Journal 3 in 2003
Bezugspunkte: Europa / Israel / USA

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Silke Muter-Goldberg
Yotzaot Halachah and Rashot Midrashot -
Women as Agents of Change in Orthodox Communities and Synagogues

A Comparison Between Europe, Israel and the USA

And she dwelt under the palm tree of Devora between Rama and Bet-El in Mount Efrayim; and the children of Yisra'el came up to her for judgment. - Shofetim 4:5

I would lead you, I would bring you to the house of my mother, of her who taught me, I would let you drink of the spiced wine of my pomegranate juice. - Shir Hashirim 8:2

Whilst progressive and conservative denominations within Judaism have expanded women’s public roles in communal and spiritual life over the last few decades, orthodox Judaism1 has been far more reluctant in allowing for such changes to take place within its own synagogues and communal structures.

However, the last few years have been witnessing a number of changes in the life of orthodox synagogues - mainly at the insistence and perseverance of women. As Blu Greenberg puts it: “In only one generation, Orthodox women's roles have shifted from exclusively private to increasingly public, from the household and mikvah to houses of study and prayer and religious courts of law.2”

This article presents some of the changes emerging in different forms, each marking the expansion or ritual participation in the synagogue or the expansion of female participation in the halachic process respectively.

Broad spectrum of women’s participation
Juxtaposed to the more traditional Rosh Chodesh groups, there are women’s prayer groups, women’s minyanim, or traditionally established (i.e. by a quorum of ten men) minyanim that allow for women to take the role of ba’alat kriah and to receive aliyot, education programmes aimed at training women to become communal educators, female “congregational interns,” to’anot (advocates in rabbinical courts) or yotzaot halachah (halachic advisors) to name but a few.

Ritual participation
Broadly speaking, with female-led spiritual activities in the orthodox communities, two different models seem to emerge:
1. Some female activists will deliberately choose a self-created, gender-segregated space for their spiritual activities such as Rosh Chodesh groups as this will allow them to develop their spirituality in a space accepted by the orthodox establishment without the explicit need for rabbinic authorisation.
2. Other activities, such as women acting as ba’alot kriah in male established minyanim seem to take place within existing communal and synagogal structures, but by doing so they at the same time accept and challenge rabbinic authority over the spiritual role they have sought and taken.

Transforming communal prayer
Whilst the former model merely allows for a channel for female spiritual expression, the latter forms of spiritual expressions and new roles in (public) communal life created by women are beginning to transform the traditional outlook of orthodox communities.
Just three examples of communities who have recently allowed for changes to happen by including women in public ritual and worship are Yedidiyah in Jerusalem, Kehillat Orach Eliezer (a.k.a. KOE) on the upper West Side in New York and Yakar in London. Each of these congregations have expanded women’s participation within the norms of halachah; be it via female-led hakafot through the women’s section of the synagogue or women-only aliyot in Yedidiyah, mixed kriah in KOE or mixed readings of Megillat Esther in Yakar. In my own community, there is a mixed reading of Megillat Esther and women will lead the congregation for some of the prayers for which no minyan is needed.

Education, Education, Education
This expansion of ritual participation of women in public worship is largely seen against the backdrop of rapidly expanding higher Jewish education for women in yeshivot, seminaries and university programmes, often in themselves a battleground for the participation of women in (public) religious and spiritual life.

Changes in Israel, the USA and the UK
In Israel, where the opening of the higher reaches of Torah learning to women preceded orthodox feminism, the concern is less for female participation in the synagogue service, but for access to higher learning and participation in the halachic process. The midrashah movement — the world of higher Torah learning institutions for women that began in Israel in the 1980's — has thrived. Today, there exist 20 Israeli midrashot. To a greater or lesser extent, they all integrate text-based learning in a bet midrash setting and many offer or focus on Talmud study.

