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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Why are so many Geula-bloggers women?

Why are so many geula-bloggers women?

One might have thought to say that the opposite would be true - more men have been exposed to the statements of Haza"l that talk about the Geula. True, more women have been exposed to the Nevi'im that talk about it, but do most women learn those Pesukim from Navi in schools? I don't know, but I tend to doubt it.

This is not to say that there are no male geula-bloggers.  There are many of us too, including yours-truly.  However, it seems to me that the majority of posts of a geula-nature are authored by women.  Why is this?

I think I have an answer both from a secular perspective and a spiritual one.

From a secular perspective, there is something called a "normalcy bias", which is, to quote wikipedia:
an extreme mental state people enter when facing a disaster. It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster occurring and its possible effects.

...

The normalcy bias also causes people to drastically underestimate the effects of the disaster. Therefore, they think that everything will be all right, while information from the radio, television, or neighbors gives them reason to believe there is a risk. This creates a cognitive dissonance that they then must work to eliminate. Some manage to eliminate it by refusing to believe new warnings coming in and refusing to evacuate (maintaining the normalcy bias), while others eliminate the dissonance by escaping the danger.

Now, one website I found talks about gender differences in disaster evacuation:

As noted earlier, evacuation behavior has long been recognized as the reflection of social-level factors and collective deliberation. Decades ago, Drabek (1983) established that households constitute the basic deliberative units for evacuation decision making in community-wide disasters and that the decisions that are ultimately made tend to be consistent with pre-disaster household authority patterns. For example, gender-related concerns often enter into evacuation decision making. Women tend to be more risk-averse and more inclined to want to follow evacuation orders, while males are less inclined to do so (for an extensive discussion of gender differences in vulnerability, risk perception, and responses to disasters, see Fothergill, 1998).

In other words, women seem to have less of a normalcy bias than men do. They see the world changing around them better than men do, and therefore, respond to those changes in a more prudent fashion. (If you'll notice, with some exceptions, the majority of geula-related posts from female geula-bloggers has to do with how and why the world is changing. Male geula-bloggers seem to focus more on how to interpret texts in our changing world. While us guys at times get caught up in these intricacies, the women are simply saying, "מה תצעק אלי דבר אל בני ישראל ויסעו".)

On the spiritual side, one need look no further than this week's Perasha, which says:
וַתִּקַּח מִרְיָם הַנְּבִיאָה אֲחוֹת אַהֲרֹן, אֶת-הַתֹּף--בְּיָדָהּ; וַתֵּצֶאןָ כָל-הַנָּשִׁים אַחֲרֶיהָ, בְּתֻפִּים וּבִמְחֹלֹת
And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.
Rashi on this verse says:
מובטחות היו צדקניות שבדור שהקדוש ברוך הוא עושה להם נסים והוציאו תופים ממצרים
The righteous women of the generation were sure that HKB"H would perform miracles for them, so they brought timbrels from Egypt.

And, as I saw on Kikar Hashabbat, the men just saw Keriat Yam Suf as freedom from Egypt.  The women saw Keriat Yam Suf as a process of nation-building - who were soon going to be accepting the Torah on Mt. Sinai.  They were able to delve deeper into the meaning of Geula, which is why they brought the musical instruments as singing was not enough to show their love of Hashem.

The same applies in our generation.  Women have the simple Emuna in the Geula more than men, plus they have the Bina Yeteira to know what Geula really means for us.  This could be why there are more Geula-related posts by women.  They know that it's happening and they know why it's supposed to happen more than men do.

I saw a headline today, which may be more of a Nevuah than its author intended:

Clinton: Women can be force for Mideast peace


As Haza"l say:
בזכות נשים צדקניות נגאלו אבותינו ממצרים
In the merit of righteous women, our forefathers were redeemed from Egypt.
 
And the same applies to every generation as well - the Geula comes from the women.  May we be redeemed in the merit of the female geula-bloggers and other female geula-yearners.

15 Comments:

At Thu Jan 13, 12:16:00 AM 2011, Anonymous Nechama said...

I watch you 'faithfully' and depend on your reasoned approach to coverage of events, the 'male' perspective. We, Am Yisrael, need both views, for leveled balance. And that means eyes open to what may be unfolding within the events shaping our times.

Kol HaKavod.

