From an on-line "Orthodox" journal.
"I changed course again, and when I sang the poem each Friday night as a young adult, I considered only its literal meaning. I soon started to view The Woman of Valor as an antiquated ballad that polemically situates a Jewish woman where the author thinks she ought to be: in the kitchen.
When I got engaged to be married, I was impressed and relieved to hear from my soon-to-be husband that he had no interest in singing The Woman of Valor at our Sabbath table. Like me, he believed the poem to be a misogynistic song that would have little pertinence to our progressive household. For twelve years of marriage, we didn’t sing it on Friday night, and when we hosted guests at our Friday night meal, we would proudly explain that this song simply didn’t jive with our worldview."
By the end of the article she decides that it is really OK so she sings it with her family.
What was her problem???
It starts " A woman of valor who can find, for her price is beyond pearls." A very nice compliment!!!
Then it continues: "Her husband relies on her, and he will lack no gain. She requites him with good and not with evil all the days of her life". She is a good, faithful wife!! Her husband can count on her. ה' ישמור!! Terrible! What is this world coming to??! So antiquated.
"She seeks wool and flax, and she works it with the will of her hands. She is like the merchant ships, she brings her food from afar. She rises when it is still night; she gives food to her household and an allotted share to her maidens." She feeds her family and household members!!!
The perek goes on to say that she does a business on the side so there is more income ["she contemplates a field and purchases it; from the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard"] feeds the poor etc. etc.
In short - a wife most of us would want to have - dedicated to her husband and children, giving and spiritual.
But no. The author of this article and her husband didn't feel that this Eishes Chayil reflect modern notions of what a true liberated woman should be.
Ahhhhhhh!!
The attitude that we pick and choose which part of Judaism we like and accept ["what "jives with our world view" based, ostensibly, on the latest editorial in the Jewish Week or New York Times] and which we discard is Reform Judaism in its classical form. Noxious.
And the notion that a woman who cares for her family is somehow backward can bring to a destruction of the family and ultimately of the Jewish people and our hallowed traditions.
Buyer beware. Subversive, toxic anti Jewish ideas, masquerading as intellectualism, pervade the web.
