Support For OU Decision
Dear Editor,
My old friend Justin Cohen’s advocacy for female rabbis is ill-informed, having no basis either in halachah or mesorah (“New OU Guidelines on Female Clergy,” Letters to the Editor, March 9).
Cohen’s ire is specifically directed at the Orthodox Union, which recently issued far-reaching guidelines concerning women and Jewish life. The OU decision, which was endorsed by gedolim including Rav Herschel Schachter and Rav Gedalia Dov Schwartz, happily acknowledged the expanding public role of women. It stated that women could study and teach Talmud and could serve in titled positions short of “rabbi.”
Not enough, cries Cohen: we must accept women clergy!
Is Cohen on solid ground? Why shouldn’t we bend to the times? The answer is variegated, but several points must be made. First, there is a halachic issue called “serarah,” literally, rulership. Many rishonim rule that women cannot serve in communal leadership positions.
The scope of this ruling is the subject of debate. Some limit the ruling to kingship — there is no queen in Judaism. Other rishonim, including the Rambam, apply serarahin a broader fashion. However, throughout Jewish history, Orthodoxy has accepted that a role such as rabbi must be limited to men. Whether women can assume a position such as synagogue president is the subject of reasoned debate, but within normative Orthodoxy, no such debate exists regarding the rabbinate.
(As for Devorah, who was a judge of Israel, there are various opinions concerning her precise role; regardless, she is considered an exception.)
For those seeking a broad treatment of the subject, I recommend an online article by Rabbi Aryeh Frimer; it is found at text.rcarabbis.org/women-in-communal-leadership-positions-shul-presidents-by-aryeh-frimer/.
Our practices are informed not only by halachah, but by mesorahas well. In 1979, a leading rabbi was asked whether women could be ordained. He responded that the term “rabbi” has traditionally evidenced the ability to serve as a dayan, a judge. This rabbi insisted that whereas a woman cannot be a dayan (at least in a formal beis din), we must not give semichah to women, despite the fact that modern ordination is merely an echo of the semichah awarded in ancient times. The rabbi who issued this decision was none other than Shaul Lieberman, rector of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Conservative Jewry’s rabbinical school! At the height of Conservative Jewry’s internal battle over women rabbis, Rabbi Lieberman (who was Orthodox) declared his firm opposition.
Indeed, when Conservative Judaism began to ordain women, its more traditional scholars, including David HaLivni Weiss and David Feldman, courageously left the movement.
Alongside the issues of halachah and mesorah is a hashkafic concern. Judaism believes that men and women do not have identical roles. In general, men have a more public persona than do women. In the words of King David (Tehillim45:14), “kol kevudah bas melech penimah,” to wit, a woman’s glory is found in an internal rather than an external focus. True, the execution of this concept will vary by time and place. In the Rambam’s time, women rarely ventured outside the home’s confines; today we would laugh at this notion.
Yet even in our open society, the existential divide between men and women has application. A woman’s essential role is more private than a man’s; this never changes.
There are two connotations to the title “rabbi.” It may indicate that one has mastered the traditional Torah subjects that lead to semichah, including the laws of kashrus and other ritual subjects. Today there are numerous Orthodox women’s programs that cover such subjects in depth.
The Orthodox Union, in its revolutionary affirmation of women’s progress, agrees that women should be recognized for their achievements, so long as the title of “rabbi” is not affixed to them.
But Cohen is more concerned with the second connotation, that of female clergy. Putting aside the serarah issue, how does he envision the practical implementation of this idea? It is universally agreed, even by the extreme left, that women cannot constitute a minyan. And excepting the extreme left, Orthodoxy maintains that women cannot have aliyos and should not lead any parts of the tefillah. While women must be made to feel at home in our synagogues, a minyan is comprised of ten men. How, and why, should a woman shepherd a minyanin which she does not even count toward the quorum? And what about tznius, which even in our watered-down environment remains foundational in Jewish life? Does a woman leading a congregation accord with the necessity to maintain at least some semblance of modesty?
Further, Orthodoxy does not yield to every breeze of history. For example, sexual “mores” are increasingly sexual “lesses.” Yet we stand firm that same-sex marriage is an abomination. We stand firm that hookups are forbidden. These positions are immutable.
We are now marking the twenty-fifth yahrzeit of Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, among the leading gedolim of the previous generation. The Rav, who was viewed as Modern Orthodoxy’s chief mentor, was certainly a revolutionary in many respects. He taught Gemara to his daughters (as I have taught mine). He gave the first Gemara shiur at Stern College for Women. Today many women’s yeshivos, including YU’s Central and Chabad’s Beth Rivkah, teach Gemara.
