In a recent article on Morethodoxy, Rabbi Farber suggests
that we change the paradigm with respect to a woman’s role in Judaism. His
contention is that women are (at best) inadvertently ignored and mistreated vis-à-vis
their public religious personae. Their current
place in the synagogue is where this is mostly felt.
Rabbi Farber mentions the fact that women are excluded from
any and every part of synagogue service and are basically considered a non
entity in the vast majority of Shuls – having absolutely no participatory
presence. Even those Shuls that try and accommodate them with things like Women’s
Teffilah Groups or putting a Mechtiza down the center aisle of the shul which
crosses the Bimah is at best a piece-meal approach to the problem of giving
women a greater role. That - says Rabbi
Farber is insufficient and does not satisfy a woman’s desire for a greater
spiritual experience in the Shul.
Indeed, men do everything. They are counted toward a Minyan;
Daven for the Amud; get Aliyos; get to say Brachos over the Torah; get to do
Pesicha (open the ark when the prayer service requires it); get Hagbeh or G’lilah
(lifting the Torah after Kriyah and/or rolling it together)! All women get to do (aside
from Davening) is observe men doing it.
Rabbi Farber would like to see all that change - a basic
overhaul in the role of a woman in the Shul – to the extent that Halacha allows.
He claims that the only thing preventing real change is an antiquitated
paradigm based on a culture that no longer exists. That paradigm stems from a
time where women in every civilized society stayed home. It was for those
reasons that Chazal, Rishonim and Achronim as late as the Chafetz Chaim
created and maintained the current non participatory role for women in the synagogue.
Here is how he puts it:
Women were rarely public figures and were discouraged from receiving too much education, taking visible public roles, participating in the power structure, and generally from being around men. If any woman were to express superior learning or knowledge than a man in front of a group it would have been a serious breach in etiquette. This is why, according to Tosafot (b. Sukkah 38a, s.v. “be-emet”), women do not lead the Grace after Meals for men or read the Megillah for men, since it would be insulting to them (zila milta). For the same reason, R. Israel Meir Kagan, in his Mishna B’rurah (281:4) argues that women should not say Qiddush for men, at least in public. The Talmud offers a similar reason why women do not read from the Torah in synagogue (b. Megillah 23a), although they are apparently eligible to do so, as it would offend the honor of the congregation (kavod ha-tzibbur).
In today’s world there has been a radical shift in societal
attitudes about a woman’s role. Today we find women in all sorts of public
roles. Roles that were once the sole bastion of men. There are female doctors, lawyers, scientists,
politicians, Supreme Court justices, generals, CEO’s of major companies and university
professors, deans, and presidents. You name the field and women can easily be
found there.
Women of every Hashkafic type participate in public
positions once anathema to them. One
need not look any further than the ultra Orthodox Hamodia to see a woman, Ruth
Lichtenstein, as its publisher. Or to note that the daughter of Charedi Gadol Rav
Yitzchok Hutner earned her PhD at Columbia University.
Certainly the role of the woman has changed in our day even
among the right wing.
So - says Rabbi Farber - things like Kavod HaTzibur that
were based on no longer existent sensibilities should be re-visited. And he suggests
that the entire paradigm be changed so as to accommodate the sincere desire of
many women to more fully participate in the Shul… and thereby enhance their
spiritual experience.
Here’s the problem. Rabbi Farber is an Orthodox Rabbi and as
such he realizes that no matter what we do, Halacha forbids an equal role for
women. Acknowledging that at least tacitly he says that we ought to do whatever
we can - where ever we can - to allow as full a participation in the synagogue experience
as possible.
I frankly don’t see how that will help. If I were a woman
who saw what men do and wanted to have the same spiritual experience, half
measures would not be satisfying.
If for example the strict letter of the law would allow a
woman to Daven Pesukei D’Zimra at the Amud since that part of the prayer
service is not a Davar SheB’kedusha (and need not even have a Chazan at all)
how would that make me feel? I am still barred from being the Chazan during the
actual Teffilah B’Tzibur. And I would still feel short changed spiritually.
The main areas of synagogue participation would still be
barred from me. A paradigm shift would
serve only to radically change the Shul experience to one which is
unrecognizable. While there may be a Halachic way to do that, is it worth it?
Is our traditional way of Davening so off-putting to women
that it requires us to do that? And will it ultimately be satisfying spiritually
for a woman to stop where Halacha requires her to? She will still be required to
sit separately from men. She can still not be counted into a Minyan. And she will still not be able to be the
Shaliach Tzibur for the essential parts of the Teffilah.
In my view as well intentioned as Rabbi Farber is, I don’t
see any real benefit to this in the long run. All I can see is at best a slight
- and probably temporary - mollification at the expense of a radical change to the
traditional way of doing things in Shul – Halachicly permissible though it may
be.
This does not mean that I don’t respect the desire of women
who are sincere in searching for more spirituality in Judaism. They have that
right. And it is a laudable goal. But trying to do that in a Shul just isn ‘t
going to work ultimately in my view since woman are Halachicly barred from fully doing it.
What is the answer for these very sincere women? I’m not sure. But trying to equalize the role
of women to men in the Shul is impossible if one is to stay within the bounds
of Halacha.