Although most are still one-year, post-high school or post-National or Military Service frameworks, several have progressed to multi-annual programmes, including mechonim gevohim, the women's equivalent of a kollel wherein the student, who is usually married, receives a fellowship stipend to engage in multi-annual high-level study. Of the twenty midrashot, seven are headed by women rashot midrashot. Within modern orthodox circles, the women's learning movement in Israel is viewed as one of the most positive developments on the modern orthodox horizon. The authenticity of the religious motivation of the learning institutions and the women learning there has not been called into question.

Whilst in the United States high school and post-high school learning of Torah and Talmud learning has expanded significantly, it is not as far-reaching as in Israel. Both because of the centrality of the synagogue in orthodox life in the United States, and because of the language barrier which limits access to higher Torah learning, American orthodox feminists focused upon women's tefillah and upon changing synagogue ritual to be more inclusive of women. In both endeavours, JOFA, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, has been instrumental in providing a network for women engaged in various communal matters, be it through learning (see for instance the JOFA initiated Shabbatot Tlamdeini) or through participation in the administrative or spiritual matters of a congregation (see for instance JOFA’s list of ‘women friendly synagogues’). JOFA also continues to be a focal point for the American and wider orthodox feminist community, not least in its role as the convener of the Conferences on Orthodoxy and Feminism, the fifth of which took place in February 2004 in New York.

In the UK, both the mainstream Orthodox United Synagogue (US) and the Masorti movement tend to be rather conservative and slow to embrace change. Not all Masorti congregations are egalitarian and one UK congregation split over the question as to whether to allow women to wear a tallit for Shabbat Shacharit. (Incidentally, there was one reform synagogue which did not allow women to be called to the Torah until four years ago. Perhaps this reluctance in all major movements is symptomatic for the British community rather than for any specific movement within it). In the case of the United Synagogue, changes for the inclusion of women in the service have hardly begun. In addition, the United Synagogue only recently ruled that women may serve as honorary officers (but currently not as presidents).

Whilst women in the US will argue for ritual inclusion, e.g. in the form of women’s prayer groups, such as in Stanmore United Synagogue, a generation or so of young women with gap-year stints at Israeli midrashot, seminaries or similar experiences have created a demand for meaningful higher Jewish learning in the British community. At present, this is mainly available in the London School of Jewish Studies (LSJS) Midrasha. In addition, the LSJS Susie Bradflied programme trains women to become educators in the wider Jewish community. To date, four classes of the Susie Bradfield programme have graduated, teaching in various communal settings. The wider availability of female limudei kodesh teachers and educators outside Jewish secondary schools is beginning to make an impact on how synagogues plan their education programmes, with women-specific events or just more female-led events.

Halachah vs. sociological status quo
When analysing women’s roles in Jewish communities, it has to be borne in mind that restrictions that are imposed on women’s participation in any given community setting are often just as halachically motivated as they are expressions of the sociological status quo in a community. One of the most frequent responses from orthodox rabbis to proposed changes in either community structure (lay leadership etc.) or ritual (e.g. mixed kriah) is “It may not be against halachah, but this is just not what we do here.” Conversely, other members of the communities (men and women) may react aversely to change lest it portray the community as not orthodox enough or even as going beyond the recognised patterns of modern orthodoxy. Bizarrely, this can lead to situations in which long-standing but not-so-frum members of a synagogue can threaten to leave the shul should women be allowed to read from the Torah, as this goes against what they perceive to be acceptable orthodox behaviour, but the same members would not see any fault in driving to synagogue on Shabbat morning.

