Women First

17 Shevat 5782

“Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel” (Shemos 19:3)

“‘The house of Jacob’ are the women; ’the children of Israel’ are the men.

Why did He command the women first? Because they are the more diligent in the fulfillment of the commandments. Another explanation is: So that they should introduce their children to the study of the Torah.” (Midrash Rabbah)

“On the contrary, it soars aloft like an eagle, saying: ‘I am, and there is nothing besides me’; or, as in the statement of Pharaoh: ‘The river is mine, and I have made myself!’ That is why the Sages, of blessed memory, said that arrogance is truly tantamount to idolatry” (Lessons in Tanya, Likutei Amarim, Chapter 22)

If we look carefully, both these explanations have one root cause. Women do not suffer from the same chronic self-importance as men. Arrogance takes many forms, but the one of perceiving yourself as something separate from creation, in mind and in practice, is not usually found with women. They are much more intrinsically linked to the One above (Or HaTorah, Tehillim p. 432; ibid. Nach II, p. 927), which is also why they are more diligent in their fulfillment of the commandments, as stated above. Because of this they become fitting vessels for Hashem’s Torah, because “the supernal holiness rests only on that which is surrendered to Him,” which is also the reason why they are tasked with the Torah’s most important task, carrying it into the next generation. A child can only receive the initial spark of Torah from a pure, unadulterated source.

“There is none like You among the supernal beings, my L-rd, and there are no deeds like Yours. All the nations that You have made will come and bow down before You, my L-rd, and give honor to Your Name” (Tehillim 86:8-9)

Of the Era of Moshiach, in which all nations will have reached consciousness of their nothingness to the One above, Jeremiah 31:21 states “nekeivah tesovev gever (the feminine will encircle the masculine).” The Alter Rebbe explains that this encircling gains an additional meaning, in that in the Era of Moshiach the female will be elevated above the male (Hanahot ha-Rap, 64-5), “ascending with her vessels to the aspect of canopy surrounding all the worlds (sovev kol almin)”. This can be understood as that the whole world will come to the same realization of Hashem’s greatness and regency over the world that is already present in Jewish women today.