Categories and the Capacity for Imagination

Note: At Temple Micah, every b’nai mitzvah student gets to ask their rabbi a question of their own choosing to be answered by the rabbi as part of their sermon the morning of the b’nai mitzvah. This is one of those sermons.

Dear Meira,

You asked me this:

What is the origin of stereotypes and gender inequality?

You asked a question of origin -

So first - I will share some creation stories from our tradition -

an early attempt from our people to not only understand the world, but to try to set out a vision for what the world can be

The first is the creation of humanity -

Adam - which the rabbis tell us - it is on purpose that we each come from the one creation

And that dust was taken from four corners of the earth - so that no human could say that they are better than any other

Because we are each made of exactly the same stuff

And that first human -

וַיִּבְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ אֶת־הָֽאָדָם֙ בְּצַלְמ֔וֹ בְּצֶ֥לֶם אֱלֹהִ֖ים בָּרָ֣א אֹת֑וֹ זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה בָּרָ֥א אֹתָֽם׃

So Gd created the human beings in [the divine] image, creating [them] in the image of Gd, creating them male and female.

Without any rabbinic interpretation, upon first read - we could understand this verse to suggest two things:

One- Adam- the first human, was created as both male and female, zechar u’nikevah, -

When all of this began - there was no inequality - male and female were one - and equal

So that one gender would not dominate over the other

Then there is the creation of Chavah -Eve

When it was declared that it would not be good for Adam to be alone -

She was formed from Adam’s side - and formed from the same stuff

And the two of them - together would begin humanity

But this is where things go off the rails -

Because Adam becomes male - Eve, female

And in translation - the word for side - becomes a single rib -

And Eve becomes lesser and lesser

And then other traditions look at Eve- and watch her as she eats the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge

And they - deeply seeking a reason for why evil exists, blame all of the problems of the world on Eve

And then - to put all women into that category -

Because, Meira - one of the ways that humans attempt to understand the world is by putting things in categories -

This is human nature - and in fact, Judaism is full of this

What is ok to eat and what isn’t

What constitutes work and what is rest?

What actions help you create a meaningful life - and which are damaging to you and your community

And how do we understand the difference between different subsets of people

Including our most basic divisions - men, women, and children

Categorization on its own is not the problem - it can actually be helpful to understand things in this way

But the issue is when our categories become stereotypes - which is when we make people their category -

The complexity of their individual humanity reduced to their stereotype -

And when we essentialize them - meaning we believe that their stereotype is all that they can be

And this becomes inequality, too. Or aids inequality - both gender and economic, racial, and ethnic

The problem, as I understand it - is actually a failure of imagination

We allow for ease - it is certainly simpler to see things in their categories rather than in their fullness

And it takes work to learn to know every human for who they are -

And - often, it means questioning our own basic assumptions - or how we ourselves might perpetuate stereotypes and inequality by on our behaviors

And the problem, might even be with assuming that such inequality is part of the fabric of humanity

Because as I said - categorization - yes, is how our brains make sense of information

But our brains also have the capacity for imagination -

And this is in fact, what makes us not just creatures, created - but human -

To imagine -writer Ursula Le Guin writes, is the task of “becoming and remaining human”

And it must be practiced - “like any basic human capacity, [imagination] needs exercise, discipline, training, in childhood and lifelong.”

And this is where reading Jewish texts might help us -

We actually must read through our texts -

And choose which imaginative vision of the world do we want to uplift?

Do we want to take the vision - to imagine that we once existed with no categories at all?

We were just one - one flesh - from one earth -

And that as each of us flourished into our uniqueness - that our value never changed?

And that we each have our own ability to imagine ourselves and others outside their assumed categories?

I think - Meira, you’ve already made that choice -

To not want anyone to define for you what it means to be a woman -

And so I hope you take that imagination - and apply it to others -

To all the problems of inequality -

Because, Meira, the goal is not to go back to the Garden of Eden, rather - is to imagine what it might be if we take the aspirations embedded in humanity from creation

That we could be equal - maybe we never were -

But maybe we could be -

Mazel tov again, Meira

Your friend,

Rabbi Crawley