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The Hebrew Bible describes women in both negative and positive lights. The negative portrayal began with Eve, the first person on earth to sin. In Genesis 3, Eve breaks God's commandment by eating from the tree of knowledge and later she influences Adam to commit the same sin as well. Although the Hebrew Bible portrays women as seductresses and even prostitutes, it also depicts women as strong leaders that contributed a great deal to the early beginnings of life on earth. In Exodus, Miriam-the sister of Moses-and her mother worked together so that Moses could survive his infancy. After the Israelite journey across the Red Sea-led by the brother she protected-Miriam led the women in the dance of triumph and victory. Another example of the positive portrayal of women in the Hebrew Bible is in Judges 4: 4-14, which establishes that one of the Judges was a woman named Deborah. In the Book of Esther, Esther-a Jewish women who becomes the queen of Ahasuerus-saves her people from obliteration. It should be noted that out of the 55 prophets in the bible, seven are women. Although the Hebrew Bible mentions more men than women, the role women played is too great to be overlooked. .
Based upon themes within the Hebrew Bible, Jewish laws (the halachot) that relate to only men or only women are based upon the religion's separate but equal status of the male and female genders. These laws have given Jewish men and women different obligations and responsibilities. For women, these laws state that women are not obligated to wear the tefillin, pray three times a day or study the Torah on a routine basis. However, women may participate in these activities if they choose to do so. Women are exempted from formal prayer because it is time consuming and could interfere with their obligations at home, such as caring for the children. For example, it was typical during medieval times that while Jewish men were busy participating in a variety of religious activities (e.