PS Shirat Devorah ... Where are you?

 
At Thu Jan 13, 12:31:00 AM 2011, Blogger Devorah said...

"All salvation comes by virtue of women." [The Alter Rebbe]

 
At Thu Jan 13, 12:46:00 AM 2011, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hashem redeemed the Jewish people in the merit of the righteous Jewish women in Egypt, and He will do so again in this coming geulah. Amen.

 
At Thu Jan 13, 03:30:00 AM 2011, Anonymous Itzik said...

All this talk about Mashiach is hypocritical. Have you ever asked yourself how many people REALLY want the Mashiach to come?

 
At Thu Jan 13, 07:18:00 AM 2011, Blogger madaral said...

Women are more connected to the Shechina, and feel the pain better than men.

 
At Thu Jan 13, 08:24:00 AM 2011, Blogger Leah said...

Yes, I do agree and I think women do feel the pain of others more so than men. I also believe that a good woman can teach a man to feel this pain and sensitivity. The merit of the women is how we will be redeemed. This in no way is to say that men have no merit or anything remotely similar, yet I do see that women wil keep these spiritual issues CLOSE at hand(thought) while they work, whereas I view men as single task oriented as well so it is more difficult for men to see and feel this spirituality while they are leading a busy life working and the like......

 
At Thu Jan 13, 10:40:00 AM 2011, Blogger merachefet said...

women are associated with binah and gevurah

 
At Thu Jan 13, 12:45:00 PM 2011, Blogger Devorah said...

Itzik: unfortunately, there are quite a lot of Jews, even "orthodox" Jews, who don't care/want Mashiach.

They think we are all meshugga... but they can't see the wood for the trees.

One very "orthodox" man actually said to me "why do you want Moshaich? When Moshiach comes we won't be able to look at all the pretty girls anymore".
Unfortunately he was serious.

But that doesn't make US hypocritical. We are genuine in our belief, and let me take this opportunity to remind you that one of the first questions we will be asked in the Heavenly Court is "did you anticipate the coming of Moshiach". It is a principle of the Jewish faith.

 
At Thu Jan 13, 01:31:00 PM 2011, Anonymous Anonymous said...

many countries in the world are getting women as presidents. it has to do whith the geula for sure: aishes chail ateres baala and nekaiva t'soivev gover(al pi chasidus)

 
At Thu Jan 13, 01:42:00 PM 2011, Blogger Devorah said...

Shloime! Exactly... I forgot that as well, before Moshiach the women will be raised up or something like that... the power of the woman will be seen in its true glory.

Yes! We've arrived. The female bloggers are heralding the redemption.

(and Yaak, you are definitely the collective females' favourite male blogger)

 
At Thu Jan 13, 02:26:00 PM 2011, Anonymous Anonymous said...

And it is interesting to me that there are many women named Devorah in positions of influence today (including bloggers!) We are all related to the neshamot of our names.... study your name, especially if it is a person in the Torah. Devorah HaNavia had a very unique role to fulfil and she continues to this day. Listen to the Song of Devorah THIS Shabbat in the Haftorah!! There are also hints of the redemption IN this song!
- - Devorah in Chicago

 
At Thu Jan 13, 02:32:00 PM 2011, Blogger yaak said...

(and Yaak, you are definitely the collective females' favourite male blogger)

Thanks, Devorah.
I'll have to let my wife know to be on the lookout for those "collective females". :-)

 
At Thu Jan 13, 04:38:00 PM 2011, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Like in Egypt, only 1/5th of the Jews was redeemed, and perhaps, this might also be true in the final geula.

Here is a link to a great shiur that differentiates between a Jew who's proud to be Yid, and a Jew who doesn't want it.

https://www.learntorah.com/lt-shiur-details.aspx?id=6643&play=video

 
At Thu Jan 13, 10:47:00 PM 2011, Blogger Batya said...

I've been studying Tanach, Al HaPerek at Matan. We're now in Judges, and there's no doubt that women take over when men are goofing it up.

 
At Fri Jan 14, 01:16:00 PM 2011, Blogger yaak said...

Devorah in Chicago, you may want to listen to Rabbi Sitorsky's shiur this week, where he goes into Devorah Hanevia and who she is a gilgul of. Other interesting tidbits too.

 

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