According to Your Will?
Written by Movement for Reform Judaism Thursday, 13 August 2009
Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Romain of Maidenhead Synagogue answers the question: 'I was visiting another synagogue and read prayers in the morning service which include "thank you God for not making me a women". What is wrong with being a woman?'This must have been an Orthodox synagogue as the passage is certainly not in the Reform prayer book - new or old. In fact it is a rare example of the Orthodox prayer book offering an alternative version of a blessing depending on whether it is is men or women reading it. Males thank God for not making them a woman, while females thank God for "for creating me according to Your will".
There has been much debate as to what lies behind such wording. One explanation is that women are exempt from observing positive time-bound commandments ie those where one does something active (as opposed to abstaining from certain behaviour) and which are also connected with a particular time of day or year, such as putting on tefillin (a morning activity) or building a sukkah. The reason is that they may have children to look after, and the need to feed or change them has to take priority over religious observances and so women are exempt from positive time-bound ones. Conversely, men are deemed fortunate in being obliged to fulfil all the commandments without the constraints that women face.
Another explanation is that men are thanking God for not having the physical burden of carrying a child for nine months and then having to endure the pain of birth. For their part, women have to accept their lot and utter a blessing for being the way God made them. By contrast, Reform considers the male version of the blessing to be highly disparaging to women, while both explanations are problematic as they imply that all women have children and also that this is the only only function of women. Reform holds that women are the religious equals of men, and so neither blessing is said.
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