Sorry for taking a break; I was extremely busy and also experienced hesitation about blogging per se, but I guess this forum for sharing my thoughts is too irresistible.
So here goes:
I am currently reading a book called "Sichot im yetzer harah", edited by Asa Kedar, published by Yediot Acharonot.* In the course of reading an essay by Shlomit Wiler, within the book, I came upon the following:
1. Rabbi Chiya says that women "save us from sin" (Yivamot semech-gimmel, ayin-alef).
2. A man without a wife is without a wall, i.e. protection against the evil inclination. (there, samech-bet, ayin-bet)
These two statements point to a Talmudic stream of thought that envisions the woman as the savior from sin, as man's guardian against the evil inclination, which stands in direct contrast to the Christian view of woman as the root of sin, as the evil inclination and temptress par excellence. I believe that this Christian view of women, based on the first chapters of Genesis, was influenced by the Greek story of Pandora as the temptress par excellence who brings a variety of ills to the world. As a matter of fact, Pandora (i.e. woman) was sent to men as a punishment, for angering Zeuss - just as Eve was sent to man, in Christian (primarily Catholic) mythology as a sort of stand-in for Satan - perhaps not as a punishment exactly, but as a test man was doomed to fail, as something negative. This is in contrast to the mainstream Jewish view, where woman is sent to man as a gift. In the plain Biblical text, God sends woman to man because "it is not good for man to be alone", as an act of kindness, and woman comes from man, bespeaking an innate equality between the two sexes - an equality that only gets tampered with as a result of the woman's actions, when the natural gender equality of the world is upturned: Gender inequality is tied up to punishment and the state of banishment. The Edenic ideal is one of equality between the sexes. The Biblical view of woman as gift is buttressed by Talmudic statements such as the ones above. There are counter-streams of Talmudic statements that do view woman more negatively, however, we must ask ourselves how much such statements have been influenced by the Hellenistic, Christian, and Zoroastrian streams of thought that pervaded Talmudic society. It would be interesting to see if there is a historical trend within the Talmud, from more misogynistic to less or vice versa, which could help us understand the different non-Jewish intellectual influences on Talmudic thought as pertaining to the essential nature of woman: Is she good, bad, or a bit of both - and if she is a mix of both, is there more Talmudic ambiguity concerning the nature of woman than there is the nature of man? It seems that with the current trend in gender studies, looking at gendered language in the Talmud regarding women is a hot topic, but I wonder how much scholarly work there has been regarding the Talmud's gendered language concerning men.
* In the spirit of "Whoever says something in the name of its sayer bring redemption to the world" (which I learn in Mr. Shwarz's Brachot class), I should acknowledge that a recent shiur by Amit Gvaryahu that touched upon yetzer hara is what inspired me to read the book. This shiur took place at Drisha.
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