Contemporary Issues in Judaism - Research Paper Example

The first practice among Jews that often invites criticism is circumcision. According to Jewish tradition, circumcision is the mark of a covenant between man and God. Circumcision is conducted on the eighth day of a baby, and is preformed by a mohel. Usually, the mohel visits the baby one or two days before the ceremony and verifies that the child is fit for circumcision. Through the circumcision, the foreskin of the penis is removed so that the entire glans and corona are exposed. While the traditionalists believe that there is no issue in continuing with the practice of circumcision, there are people like Dr.

Peter Ball (n. d.) who believe that the practice is both unwanted and barbaric. There are umpteen numbers of reasons put forward by scholars to show that circumcision has its own disadvantages. Firstly, it leads to increased intolerance to clothing as the glans, when unprotected, is highly sensitive. In addition, too much rubbing against clothing results in the glans’ losing sensation. As a result, it leads to less sexual satisfaction. Moreover, studies have proved that circumcision can make people feel mutilated, incomplete, and hence depressed.

Despite all the points, the advocates of circumcision point towards the fact that many peoples in the world including many Africans, Christians and Muslims practice circumcision. In addition, they claim that circumcision is a happy occasion as it is the time of making a new covenant with God. Yet another issue that deserves attention is the relation between feminism and Judaism. It is generally claimed that Judaism promotes feminism. This is so because the feminist movements often have a large number of activists from Jews.

According to one feminist (Thalia, 24 May 2011) who is a Jew, the holy text Torah teaches people to accord the same respect to all people. An example provided is the building of the Tabernale. In Exodus 35:1, it is read: “Moses assembled the entire assembly of the Children of Israel”, and evidently, there was no differentiation between males and females. Though the traditionalists do not allow women to serve as actual rabbi in orthodox synagogues, there are women who claim to be the leaders of Jews, and recently, Sara Hurwitz was ordained as ‘rabba’- the feminine gender of ‘rabbi’.

Admittedly, a look into the Jew principles proves that Jewish ideology promotes the wholeness of a human being and not a role change. In fact, according to Scholars, Judaism believes in being a part of the society while remaining unique, in being a part of a community while maintaining ones own individuality, and in being a part of the world while also being a woman. This understanding of wholeness in ones personality is the reason why many people claim that Jewish women are feminists. However, what happens in today’s world in the name of feminism is actually ‘careerism’.

In other words, it is the struggle to give up women’s traditional roles and the effort to appropriate men’s roles. Thus, as Heller (2008) points out, the wholeness of personality as taught by Torah is different from the feminism as seen in today’s world. Another issue, abortion, is a matter serious dispute within the Jewish community even now. In order to see if Judaism allows abortion, one should see how Judaism treats a fetus. According to Eisenberg (2004), ‘chalacha’ (Jewish law) considers a fetus as a full-fledged human being.

So, one can conclude that destroying a fetus amounts to murder. In addition is the proof that Torah suggests punishment for purposefully causing a woman to miscarry. However, there are people who argue