Terribly sorry, I have the feeling I’m repeating a thread from long ago. Problem is, the search only goes back thirty days.
Some time ago, I seem to remember part of a thread being a discussion on whether women were permitted in the temple. The response from one of the Jewish members of the board was that women were ritually unclean for a couple of weeks out of the month, and furthermore, couldn’t be certain they weren’t unclean during the rest of the time.
Then I run into the following statement while hunting up fundy views on women in the ministry. They were justifying it based on different roles for men and women given by god, etc.
So, I know these people are far from canonical sources, so I thought I’d ask the Jewish members of the board once more.
Does their reasoning above hold up?
BTW, I’m thinking this should be maybe a one or two answer thread, that’s why I didn’t put it in Great Debates.
I don’t know where you got that quote, but I don’t care. The logic is rock-solid. There are differences between what men and women can do in the Temple, but that has nothing to do with menstruation.
Just like there are differences between what the priests, levites, and other men can do in the Temple, and that has nothing to do with menstruation either.
What Keeve said. There are many differences in Jewish law between men and women, not necessarily having anything to do with menstrual impurity.
The main (though no the only) difference between men and woman in Jewish law is regarding commandments that are bound to a certain time. Men are obligated to perform these commandments, and women are not. And there is an additional principle that only one who is obligated to perform a commandment can perform it on behalf of others, which excludes women from pretty much every minestrial role in Judaism.