Yesterday the official state religion of England - The Church of England- made a decision via a vote at its General Synod to allow women to become Bishops. I am not too sure what to make of this myself, in so much as whatever the tradition and theology, once they voted for women Vicars in 1992, the end logic was to also allow for those higher up the chain. I know that some will be unhappy about this decision, but it did get me thinking about women in Orthodoxy being Rabbis, Judges and the rest.
I cannot see any reason in Jewish law for women NOT to be Rabbis, but even so I have mixed feelings on the issue myself. .On the one hand I can see from the Hebrew Bible that women had often played important leadership roles,e.g. Miriam, Deborah, Esther; furthermore in my humble view women in Judaism are ALREADY leaders in so much as it our women who govern our homes, not us men and of course in the secular world women now have careers & jobs of their own. I fully support this and women's education to whatever level they wish to go to, be it religious or secular or preferably both. The wife of a Rabbi is often 'part of the team' when it comes to Rabbis work, so again another position of authority, even if it is partnership with her husband, rather than on their own.
On the other hand I just don't want to put a coach and horses through the tradition-which in Judaism has a very powerful influence in its own right- that means we do not ordain as a general rule female Rabbis. Does there need to be a discussion about this in the Orthodox Jewish world or is it something which we do not need to discuss ? From my experience - and female readers please don't take offence- us Sephardi tend to be 'folksy' as in down to earth, ffriendly or neighbourly,sociable & small 'c' conservative, so I do ask myself is there any clamour for women to be Rabbis? If there is no great rush of women wanting to do this is that a reason to say 'no' to any discussion ?
True we now have a situation where women have become "halachic advisers" (in the Orthodox world), but there is only ONE officially 'ordained' Orthodox Rabbi that I know of,Sarah Hurwitz, but in order not to rock the boat they didn't call her Rabbi to begin with, but recently she has taken on the title Rabba, which really upset the Ultra Orthodox Haredi, who are already furious over the 'women of the wall' campaigners. And do we necessarily need to upset the applecart among ourselves, when there are already other divisions within Jewry?
I don't see this as one of those make or break issues which defines you as Orthodox, so I am genuinely torn here. I am certainly all in favour of women being Cantors, on executive councils of Shuls, being Halachic advisers etc. In respect of Cantors,yes, I know about kol isha, the spirit of which I am 100% in agreement with. Note that in in the Bible there numerous examples of women -Jews- singing in front of men (e.g. Exodus. 15:20-21,1 Samuel 18:6,1 Chronicles 25:5,Psalm 68:26). So my view is that Kol Isha is quite correct, but that this does not prevent women singing solo in front of men, but what it means is that women should not sing SEXUAL songs in front of men, because this is the whole spirit behind the law (modesty).
Of course us Sephardi could claim to have had the first female Orthodox Rabbi -again not officially as she was called Tanna'it- a scholar of the Talmud and ran a Jewish seminary whilst performing the occasional miracle- in the 17th Century Iraq, a lady called Asenath Barzani.
What do readers think?
On the other hand I just don't want to put a coach and horses through the tradition-which in Judaism has a very powerful influence in its own right- that means we do not ordain as a general rule female Rabbis. Does there need to be a discussion about this in the Orthodox Jewish world or is it something which we do not need to discuss ? From my experience - and female readers please don't take offence- us Sephardi tend to be 'folksy' as in down to earth, ffriendly or neighbourly,sociable & small 'c' conservative, so I do ask myself is there any clamour for women to be Rabbis? If there is no great rush of women wanting to do this is that a reason to say 'no' to any discussion ?
True we now have a situation where women have become "halachic advisers" (in the Orthodox world), but there is only ONE officially 'ordained' Orthodox Rabbi that I know of,Sarah Hurwitz, but in order not to rock the boat they didn't call her Rabbi to begin with, but recently she has taken on the title Rabba, which really upset the Ultra Orthodox Haredi, who are already furious over the 'women of the wall' campaigners. And do we necessarily need to upset the applecart among ourselves, when there are already other divisions within Jewry?
I don't see this as one of those make or break issues which defines you as Orthodox, so I am genuinely torn here. I am certainly all in favour of women being Cantors, on executive councils of Shuls, being Halachic advisers etc. In respect of Cantors,yes, I know about kol isha, the spirit of which I am 100% in agreement with. Note that in in the Bible there numerous examples of women -Jews- singing in front of men (e.g. Exodus. 15:20-21,1 Samuel 18:6,1 Chronicles 25:5,Psalm 68:26). So my view is that Kol Isha is quite correct, but that this does not prevent women singing solo in front of men, but what it means is that women should not sing SEXUAL songs in front of men, because this is the whole spirit behind the law (modesty).
Of course us Sephardi could claim to have had the first female Orthodox Rabbi -again not officially as she was called Tanna'it- a scholar of the Talmud and ran a Jewish seminary whilst performing the occasional miracle- in the 17th Century Iraq, a lady called Asenath Barzani.
What do readers think?
