The Evolving Jew

In a Facebook discussion, someone brought up a 2012 post of Eliyahu Fink's entitled " Dear Chaya " and I was looking through the comments and I noticed a couple of mine that were worth reproducing here. One commenter wrote: "The statement of  'women are second class citizens' , is absolutely against a true Torah ideology!!  ... as Jews we believe that women and men each have the equal opportunity to fulfill our DIFFERENT potential, not better, but different and unique!" My response was: "...that's a modern apologetic that all of us have heard ad nauseum.. And every person who presents it acts as if it's some giant revelation that those of us critical of womens' roles in Orthodoxy must have never heard before. Yes, it's become the defensive party line, but that doesn't make it any less a manufactured apologetic... just because you are happy with your role in Orthodox Judaism doesn't mean that you speak for all women

The New York Times printed a very nice obituary of Gil Marks , whose death is a great loss. I own and deeply value his wonderful "Olive Trees and Honey" cookbook. The current brouhaha is over this line at the bottom of the article: "Correction: December 11, 2014. An earlier version of this obituary misstated the location of Alon Shvut, where Mr. Marks lived. It is in the West Bank, not in Israel." I agree, the unnecessary correction does come across as insensitive, and would have better been left alone. However... 1) They probably got in trouble with some readers. I doubt they would have changed it without complaints. 2) Alon Shvut is in Gush Etzion, which, technically, is not part of the state of Israel, however much it feels like it and has been integrated. Yes, it was settled by Jews well before the state was established. Yes, in almost every proposed peace deal, it would be part of Israel. But legally, at least for now. it's an "administered