Gender Neutral and Gender Sensitive Prayerbooks
- At least one bible translation from the Hebrew and Aramaic, the Hebraic Roots Version (HRV) postulates that the Holy Spirit (the Ruach HaQodesh) is referred to in feminine terms, unlike the masculine terms applied to the Father and the Son.
Over the last twenty years many Jewish prayer books have been rewritten to be gender-neutral (Reform, Reconstructionist Judaism) or gender sensitive (Conservative). Examples are shown in the following translations of Psalm 24. The following is a traditional translation excerpted from Siddur Sim Shalom, a Conservative siddur. (Ed. Jules Harlow)
"A Psalm of David.
The Earth belongs to the Lord, and all it contains; the world and its inhabitants.
He founded it upon the seas, and set it firm upon flowing waters.
Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may rise in His sanctuary?
One who has a clean hand and a pure heart, who has not used God's name in false oaths, who has not sworn deceitfully.
A modern translation of Psalm 24 now appears in the revised editions of Siddur Sim Shalom.
A Psalm of David.
The Earth and its grandeur belong to Adonai; the world and its inhabitants.
God founded it upon the seas, and set it firm upon flowing waters.
Who may ascend the mountain of Adonai? Who may rise in God's sanctuary?
One who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not used God's name in false oaths, who has not sworn deceitfully.
Read more about this topic: Gender In Bible Translation
Famous quotes containing the words gender, neutral and/or sensitive:
“Anthropologists have found that around the world whatever is considered “men’s work” is almost universally given higher status than “women’s work.” If in one culture it is men who build houses and women who make baskets, then that culture will see house-building as more important. In another culture, perhaps right next door, the reverse may be true, and basket- weaving will have higher social status than house-building.”
—Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. Excerpted from, Gender Grace: Love, Work, and Parenting in a Changing World (1990)
“The seashore is a sort of neutral ground, a most advantageous point from which to contemplate this world. It is even a trivial place. The waves forever rolling to the land are too far-traveled and untamable to be familiar. Creeping along the endless beach amid the sun-squall and the foam, it occurs to us that we, too, are the product of sea-slime.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Pity in a man of knowledge seems almost laughable, like sensitive hands on a cyclops.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)