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Table of Contents |
Synagogues for the Goddess?Book Review by Anya Silverman |
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"The lack of a divine female figure in the monotheistic religions has persuaded men and women, worshipping a male and sexless God, to regard women as a 'negative other,' and their bodies and sexuality as 'unclean' or 'impure." From Reinstating the Divine Woman in Judaism
We must also create new synagogue services to incorporate the Divine Woman, as it is not enough to say the traditional prayers with the God language rewritten in the feminine gender. |
Jenny Kien has written the book I have been searching for. She has addressed my dilemma -- that of a woman of Jewish heritage who has been turned off by her patriarchal religion, found a home in women's spirituality and the Goddess, and yet is still "Jewish." Since finding the Goddess, I have been struggling with how to reconcile my need for a Divine Female with my Jewishness, and Kien has provided a great many answers. But this book is not for Jews only. As the Jewish Bible/Old Testament is the foundation of the Christian Bible/New Testament, finding the Goddess as She is buried in the Jewish Bible also strengthens the idea of the Divine Woman in Christianity. And this in turn is "one step in returning the female to the spiritual imagery that has molded Western society." Kien's need to find a Divine Woman in Judaism is eloquently expressed in the preface of her book. "On winter solstice nights there are fires burning throughout Europe and North America. Sitting in my room in Jerusalem, dreaming into the dark, I have felt my sisters dancing and singing and praising the turning of the year, the Goddess giving birth to the sun-child. In Jerusalem there were no fires. Instead, the week before, we had celebrated Hanukkah with candles, singing and partying and saying the blessings. There were no sun-child and no goddess, for the Goddess has disappeared from Judaism." Kien has a need for a Divine Woman to "lead, inspire, support, refresh and sustain her, to talk women's things to, to be understood as a woman and to be empowered;" and she wants this within the context of Judaism. This need led Kien to look at the beginnings of the old Israelite religion; to study the cultures which existed in what we now call the Middle East in the era when the Hebrew tribes were coalescing; and to trace how the Goddess was demoted from the all-encompassing mother to becoming almost non-existent. In doing this, Kien developed a chart giving the "Period and Dates" with the corresponding "Major Historical Events," and "Religious Events" as the column headings. The chart begins with the Early Bronze Age of 3400-2000 BCE and ends with the destruction of Jerusalem in 135 CE, and is a very helpful tool in tracking the development of what became Judaism. It also includes information on how the idea of one male God, Jahweh, emerged and eventually took over -- banishing the Goddess in the process. Kien tackles the issue of monotheism and shows us that the old Israelite religion was polytheistic throughout its early days. She also states that Judaism is a culture as well as a religion, and that one can be Jewish and not participate in organized religion. And there are also many strands of Judaism today, e.g. Orthodox, Hassidic, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, and most recently the emergence of Jewish Renewal. She wishes that in this pluralistic configuration there could be a place for a "polytheistic strand in which people could choose to focus their worship on Goddess, God, or both." Kien's work is situated within the parameters of current feminist and women's spirituality thinking, and she states that "The lack of a divine female figure in the monotheistic religions has persuaded men and women, worshipping a male and sexless God, to regard women as a 'negative other,' and their bodies and sexuality as 'unclean' or 'impure." She feels that the "age-old struggle between monotheistic Judaism and the goddess is nothing less than men's battle against women's sexuality." But the idea of goddess is just one part of her concept of "Divine Woman." For Kien "the Divine Woman comprises femaleness in Divinity (the goddess) and holiness in women, as well as the interaction between them. That is, the Divine Woman encompasses those aspects of the world emphasized by the femaleness of a woman-like goddess and the effects on society of calling Deity female." However, Judaism is "currently essentially a men's religion, developed by men for men." So how does one reclaim the concept of a Divine Female within the framework of Judaism, and still have Judaism? Based on the long tradition of individuals studying, interpreting, and commenting on the Torah, Kien states that Judaism has no dogma and therefore no theology, and that "it is the work and the responsibility of the individual to determine and develop her/his own interpretation of the texts." Staying within this tradition, Kien therefore believes that women not only can but also must reclaim these texts, and reveal the goddess within them and within Judaism. Women can create their own midrashim or interpretive stories, invent rituals to express their needs, and reclaim the yearly festivals to mark what is important in women's lives. We must also create new synagogue services to incorporate the Divine Woman, as it is not enough to say the traditional prayers with the God language rewritten in the feminine gender. Reinstating the Divine Woman in Judaism presents us with a well-developed thesis that a Divine Woman has been present since the beginning of what became Judaism, and that it is time to reinstate Her in our practices. Kien ends her book with proclaiming her dream that the time will come when there are synagogues for goddess Judaism; when the texts are studied for their attitudes to women and for traces of the goddess; and when women will shape our culture.
Reinstating the Divine Woman in Judaism By Jenny Kien Universal Publishers/uPUBLISH.com, 2000 (www.upublish.com/books/kien.htm) ISBN: 1-58112-763-4 |