Yoatzot Halachah - Female Halachic Consultants
I would like to explore one example of new halachic female leadership: Two years ago, the Israeli midrasha Nishmat 3 graduated the world's first Women Halachic Consultants (yoatzot halachah) on matters of taharat hamishpacha / niddah. Eight women completed the first two-year course qualifying them to serve as halachic consultants to women. The programme combines more than 1,000 hours of the classic rabbinic curriculum of Hilchot Niddah (Gemara, Rishonim, Tur - Bet Yosef, Shulchan Aruch and Nosei Kelim through contemporary responsa) with supplementary training in women's medicine (gynecology, fertility and reproductive technology, sexuality, pre-natal testing, etc) and psychology. Women availing themselves of the services of the yoatzot halachah are primarily well-educated, modern, orthodox women, but some haredi women have started to consult the yoatzot, too. In addition, some rabbis have begun referring women to the yoatzot halachah. However, it would be premature to predict the extent of reconfiguration in halachic authority which the yoatzot halachah may have set in motion.

Rocking the boat vs. transforming halachah?
It seems to me that there is a tendency from feminist quarters to question the participation of committed modern orthodox girls and women in rabbinically approved structures as collaborators in patriarchal structures.

Often, women participating in programmes to become educators, rabbinical interns etc. are expected to not only be successful in obtaining and defending their new positions but also to transform the very same structures.

By their orthodox nature, the roles and forms of spiritual expression sought and exercised by women in orthodox communities are more likely to lean on traditionalist, halachic models presented by existing communal structures. At times, they will therefore need to distance themselves from expectations raised by some quarters of the communities. For instance, in the case of the yoatzot halachah, the leader of the training programme is keen to point out that the yoatzot halachah are not replacing rabbis nor do they aspire to be rabbis. On the other hand, the yoatzot halachah are able to raise points of halachah with rabbis who are required to issue a p’sak le-halachah on matters of niddah in a way that will put new views across and highlight potential halachic innovation that would neither have occurred to the women approaching rabbis without the support of the yoatzot nor to the rabbis required to posken. The very halachic orientation of the yoatzot is likely to be one of their greatest strength as it will facilitate changes and innovation on halachic, yet progressive, terms.

It is clear that Torah study in general and yoatzot halachah in particular offer the prospect of personal religious charisma based on Torah scholarship previously denied to women.

Conclusion
It seems to me that the central focus in the quest for change in orthodox communities has to be on access to higher Torah and Talmud learning. Women must be put in a position in which they are not only able to “find the right question4” , but also to engage in the search for the right answers.

As Rabbanit Chana Henkin, the roshah midrashah of Nishmat, points out: “Women halachic consultants are an evolution, not a revolution. The phenomenon has emerged within the halachic community, and, in fact, its emergence demonstrates the vitality of halachah and the halachic community. (…) [This evolution is] made possible by the emergence within the last five years of a dazzling new resource in klal Yisrael of talmudically-learned women.5 ”

Only a critical mass of learned women willing to delve into new positions in the community – be it as educators, shul presidents, yoatzot halachah – will be able to significantly change the outlook of the orthodox community. In addition, it is vital that that “dazzling new resource of learned women” is able
Yet, the extent to which change will occur in the coming decades depends on a number of variables above and beyond the to-be-determined agenda of orthodox feminists. Not the least of these variables is the attitude of the large body of mainstream women in the orthodox community. While the numbers of orthodox feminists (including those who eschew the label) have grown, the majority of orthodox women remain skeptical or antagonistic, even though they have integrated gender equality values into all other aspects of their lives.

It may not be up to us to finish the task, but we may not refrain from accepting the challenge.

Silke Muter Goldberg is a lawyer and a graduate of the Susie Bradfield programme at the London School of Jewish Studies.

1 For the purposes of this article, the term “orthodox” only applies to centrist and modern orthodoxy; it is not the purpose of this article to extend to analysing women on the haredi end of the orthodox spectrum.

2 Shma, January 2000

3 More information on Nishmat can be found on www.nishmat.net . To see examples of how the work of the yoatzot halachah is working within the community, see www.yoatzot.org

4 Cynthia Ozick: Notes toward Finding the Right Question, in: Heschel, Susannah: On Being a Jewish Feminist, New York 1983, new edition Schocken New York 1995, pp. 120ff.

5 Quoted as per Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, 3 March 2000.