380 GESILA NNEKA UZUKWU From what we have seen so far, there can be no question as to whether or not the reason underlying the use of the three blessings of gratitude found in rabbinic writings is a religious one, i.e., the blessings articulate the responsibilities of a Jew in relation to keeping the Law. Nonetheless, the significance of the three blessings for the study of the view and attitude toward women in Judaism has been immense 18. Here, we cannot engage in a discussion of the question as to whether or not Judaism has a negative view and attitude toward women. A few points may be noted however. First, it appears that behind the three blessings of gratitude found in the rabbinic texts under study, we must suppose that certain views about the religious experience of the Jews in relation to fulfilling the Law are at work, views about their social and cultural lives as well as their specific values. How well and how deep the three blessings express those concerns is open to discussion. Suffice it to say that the rabbinic materials or rather the three blessings of gratitude as found in rabbinic writings are not enough, in and of themselves, Jewish scholars, and in particular Jewish feminist scholars, have 18 questioned the view that the three blessings of gratitude found in rabbinic sources express religious concerns. It is not a question of excluding the gentile, the woman and the slave from the obligation of the Law but of emphasising the priority of the male, they argue. It expresses Jewish (rabbinic) ideological convictions of gentiles, slaves and women as being radically ‘other’ and as a result they are denied full participation in almost (or all) religious and social aspects of Jewish life. See J.R. BASKIN, Midrashic Women. Formations of the Feminine in Rabbinic Literature (Hannover 2002) 13-42, 16-17; ILAN, “The Woman ” 77-92, 77. As S. J. BERMAN, “The Status of Women in Halakhic Judaism, ” Tradition. A Journal of Orthodox Thought (1973) 5-28, esp. 8 argues : “the blessing recited by men each morning thanking God ‘for not having made me a woman’, is seen as simply symptomatic of a chauvinistic attitude toward women, intentionally cultivated by the religious system as a whole ”. GRUBER (“ The Status”, 151-153) for instance, points to the many passages in Hebrew Scripture that do allow women, together with men, to perform some religious duties, hold public roles and participate fully in some Jewish rites. With references to Exod 38,8, Jer 9,16-19, Judg 4,4-5 etc., he argues that the treatment of women in Judaism is more due to the worldview of rabbinic Judaism than to Scripture itself, even though in the latter this negative worldview about women is not completely absent. See also J. NEUSNER (trans.), Tractate Menahot. Chapters 4–7 (The Talmud of Babylonia: An American Translation 29/B; Atlanta, GA 1991) 30.