Back when women resisted idolatry

I really enjoyed this commentary on how the women resisted and would not participate in the idolatry of the Golden Calf, maintaining their faith and purity to God while the men lost theirs. This really is a very insightful analysis of both that event in the Old Testament and also a reminder that women used to protect, rather than threaten, piety. Unfortunately today many women are the "temptresses" of being false prophets, carried away with desire for power and "mystery" through new age and occult beliefs, and so they are often eager to destroy, rather than preserve, a family's faith, whether Jewish or Christian. (I admit I almost did not read this commentary because it's very "moon calf" new age sounding introduction. Puhleeze.) But this is a very worthy read for its analysis of a time when women were truly praiseworthy as leaders of the faith. I wish they set the example of orthodox humility and devotion more nowadays as they did then, in the example of the Golden Calf.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1225199607644&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Oct 30, 2008 11:51
Kol Isha: When the women refused to strip off their finery
By RACHEL ADELMAN

The writer lectures in Hebrew Bible and midrash at Matan, the Sadie Rennert Institute for Women's Torah Studies, in Jerusalem, as well as internationally.

snip

In the context of the Golden Calf, the women refrained from contributing their finery (edyan) Later, in response to consequences of the sin, the people stripped off their finery [edyam] (Ex. 33:6) as a symbol of mourning. According to the Talmud, these were the crowns that the Israelites had gained with their declaration of faith at Sinai: "We shall do and then we shall hear/understand" [na'aseh venishma] (BT Shabbat 88a). Because the women did not contribute their jewels to the making of the molten calf, they maintained a loyalty to the original experience at Sinai; they never lost those precious crowns as a consequence of participating in idolatry. The jewels of their words bound them. They were thus rewarded with the Rosh Hodesh festival as the ultimate symbol of integrity, despite the vicissitudes of time.