biblical archaeology. From her studies it was clear that Judaism emerged from the unification of widespread mother goddess worship/religion with a patriarchal one. Some of the rights of women that remain in Jewish texts are a carry over or reference to a time when there was equality. As someone who loves to sing Gospel music, the only challenge I have is the obvious omission of the female principle from the trinity. Somehow, the Mother has become the "holy ghost." It is not a stretch to understand that early tribal people worshiped a god representing a father, a goddess representing a mother, who bore children -- the holy son and holy daughter. Over millennia the mother, and holy daughter were essentially erased from biblical texts, and we're left with a holy spirit -- a strange substitute for a fertile mother goddess.
I agree with BethSheba "Patriarchy has traditionally worked to obscure the original traditional gender equality in Judaism." My mother who died 15 years ago studied biblical archaeology. From her studies it was clear that Judaism emerged from the unification of widespread mother goddess worship/religion with a patriarchal one. Some of the rights of women that remain in Jewish texts are a carry over or reference to a time when there was equality. As someone who loves to sing Gospel music, the only challenge I have is the obvious omission of the female principle from the trinity. Somehow, the Mother has become the "holy ghost." It is not a stretch to understand that early tribal people worshiped a god representing a father, a goddess representing a mother, who bore children -- the holy son and holy daughter. Over millennia the mother, and holy daughter were essentially erased from biblical texts, and we're left with a holy spirit -- a strange substitute for a fertile mother goddess.