{Originally posted to author’s website, Emes Ve-Emunah}
I feel like I am going from the frying pan into the fire by discussing this topic after the last one. But once again, I feel I must speak out.
It seems that the movement to ordain female rabbis in Orthodoxy is moving ahead full steam. According to an article in JTA, there will be six new female rabbis graduated at Yeshivat Maharat. They are expecting 6 to 8 students next year. While they do not call themselves rabbis, that’s what they are. There is no sense in calling them anything else. If I were them I would be insulted at not being given the same title their male counterparts are given for completing the same requirements for ordination. These women study the same material as men who study for the rabbinate do and they must pass the same tests. And yet, they are not given the same title.
Why not just go out and say what you are doing? Why dishonor your students be calling them some name you made up?
The answer of course is that they want acceptance by the very same Orthodox establishment that they have always been a part of. They believe that changing the title will give them some sort of legitimacy. But that will never happen. Even leaving aside the Halachicly problematic issue of Serrara (female leadership over men), women are barred by Halacha from doing the most basic functions of a synagogue rabbi. The people running these institutions know this and so do the women they ordain.
They cannot be counted for a Minyan. They cannot sit in the sanctuary with men during a communal prayer service. They cannot lead the service. Their very presence in the Shul together with men invalidates the Minyan and even the service itself.
To say this kind of leadership is awkward is an understatement. And yet they insist that they should be able to work around it and somehow lead congregational services. The claim is that they can Halachicly do other things in a Shul that a rabbi does. Like counsel, teach, or lecture. This is true. But the idea of a leader not being able to be present in the Minyan is not normal and in my view, something that should not be sought. Why must the envelope be pushed in such an abnormal way?
That is answered by Anat Sharbat, one of the about to be ordained women:
“The program in Yeshivat Maharat is a responsible program for responsible leadership – halachic but also social and emotional and feminist…” (emphasis mine)
When I hear the word feminist these days it has a lot different meaning to me than it did in the past. In the past it was a movement whose goal was to obtain equal rights for women in the workplace and equal respect with men societally. Both are goals that I support.
But feminism has morphed its goals into an attempt to eliminate all gender differences accept for the obvious physical ones. This is not a Torah viewpoint. The Torah mandates different roles for men and women. The idea that women must somehow equalize with men in all areas of Judaism is anathema to the very idea of male/female roles. As far as the Orthodox rabbinate goes, it is an elusive goal that can never happen. It is a Halachic impossibility in the realm of the synagogue for men and women to have equal roles.
Feminists will retort that while that may be true, we must still push the envelope as far as far as Halacha will allow. Inserting women wherever possible into the sanctuary. But at what price? Are we going to see female rabbis preaching from behind the Mechitza in service to that ideal? Is it appropriate for the spiritual leader of a Shul to not be visible during services? …sitting behind the Mechitza? Even as men far less educated than them religiously lead the services and fully participate in them? This is not a normal situation and it is certainly not equality of the sexes. The Conservative movement knows that. That’s why they have fully embraced female rabbis – having long ago completely abandoned the Mechitza and the Halachic requirement that only men can be counted in a Minyan.