Analysis Of The Communist Manifesto By Blu Greenberg

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Author, feminist and Orthodox Jew, Blu Greenberg correctly asserts that , “where there 's a rabbinic will, there 's a halakhic way”because traditional interpretations of Halakhah prove to be an affront to God, This is significant because it limits the Jewish peoples hopes for equality, feminism and most dramatically intimacy with God. Greenberg maintains that by refusing to ordain female rabbis, Jews are missing an opportunity within their community for equality. Jews have been using the Torah and halakhah to justify positions and decisions for centuries. OK BUT HOW DOES THIS FACT ADVANCE YOUR THESIS? If the halakhah can be used to justify various concepts within Jewish Social Responsibility then it can be used to justify feminism. One unique …show more content…
In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx wrote, “The ideas of the ruling class are in every [era] the ruling ideas; that is the class which is the ruling material force of society is at the same time it 's ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production…and those who lack [these means] are subject to it.” His understanding of society and how it evolves and fails to evolve is what Blu Greenberg asserts in her belief about feminism in Orthodox Judaism. Her assertion is that the culture and societal forces keep women in subservient roles within Orthodox Judaism. In Karl Marx’s book, The Communist Manifesto, he asserts that society changes only when there is a change to the ruling class, that the ideas and beliefs within the ruling class translate to those who don 't have the means. In Orthodox Judaism, the ruling class would be the men who wrote the Talmud, interpreted the Tora and Halakhah and today who refuse to fully include women. Those who “lack the means” in Orthodox Judaism, would be the woman. Taking for example divorce, Greenberg says “the principal religious decision makers of contemporary Orthodoxy, are really saying is that they feel a need to preserve the original male prerogative…” This is significant because it shows how the “rulling class” uses power to maintain the status quo and keep women out of equal participation within Jewish

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