Sorry I took so long to answer, Max - I was busy and saved some
messages for later.
>
> I have to say that I never found this story empowering for women,
> Martha in particular, who after all was doing what everything in her
> life taught her was required from women. I don't see that having to
> have permission from a rabbi to do otherwise essentially changes the
> parameters. Although I liked Yeshua for stopping people from stoning
> the adulteress and for treating prostitutes equally, this story and
> the "Woman, what have I to do with you" passage always bothered me.
> It seems to make Martha wrong.
I rather think that your interpretation of the Mary and Martha story
is a bit harsh. After all, if a woman is to be empowered to sit at the
rabbi's feet and learn (which, as I said, was a HUGE thing to say in
the context of the times!), it makes sense to warn her not to spend
too much of her time and energy on the finicky little housework
tasks that frustrated women can so easily fill their lives with. But
Martha was never told that housework is wrong: she was only
warned not to make it the be-all and end-all. (And the wording of
the passage makes it clear that she WAS overdoing it a little.)
The "woman, what have I to do with you" passage is another of
those contextual ones. "Woman" was nowhere near as harsh a
way to call your mother as it sounds now. And after all, he did end
up doing exactly what she wanted, five minutes later... A lot of us
think that that story is actually funny. A real shpiel between a
Jewish mother and her son...
Cheers,
Barbara
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