Indeed, the Lubavitcher Rebbe is also on record favoring the study of Gemara by women. Thus, these two Torah giants recognized that women today are learned enough to engage in high-level study of the Oral Law.
However, Rav Soloveitchik was equally firm in his defense of the mesorah, the body of tradition that continues to guide us. Although the issue of Orthodox women rabbis was not in the forefront during the rav’s lifetime, he is on record in opposition. (See Rav Herschel Schachter’s article, “Women Rabbis?” It can be accessed at Hakirah.org/Vol%2011%20Schachter.pdf.)
Finally, Mr. Cohen evidently believes that Orthodox women are just chomping at the bit to become rabbis. Perhaps he knows some who are eager to assume a rabbinate position. I have not met any, and I suspect that they are few and far between. In other words, his is a solution in search of a problem.
Avi Goldstein
Far Rockaway
Women’s Unique Role
Dear Editor,
I am writing in protest to the letter writer who wrote to the editor about “New OU Guidelines On Female Clergy” (Letters to the Editor, March 9).
I am nowhere near educated enough to give a proper response, but every fiber of my being screams out that the letter writer is sorely and sadly mistaken.
I have been taught that women have their own special role in Yiddishkeit. It’s not chalilaha matter of being “repressed” or “powerless” or any other such terribly mistaken notion. It’s a matter of both men and women having their own, unique tasks in this world.
Please, ask one of your esteemed writers to put forth a detailed response which will make it clear to all that women are not in any way second class citizens, but first class members of Klal Yisrael, with their own special roles to play.
Emuna Ganz
Far Rockaway
Respect the Gedolim
Dear Editor,
I was appalled by the letter to the editor regarding the Peleg protests (“Rav Shmuel Auerbach, z’tl,” Letters to the Editor, March 16).
What proof does the author of said letter have that Rav Auerbach, zt’l,was actually responsible for the protests? And we are like nothing compared to the gedolim. Who are we to judge them? If the author of the letter wants clarification as to Rav Auerbach’s involvement in the matter — if he was even involved to begin with — he should seek the guidance of a rav or a gadol who can explain the circumstances and details.
However, judging by the tone of the letter writer, I have my doubts that he will do so.
I am, frankly, bothered that such a letter was even printed in the paper. Publicizing such information about Rav Auerbach is pure loshon hora. And if the information is indeed not accurate, it’s motzei shem ra, which is even worse.
Why, pray tell, is the letter writer encouraging publicizing loshon hora or motzei shem ra?
Thank you, Rabbi Hoffman, for a beautiful, masterful article.
May we be zocheh to properly respect and appreciate our gedolim.
Emuna Ganz
Far Rockaway
The Pesach Challenge
Dear Editor,
What’s the real Pesach challenge? The cleaning? The shopping? The cooking? The menu? The guests? The expense? The packing? The unpacking? Which hotel to go to? Which set of parents to go to? What to do on chol hamoed?
While some or all of these things are challenges that we experience at this time of year, there is yet one more.
Preparing for Pesach is really hard work and stressful, whether you stay home or go away. But all this physical hard work and stress is for what? For us to just physically have the Seder, eat the matzah, wear the new clothes, eat five-star meals (prepared by mom or a renowned chef), go to an amusement park, etc.? Hopefully, it’s not.
I’d like to propose a Pesach challenge: Getting to and through Pesach b’simcha.
In these hectic days leading up to Pesach, can we be patient and forgiving, not responding in anger and irritation to our husbands, wives, children, parents, bosses, co-workers, students, and friends? Can we give the benefit of the doubt more times than we usually do? Can we give a smile or word of encouragement to at least one person at least one time a day?
Yes, this Pesach challenge is proposed exactly when there is stress and pressure around us. Let’s take all this necessary physical and material energy generated by our pre-Pesach preparations and channel it to reaching a loftier goal of getting to and through Pesach in a positive mode with happiness and shalom bayit between husband and wife, parent and child, siblings, friends, and most of all between us and Hashem.
Oh wait! Here’s an opportunity not to miss! We all have things that we need, want, and pray for. Let’s use the collective merit of everyone taking on this challenge of refraining from anger and negativity from now through Pesach to achieve our prayers and dreams. I invite you to take on this Pesach challenge to have a real chag sameach! May we hear only of each other’s s’machot!
Anonymous
