A Woman In The White House, But Not In God's House

Rabbi,
If you are speaking about women in general being CIC, I have no problem with this.
If, however, you are talking about this woman, Sarah Palin, potentially being CIC,then my opinion is diametrically opposed. I find it staggering and enourmously frightenting that G-d forbid Mr. McCain get into the White House, and then G-d forbid even more that he die in office - well, the consequences are potentially too overwehelmingly negative to list here.

I found it very interesting when I saw an interview with the editor of Working Mother magazine (I used to subscribe but no longer do) about women's opinions of a mother of five potentially being elected VP and possibly POTUS. What I found most telling, and rather concerning, was that the question did not focus on what people thought of this individual having to "balance family and work", but that her being a mother of five in general was their concern, and a surprisingly large number of women think Palin should not have accepted the nomination simply based on her being a mother of a large brood.

Are we still in such a state in this country that we cannot imagine a father adequately providing the love, nurturing, and stability that we come to expect of a mother? Are we still fighting these battles over which is a better mother, the stay-at-home kind versus the needs/wants-to-earn-a-living kind?

And I can hardly wait for the concocted attacks (soon to be aired by the Republicans, no doubt) claiming Palin is being villified for being a mother and a woman.

And BTW, I don't have a problem with women being a spiritual leader, either. My cantor is a woman.

Can you explain why some things are Kosher and others are not? Or, Can you explain why so manythings that have been commanded of us as a people(Jews) and as a nation (Israel). Besides anyone who understands what is Holiness and the importance of Worship according to Chalacha understands that leading worship is more important than leading a nation! Our worship is not dependent on the nation, but the nation is dependent on our worship! Who has license to change what G-d has comissioned? If G-d gave us the Jews the law that we possess to teach us to seperate from evil and to seek rightoeusness, then it is vitally important we do this exactly as he has said. Can we know G-ds thoughts are his was our ways? Can we be wiser than G-d to even question such a thing? If we do this then we are guilty of idol worship! If G-d is imutable and can not change, and His wisdom is infinite, then we would be wise to do as He has instructed clearly in the Torah! Otherwise we are just acting like Jews and being what G-d has appointed us to be! There are enough actors in Hollywood to contaminate the world we don't need to add to it, we just need to do what G-d has appointed us to do. Besides Devorah with Barack was a great Queen in Israel and a very great military leader as well, but never felt the need to lead a congregation! beside you are talking to someone who lived in Israel as a Isreali and not an American in Israel, and Israel is by far the most egualitarian society in the world, and yet there is not one Synagogue lead by a woman! Interesting? Nor do you hear any woman saying that they have the need to do so. The problem here is that people in the States have mixed liberal thought with the Torah and try to call it Judiaism, kinda like oil and water, looks good for a minute, but when it all settles it is the same old mess it was before. This is not a matter for us to tamper with, and there is no problem with a woman in the Whitehouse, just as Devorah was a great Queen in Israel.

someone mentioned women balancing work and home and men seem to be able to accomplish it so why not us gals as well?

Anyway back to the subject.

I believe the reason some Christians do not want females in leadership roles in their churches is because they believe Jesus did not want that. Others disagree evidently.

Jews and others seem to do it out of tradition because of the fact that females ran the homes and being a Rabbi (which means teacher) would require other types of working. Thankfully in most mainline types of Jews this is and has changed. Can not speak for the Muslim or other religons in the world!

Politics is not the same in most cases unless the religon and the politics are extremly intertwined so the religous rules and traditions are carried over.

Not hypocrasy to me. Just another cultural way of looking at things.
hugs
Laura

A woman in the White House but not in G-d's House!
Seperation of church and State is fundamental in our Democracy - statement N/A. Women can serve/lead in the gov in any capacity.
Women in G-d's House - of course we are there - how silly to think we are not! Not always standing out in leadership - but our influence is mighty non the less. If a woman WANTS a clergy type role she can find a place that will accept her. Silly argument, just to push peoples buttons and get emotional discussons going. I think.

Women like Golda Meir and Margaret Thatcher were [prime] examples that women are capable of leading a nation. These two women didn't have small children (and they were beyond their child bearing years). When you take on the responsibility of leading a country that obligation should take priority over everything else in your life. A mother with underage children is not going to put country first when [her] child needs her; I don't care if the father is standing [right] next to her.

I for one do not want this Woman Sarah Palin Or John Mc Cain for President or Vice President, This woman is evil and have you watched the video of her Church,it reminds me of the Jim Jones killing,and Mc Cain all he knows is war, and he has one bad temper, I will vote for Obama and Joe Biden ,they will get out country back on Track ,for the Love of God ,,don't vote for Mc Cain and Palin, they scare the heck out of me, Look at the jobs and homes that have been lost, Mc Cain won't help ,he will do more harm, he is in the Pockets of the Big Oil Co,and Mc Cain also wants to do away with social security ,he is another Bush, looks at the young men and women who were killed in Iraq or coming home disable, for the love of God do the right thing and Vote for Obama and Biden,

I have a simple question;Why are so many people asking if Sarah Palin is qualified to run a nation? What about Biden? I don`t hear many people asking if Biden can run a nation.I have the answer!Because Sarah`s a woman! A little sexism going on there? I can`t wait for Sarah to debate Biden.She`s going to slaughter him.The good old boys are afraid .I say it`s about time.This is from a strong woman herself.--Debra.

Women are just as capable as men at running a nation or a house of worship. Of course, not just anyone of either sex can or should be a world leader, but talent, intelligence is distributed equally between the sexes. For generations, women have been denied the opportunity but as attitudes change, more and more women will take on leadership.

Of course, they must be the right women, and I cannot believe that Ms. Palin is one of them. I state this not because she is the mother of young children (since fathers can and should be equal partners in childrearing), but because I find her views extreme. How could one woman tell another she could not terminate a pregnancy that was brough about by rape or other abuse? For most women, this would be tatamount to forcing them to suffer the rape over and over again for nine months. As a former teacher (now a small business owner who employs teenagers) I can also say that one can encourage abstinence, but it cannot be taught. Teenagers must already have those values that encourage abstinence and it helps if these are supported by the community around them. However, if they do not have them, teachers cannot hope to compete with the images in the media that encourage anything but abstinence and delayed gratification. One can encourage abstinence and teach about birth control since birth control is something most people will want to use even after marriage. (Obviously, abstinence only education did not work for her own daughter, and I am quite sure it was a behavior encouraged at home.)

I cannot help but be sickened by pictures of Ms. Palin proudly showing her young daughter the bloody moose she has just shot or sitting near a bearskin rug in her office. These poor animals do not count at all, I suppose. She even advocates ariel hunting, which is horribly cruel. I know many will say one cannot equate animals with humans, but this seems to reflect a rather heartless nature.

As to women being spiritual leaders, I absolutely believe they should be allowed to do so. I believe this strongly enough that I will not attend synagogues that do not allow women full participation. That is my choice and they have a right to their own choices. I cannot understand why other women accept it but, of course, I am not them.

let me see if i have this right.there seems to be a lot of talk about sarah palin ,and her ablity to run this nation, just because she is a woman..right.. they dont think she can be the pres, mmmm ok now i got it, but something has gone wrong then because i thought it was john mccain who was running for the office of our nations leader mmmm,this must mean that everyone assumes that john is going to die in office and she will be the pres.i see... then this is good reason to vote for obama,because a lot of people think that joe biden would make a good pres,mmm,see what happens when u assume..or speculate to the abstract.. gd bless b'h'