The other day in class we were discussing the role of women in the Torah. After some serious dialogue one of the things that was established was that women played a "behind the scenes" role in the torah. We all agreed on this, and things were going great until we tried to establish the role of women in Leviticus and with the law. The common belief held is that since the Torah was mainly written by men during a time of Patriarchal dominance, the Bible and in particular the Torah is a chauvinistic story will male dominance that views women as objects. However in class I proposed an idea and for the blog am proposing it now, and that is that what if we are looking at this notion as women as objects wrong? What if women AREN'T the objects, but rather instead were the subjects of the law?
Now I know I don't have much proof of this fact, so I am basing this on a very weak notion of the culture of the time and a somewhat clouded view of what I think about God. With this said I will begin to briefly discuss why I think women could be subjects of the law, which if this is the case, would then also show that God views women greatly among his creation.
To my understand about the culture in that time is that it was very barbaric. If a man wanted something he would just take it. Everything was viewed as property that could either be bought, sold, or taken. The world was to own by mankind. This is very evident in some of the Torah especially in Genesis. You have Abraham having to lie to some kings so that the men wouldn't kill him to take his wife. You also have Isaac doing the same exact thing. Also let us not forget the story of Tamar! All of these show that men were brutal and they took what they wanted. Therefore, what if God being the Supreme Being Who knows everything, knowing how men would be without laws and restrictions. Thus, God was now able to restrict men from "having" their way with women, but instead forcing them to treat them with some sort of respect. Furthermore, what better way to show that God actually cares about women, by putting these restrictions of them and by making them subjects, it implies that "Hey this is not just any other aspect of creation, but I made this FOR you. You need to treasure it!"
Now I know the potential flaws in this argument. The laws on "owenership" of women according to Leviticus and the laws of "rape." But what if this is just God speaking into a system that was already in place. Making it stricter to "set apart" his people. God knowing that he could not fully stop the idea of ownership of women instead put in a system that protected them. Women as subjects, NOT objects.
