Seeing the Other Side

Image from Bishvilaych

In Judaism, those who make policy for the entire community are men. Men, by virtue of being men, don’t experience Judaism as women do. This is natural.
 What is not natural, however, is not listening when women describe their experience and ask for change. Communal and rabbinic leaders simply do not consult with women. They don’t allow for serious input from them, and they don’t hear from them about the consequences of communal policy and priorities. Thus, women’s needs come after a long line of other considerations and as a result, policy doesn’t take them into consideration. 

I decided to really try to look at it from her perspective. And I realized that her views on shmiras einayim (the topic of my article) and possibly tsnius in general are different than mine because of the environment that she currently lives in. She is witnessing all sorts of extremes in RBS and I'm happy go-lucky in my midwest town in the U.S where no one is saying boo to me in my jean skirt.

So I shared that with her. And she really appreciated it and from then we have had some very nice shared dialogue where we've learned more about each other and are focusing on what we agree on. It was actually quite liberating removing those labels, trying to understand the other, and start finding ways we could have a positive discourse. I truly believe Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll has some valid takeaways from her article…