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| Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll |
Let me state what I think is obvious. Women are not bringing
down Orthodoxy. This is what Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll says some in Orthodoxy (mostly men) are charging. At least implicitly. A charge she reverses against the very people making it. She then lists a litany of bad acts to
demonstrate who the real villains are. A list that appears to validate her
claims.
I can’t really dispute the facts. Among them is the indictment of the former
Chief Rabbi of Israel on charges of accepting bribes. The former Chief Rabbi is
without a doubt - not a woman.
But I have to take issue with some of her other indicators.
Not that there aren’t problems along the lines she outlines, but one has to
look at them all from the perspective of Halalcha and Mesorah before casting
blame on them for bringing down Yiddishkeit.
First let me deal with Yoatzot. She indicates that
acceptance of them by Orthodoxy is lukewarm at best. And even with that - she
says that there are rabbis the question the ‘Unkosher motives’ of these women. I
do not see acceptance of Yoatzot as lukewarm. I for one enthusiastically accept
and endorse these women. Nor do I generally attribute ‘UnKosher motives’ to
them.
As Mrs. Keats Jaskoll says, a need is that is being filled. There are some rabbis that unfortunately do
not accept them and do attribute these motives as well as worrying about ‘the slippery
slope’ where innovations that are not so Kosher will be next. Although there
may be some truth to that, the benefits are so overwhelming as to make such
arguments almost irrelevant. Especially since the Yoatzot program specifically
builds into it rejections of any movement along that slope.
Women studying Torah is another area she feels is being attacked
by rabbis as destroying Orthodoxy. But the Beis Yaakov movement already settled
this as did Rav Soloveitchik who gave women at YU’s Stern College for women its
inaugural Gemarah Shiur. He clearly stated that the time was right for that
change and he had the gravitas to make that claim stick.
That others disagree is
not relevant. There is a disagreement among different segments of Orthodoxy and
it not only survives – it thrives. That one Rabbi in Yeshiva University (whose article
on the subject she linked to) questioned whether we should rethink it does not change
what his mentor, Rav Soloveitchik established and endorsed.
The issue of female rabbis in Orthodoxy is an entirely
different matter. Again, I do not see that destroying Orthodoxy. I see the movement
advocating female rabbis as a breakaway from it. Judaism will hardly be
destroyed by a group of misguided rabbis that have departed from tradition to
form a new movement. It didn’t happen when Reform rabbis did it. Nor did it happen
when Conservative rabbis did it.
Women’s Teffilah Groups are not a danger to Orthodoxy either
– being too small in number to make any difference. That it is frowned upon
does not make what they do Assur. Women who participate in these groups have
not been written out of Orthodoxy.
Mrs. Keats Jaskoll’s claim that that women are being erased
from the world is true only among the most extreme versions of Orthodoxy. These
people are not mainstream and do not represent the vast majority of Orthodox
Jewry. Not even most Charedim. That they try to impose their views upon other
Orthodox Jews is not only wrong, it is repugnant and even dangerous. And it has
nothing to do with Judaism.
But this too will not destroy Orthodoxy. The more these extremists
try and impose their radical views on the rest of us - the more they will be
ridiculed and marginalized. This doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be opposed. They
should. But their views will never (I know never is a big word – but I stand by
it) never become mainstream.
The really big issue she raises is a legitimate one. That of
the Agunah. Women in this state are not only NOT ruining Orthodoxy, they are
the victims of it. The Halacha that only men can sever the bonds of marriage
puts women at a severe disadvantage. There can be no dispute about that. The Gemerah
recognizes that fact and states several times, M’Shum Agunah Akilo Bo Rabbanan –
the sages were Mekil (lenient). Some Halachic strictures were relaxed for the
sake of Agunos.
In our day there are unfortunately some really bad people in
Orthodoxy taking advantage of the Halacha that give them exclusive divorce rights and
keep their ex-wives in permanent purgatory – unable remarry.
She cites a couple of recent cases where such vileness is demonstrated.
And then point to efforts tried on behalf of these woman that have been
rejected by virtually all Poskim. If there is any single challenge that could
hurt Orthodoxy – this is it.
But in point of fact it ultimately won’t. Although abuses
abound by both recalcitrant Husbands abd corrupt Batei Din (Jewish courts)
there are things that can be and are being done to help women in this
predicament. Like the creation of the organization ORA an Agunah advocacy group
with Rav Hershel Schachter as their Posek. Or the RCA prenuptial agreement incentivizes a husband to not withhold a Get. There are additional things which can be done
but they are beyond the scope of this post.
Unfortunately these measures do not always work and women
remain Agunos. Which is patently unfair. To resolve those cases there have been
attempts by some well intentioned rabbis that have tried methods that are
rejected by Poskim from a variety of Orhtodox segments.
This is where I think Mrs. Keats Jaskoll and I would
disagree. She complains that these well intentioned rabbis ideas have been
determined Pasul (invalid) without offering a solution of their own. Which
implies an uncaring attitude to them.
I do not see it that way at all. These rabbis are not unfeeling
monsters that don’t care about women. They are Poskim being careful about Halacha.
They simply want to prevent a serious violation that can have negative consequences
for generations to come. What about being Mekil for Agunos – as the Gemarah
indicates we should be? Well, being Mekil does not mean violating biblical
level Halacha. It is an unfair charge to say these rabbis don’t care – or care
enough. They do. But their hands are tied. These Poskim know when to be Mekil
and when not to be. And it has nothing to do with being anti woman. It has to
be with being pro Halacha.
How sensitive are these rabbis really to the plight of the Agunah - one may ask?
Well in one case a group of Charedi rabbis are going to spend time in prison
for caring too much. They hired thugs to torture recalcitrant husbands into
submission. Some say it was about the money they charged for the ‘service’. Maybe.
But it worked for those women. They got their freedom – despite the inhumanity
and Chilul HaShem those rabbis created
by doing it that way.
In another case Mrs. Keats Jaskoll cites that was undermined by
Poskim – it was other Charedi rabbis that were undermined. They tried to help Agunah by using
a legitimate loophole based on a premise that was very likely false (which they
believed to be true.) That Poskin rejected it was not because they are
anti woman. It is because they take the violation of that Halacha and its consequences
very seriously.
The bottom line here is that it is certainly not women that
are destroying Orthodoxy. But it isn’t the men either. It is the miscreants and extremists
on all sides that are – even if they don’t realize it – or actually think they
are improving it. They are trying. But they will fail.
