Redefining Gender and Sexuality in Judaism: Insights from Danya Ruttenberg

Abstract

Institutional Affiliation 30th March 2021 (a) “Gender and Sexuality according to Author Danya Ruttenberg” (b) 1 Introduction The scholar is resolute on how Judaism and transgender theory constructs gender and sexuality on different dimensions. The origin of Judaism made male superior and women inferior to the ritual system. Judaism has specific ritual system for menstrual process of women that mandates them to undergo cleansing in order to be considered pure and holy. The discussion is based on Judaism wanting to protect the history of their ritual system, mikveh while transgender theory is providing a different approach of escaping the system. The researcher is using experiential approach to discuss how Judaism can sustain their history with integrity and a better way of constructing gender/sexuality by supporting the argument with personal experiences and knowledge derived from books. (c) 2, 3, 4 The scholar view gender and sexuality as issues that should not be used by men and religion to oppress women. She criticizes the Judaism interpretation of gender and sexuality related to the traditions considered impure to the ritual system. The issue is specifically on establishing menstruation as the only impure energy to religious practices. This theory is derived from the book of Leviticus where other factors such as leprosy and male ejaculation were also thought of as impure but later on after the destruction of the Temple, menstruation became the only problem. The contemporary laws of niddah view menstruation days of women to be impure henceforth Judaism mandates the period to be of abstinence. Furthermore, women still have to undergo a cleaning ritual after the end of their periods in order to be pure again for the marital bed. These traditions are imposing a lot of pressure to the biological process of women making them feel awful and inferior to the men. The scholar introduces the transgender theory to suggest independence from gender oppression in Judaism. We live in a society with already constructed norms that dictates every aspect of our lives just like the history of Judaism manipulating women’s menstrual process. Ruttenberg uses this quote from Rabbis, “if a monstrous woman passes between two [men]-if it is at the beginning of her menstruation, she will cause one to die; if it is at the end of her menstruation, she will bring strife between them” to show how the menstruation is viewed as a strategy of expressing strong prejudiced opinion about female as a threat, fatality and unholy energy that they must have power over. Feminists from Jewish community need the mentality of the Trans society to fight the menstruation predicament. Transgendered people live in a world that provides freedom of living either as a man or woman instead of the gender identity that they were provided at birth. The view point of the scholar on...