The Language of the Hebrew Woman
Wednesday, March 08, 2017 | Tsvi Sadan ISRAEL TODAY
The upcoming International Women's Day is dominating the news cycle, which will now for days on end inundate us with the feminist agenda.
Feminism, to be sure, is not a naughty word. Women must have exactly the same rights as men. But feminism long ago left behind its simple quest for equality and today demands all sorts of things, including the right to ignore the uniqueness of the biology, physiology and psychology of women.
The battle for equality has not escaped the Hebrew language, which has also come under attack.
Traditionally, the Hebrew language is considered sacred because God created everything by speaking Hebrew commands. Hebrew letters and words, therefore, are the building blocks of the universe. Jewish mysticism views the Hebrew alphabet as the DNA of everything that exists. The extraordinary care scribes took to meticulously copy the Old Testament springs from that viewpoint. Corrupting the sacred manuscript amounts to corrupting the world.
The feminist agenda to change the language, therefore, is nothing short of horrifying to those who still believe Hebrew to be sacred.
Speaking on Israel's Channel 2 News, Avshalom Kor, a leading Hebrew linguist, was trying to explain that gender in Hebrew has nothing to do with male chauvinism. But Daphna Eisenreich, his feminist co-panelist, remained resolute that the Hebrew language undervalues women.
Kor simply couldn't understand why anyone would protest a language. After all, he quipped,"'success' in Hebrew is a feminine word, while 'failure' is masculine."
Regardless, Eisenreich insisted that the fact the masculine form of words is used when addressing a mixed audience didn't happen by chance. Linguistic gender, she implied, enforces outdated male/female stereotypes. The televised debate itself only fueled this sensationalist social battle by pitting a man against a woman.
But this unnecessary battle between the sexes won't end with linguistics.
The continued deliberate gender confusion, viewed by many as "progressive," has led the Ministry of Education to recommend that kindergarten teachers avoid the use the expressions like "mom and dad." Instead, the ministry suggests the more neutral "parents." In so doing, the Ministry of Education has fallen victim to the agenda of organizations like Hoshen that promote homosexuality.
Among Hoshen's recommendations to the Ministry of Education is encouraging children to speak and dress as girls and to not assume heterosexual family situations. It also wants to see the inclusion of books that teach alternative family life styles. All of this has one goal - radically changing the gender perception of Israeli children.
Such fundamental changes are entering every strata of Israeli Jewish society, almost without challenge.
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