The
Wise Daughters of Zelophehad and the Evolving Role of Jewish Women
Those of you who watch the news from
Israel- when it doesn’t involve Palestinians, Hamas and so forth- may have
heard of an incident in the town of Beth Shemesh, located just at the beginning
of the foothills of Jerusalem. It was a typical Israeli town, mostly devoted to
agriculture, but as the price of housing has increased in Jerusalem, it has
become a refuge for those seeking affordable housing. That, however, has
included a large influx of the Charedim, the ultra- Orthodox.
One of the results has been
intrusion of the highly restrictive and segregated male-female lifestyle of the
Haredi. We already have, in the Charedi world, women at the back of the bus, or
even “separate but equal buses.” The straw that broke the camel’s back for the
non-Charedi residents, even for the main-stream Orthodox, was a sign:” Women
must go to the other side of the street!”
I am hard pressed to find, in Jewish
sources, any precedent for such a draconian edict. It is not a symptom of
Orthodoxy, but a symptom of the threat this insular population feels from the
changes occurring in the status of women, even in their circles. Even in these
ultra- Orthodox, hide –bound circles, women are the ones bringing home the
kosher-bacon and being exposed to the outside world. It is a reactionary
offense as defense.
The Charedi community has also used its
political clout to take over what was originally an official Israeli Rabbinate,
for example, that was Zionist and outward looking. Thus, the Israeli Rabbinate recently
pushed the great innovative Rabbi Riskin from his position because he had the
nerve to offer classes for women in higher Rabbinic studies. As I said, it’s
offense as a form of defense.
Moses, apparently, did not have the
problems they have. In our Torah portion, it is the women, the daughters of
Zelophehad, who force Moses to accept their reasoned opinion on inheritance. Even
the Torah notes that they did not stay in the back of the bus:”And they stood
before Moses and before Eleazar the
priest and before the princes and the entire congregation.” Right up front, in the assembly, in a
traditionally male-only location. ( vs 2)
The Talmud takes the text of our Torah
portion even further:
“It was taught: The daughters of
Zelophehad were wise women, they were scholars, and they were virtuous.
They were wise, since they spoke at
an opportune moment . . . just as Moses was teaching
the laws of inheritance for a man who had died before having fathered children.
They were scholars, for they said:
'If he had a son we would not have spoken'. . . 'Even if a son of his had a
daughter, we would not have spoken'
They were virtuous, since they were
married to such men only as were worthy of them. (from Baba Batra 119a)
Moses had no problem with these
women asserting themselves.
It is clear, with all the changes in
the world, that there is no way that woman can be relegated to the back of the
bus. This change has been across the board of the Jewish world, including the main-stream
Orthodox community as well.
In my last year at the Jewish
Theological Seminary, I studied Talmud under the leading light of the movement,
Professor Saul Lieberman. In that class were two women. Now, we are going back
40 years ago, I date myself. One was Judith Hauptman, who was working on her
doctorate in Rabbinic studies and had a great mastery of Jewish law, but who
could never, as far as her Talmud professor, the official Rabbi of the
Seminary, Saul Lieberman could determine, be ordained as a Rabbi, for all her
knowledge. She since when on to become a Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics and
only many years later was ordained as Rabbi .
The other woman student came to
class for only a few sessions, and as far as we knew, was merely sitting in out
of curiosity. Later on, I was informed that, unknown to the professor, she was at
the time studying privately with Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, a maverick Orthodox
Rabbi, who had plans to make her the first Orthodox woman Rabbi. As far as I
know, it fell through, perhaps because, in the end, Rabbi Greenberg felt at the
time that there was too great an opposition in his circles to such an act.
That was also the time that the idea
of counting women for a minyan began to make headway.
One day in 1973, the New York
Times placed on its front page the news that the Rabbinical Assembly law
committee voted by a majority ruling to permit women to be counted at a minyan.
Imagine, it made front page news! Of course, it took a long time after that for
it be widely accepted; the chapel
service here began counting women for the minyan only a few years ago.
In that same year, the Reform movement Hebrew
Union College ordained its first woman Rabbi, and since then the new Reconstructionist
Rabbinical College in Philadelphia began to ordain women as well. It took the Conservative movement yet another
10 years to get around to it. It was not an easy path and led to serious fracturing
of the movement.
As I said, the main-stream Orthdoox
community is not immune to was is going on. It is the path that is being taken,
even today, in some Orthodox circles, with the ordination of women as “Maharat,” a Hebrew
acronym for Manhiga Hilkhatit Rukhanit Toranit, or “Leader of
Jewish Law, Spirituality, and Torah”( in the Hebrew feminine). They are also
granted an ordination of
“
Toreh- Toreh”, the feminine form for the formal ordination of “ Yoreh
-Yoreh”, the authority to made halakhic decisions. B’nai David Judea in Los
Angeles has been among the first Orthodox congregations to bring on a candidate
for “ Maharat” ordination to serve as intern
to the senior rabbi.
This dramatic shift in the position
of women in modern Jewish life, not just in Rabbinics, but in all aspects of
life, across the board, is part of the reason that elements in the Charedi
community literally want to return women to the back of the bus.
Yet there is historic precedent for this
as well.
In truth, there have always been
women who have functioned as authorities of Jewish law, and who had the right,
by virtue of their great knowledge and understanding, to tell the judges and
Rabbis of their day what the law is to be. The prophetess Huldah instructed the
king and priest about the authenticity of a Torah document that had been found,
neglected, in the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. The classic example of the early
Rabbinic period was Beruriah, the wife
of Rabbi Meir, the outstanding Rabbi of his day, who formulated laws for him
and his colleagues. In every generation there were women who stood above the
cloud of ignorance in which the average Jewish woman was kept and gained
recognition from the male world for their erudition.
Even in more recent times, among the
Chasidim, there have
been
women who have served as leaders of Chasidic communities-- Sarah the daughter
of R. Joshua Heschel Teomim, Malkele of Trisk and the best known, Hannah Rachel . Der
Ludomirer Moyd, the Maiden of Ludomir, over a century and a half ago , wore
tallit and tefilin, recited kaddish after her father and preached to her
followers.
Yes, there are specific laws that
place a limit on a woman’s position.
Yet the grounds for these laws were
based on social norms of the day, social norms that ceased to exist already for
a century and more. Exceptions were made, way back when, even while these norms
stood. Tempus mutandis, times change, and Halakhah has always recognized the
need to deal with the times.
Clearly, today, we are dealing, not
just with issues of women as Rabbis, but with issues of gender and marital relations
as well
The Conservative movement is just
that:conservative with a small “c”. Conservative does not mean to stop the
clock. It means to conserve the best and most valuable and to move slowly in
order to do so. It does not mean to stop the clock.
Change is not an exception to
Judaism; the main tradition we have is that of changing. That is why one of the
great classics of the movement is titled Tradition and Change. Note the
word” and”, not “or”. Two opposites—but the brilliance of Jewish thought has
always been to hold on to two opposites, recognize that fact, and reconcile the
opposites.
I go back to our wise women, the
daughters of Zelophehad. This is a comment from the Sifra, one of the
foundation works of Jewish law 1900 years ago. It examines our account of daughters
of Zelophehad, a man who had no male heirs. The daughters realized that they
would lose their share and came to Moses for a solution, which he received
directly from God. The daughters comment, "The compassion of man extends
to men more than to women; not so is the compassion of God; His compassion
extends equally to men and women, as it is written, "The Lord is good to
all, and his mercies are over all his works.”
( Ps 145).
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