“Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

    “The word that is translated as “rule” comes from the root mashal, and not from malakh, which means to rule by domination and is the root of melekh, or king. Mashal has a different connotation: it implies affinity or complementarity. It is the root used in Genesis 1: 16 to say that the sun “rules” the day and the moon “rules” the night. Concerning the zodiac, it is similarly said that each planet “rules” a constellation. The use of “rule” does not mean to dominate; rather, it means to have an affinity for each other, to go together because of complementary qualities...
    The story of Chavah lends itself to further contemplation. For instance, what does it mean when Genesis Rabbah 20: 7 compares a woman’s desire for her husband to the desire of rain for the earth and the desire of God for Israel? Surely this is not domination!”
  In this quotation, Chavah is a more accurate transliteration of the Hebrew name usually rendered as Eve, and Genesis Rabbah is the first book of Midrash Rabbah, a homiletic exposition of Hebrew scriptures, compiled up to the eleventh century.

    “A major misunderstanding of the role of woman in relation to man has also been created by inaccurate translation of ezer knegdo. Usually rendered as “helpmate,” the term has been used to say that women should be subordinate to men. Actually, however, nothing could be further from the truth. Elsewhere in the Bible, God is referred to as an ezer to Israel. Surely, God is not subordinate to the Jewish people!
    Knegdo means “opposite” or “against” him: “If he is worthy, she shall be a help (ezer) to him; if he is unworthy, she shall oppose him (knegdo), to fight him” (Rashi; Yev.63a*). This is certainly not a prescription for an obedient wife! Rather, it validates a woman’s ability to accurately judge her husband’s behavior and to treat him accordingly.”
    ~ Ibid., page 6. * This is a reference to Rashi’s commentary on Yevamot, 24th tractate of the Talmud. Rashi (Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac, 1040–1105, France) became widely known for his scholarly commentaries on the Talmud and Hebrew scriptures, and influenced Christian theologians.

Pertaining to the exclusive maleness of the Hebrew Priesthood, in the cultural context of Exodus: Of the varieties of religious service in neighboring Pagan cultures, whether priest or priestess of god or goddess, only the male priest of a male god performed a service that had no sexual component. Typically, the priest of a goddess was a transvestite eunuch who had ritual sex with men, the priestess of a god had ritual sex with the king or Pharoah at harvest festivals, and the priestess of a goddess was a “holy” prostitute who had sex with any man who paid the temple fee. The priest of a god served through offering sacrifices, libations, incense and psalms. The pagan gods, goddesses, myths and festivals were explicitly sexual, and often brutal in nature. It makes sense that God’s effort to differentiate a covenant people, a holy “set–apart” nation, and to prevent or eliminate the semblance of ritual sexual exploitation, mutilation and phallus worship — given the context — should involve instituting a male priesthood to serve a linguistically “male” god with no graphically portrayed sexual nature.