[Avodah] Apologetic Responses to Egalitarianism

[Michael Makovi]

Professor Berel Dov Lerner claims/attempts to debunk the ordinary
apologetic response to
egalitarianism (viz. that the home is of prime importance, and
therefore women are as well, notwithstanding their disadvantages in
the public sphere):
http://jewishbible.blogspot.com/2005/10/ten-curses-of-eve-unpublishable.html

Professor Lerner concludes, "One might say that full respect for the
role of women is a truth of the Torah which has remained hidden from
the eyes of earlier generations, waiting for us to be its discoverers.
However, we cannot pretend that those earlier generations had already
made this discovery. That would be a fabrication of history and a sin
against intellectual honesty."

I respond (mostly summarizing, with only a very few contributions of
my own, of negligible importance) at
http://michaelmakovi.blogspot.com/2009/07/ten-curses-of-eve-disingenunity-of.html.
Among thing, I note Rabbi Joseph Telushkin's response to apologia: if
it wouldn't satisfy a man, it won't satisfy a woman either.

Michael Makovi