Religious Writing by Orthodox Jewish Women: Creating a Theology

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Since the middle of the 1990s, a considerable number of books and articles have been published by traditional Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jewish women. This article explores the ideas and rhetorical strategies of some of these books and articles as representative of an established religious genre and as signs of an authentic search for new definitions of Orthodox femininity. The quest for traditional Orthodox/ultra-Orthodox femininity seems to proceed in two general directions. The first follows the lines of religious gender essentialism, while the second disrupts the idyllic stability associated with traditional concepts of complementary gender roles. The latter transforms Judaism's static model of inter-gender relations into a dynamic process which is to culminate in the establishment of gender equality in the messianic age. The essentialist approach, which presents spirituality as women's innate gift, seems to offer the perfect strategy for dealing with the theological and practical problems faced by Orthodox Jewish women in their own communities. Nevertheless, the popularity of the evolutionary approach indicates the shortcomings of traditional essentialism: the longing for equality and the perception of injustice remain alive under the surface, despite the apparent complacency of most Orthodox women.