Why Can’t Women be Rabbis?

Parashat Pinchas
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Female Rabbis in Our Times

I have several female friends who are ‘ordained’ rabbis. They are leaders of congregations, officiate at weddings and burials, teach, preach, council in short function just as male rabbis do. One of them invited me as a guest speaker to her congregation many years ago. I still vividly recall her rainbow colored, knitted kippah with the word Shechina embroidered in bold blue! With or without the kippah, there are also female rabbis now in Orthodox Judaism. Since Rabbi Avi Weiss privately ordained Rabba Sara Hurwitz in 2009 and declared her the first female Orthodox clergywoman – then founded a school, Yeshivat Maharat, to train more – his school has ordained 21 women. A handful of other women have been ordained privately, before and after. Orthodox women lead synagogues now in New York and in Massachusetts. 29-year old Hadas Fruchter opened South Philadelphia Shtiebel with a grant from a new nonprofit established to seed female-friendly Orthodox synagogues, a sign of the rapidly growing institutional support for women in Orthodox leadership. As an orthodox woman, she gives her sermon from the women’s side of the gender-divided sanctuary. My friend Melinda (Mindy) Ribner who also considers herself orthodox, received a public ‘semicha’ from Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach to do her unique work. I’ve had students who were aspiring to become Rabbis, and countless women ask me, “Why can’t women be Rabbis according to the Torah?” Well, the answer depends on how you define the title, ‘Rabbi?’

What does it Mean to be a Rabbi?

If it is the title ‘Rabbi’ certain women seek, then they are surely on the wrong track, as the Torah strongly discourages both men and women from running after credit, title and honor. “If one seeks his own כָּבוֹד/kavod –‘honor,’ his ‘kavod’ runs away from him” (BT, Iruvin 13b). Seeking any kind of leadership is even shunned in the Torah. Moshe, our Rabbi – Israel’s greatest leader – tried by all means to flee the mantle of leadership. The greatest leaders and founders of the Mishna likewise dissuade us from seeking rabbinic leadership and authority:

משנה מסכת אבות פרק א משנה י

שְׁמַעְיָה וְאַבְטַלְיוֹן קִבְּלוּ מֵהֶם. שְׁמַעְיָה אוֹמֵר, אֱהוֹב אֶת הַמְּלָאכָה, וּשְׂנָא אֶת הָרַבָּנוּת, וְאַל תִּתְוַדַּע לָרָשׁוּת:

Shemaiah and Avtalion received [the oral tradition] from them. Shemaiah used to say: love work, loath becoming rabbis over others, and do not attempt to draw near to the ruling authority (Pirkei Avot 1:10).

Rather than actively seeking leadership, the greatest leaders in the Torah received leadership by being chosen by others. Hashem selected Moshe and persuaded him to lead the Jewish people out of Egypt and teach them Torah. As Moshe was the first official leader and Rabbi of the Jewish people, we can learn from his role, the definition of what it means to be a rabbi. Moshe’s greatest feat as a rabbi was receiving the Torah from G-d and explaining it with all its details to the Jewish people. Women, indeed, excel as teachers, counselors, spiritual guides, and more… not only of children, so what’s the orthodox problem with female Rabbis? In Parashat Pinchas, we learn about the daughters of Tzelafchad, who were praised for being wise, learned and righteous (Babylonian Talmud, Baba Batra 119b). They were alive when it became time to choose a new leader after Moshe. Why, then, did Hashem choose Yehoshua?

The First Rabbi to Receive Semicha (Ordination) in the Torah

Yehoshua was the first Rabbi to be ordained in the Torah. Hashem commanded Moshe to transfer his leadership to Yehoshua by laying his hands on his head. The Hebrew word for laying [the hands] סְמִיכָה/semicha is to this day used to refer to rabbinic ordination.

ספר במדבר פרק כז פסוק כב …וַיַּעַשׂ משֶׁה כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה הָשֵׁם אֹתוֹ וַיִּקַּח אֶת יְהוֹשֻׁעַ וַיַּעֲמִדֵהוּ לִפְנֵי אֶלְעָזָר הַכֹּהֵן וְלִפְנֵי כָּל הָעֵדָה :(כג) וַיִּסְמֹךְ אֶת יָדָיו עָלָיו וַיְצַוֵּהוּ כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר הָשֵׁם בְּיַד משֶׁה:

…Moshe did as G-d commanded him, and he took Yehoshua and caused him to stand before Elazar the Kohen and before the entire congregation. And he placed his hands upon him, and he charged him, according to that which G-d said to Moshe” (Bamidbar 27:18-23).

“…and you shall lay your hand upon him.” Provide him with an announcer so that he can expound [halachic discourses] during your lifetime, so that all the congregation of the children of Israel will take heed: [meaning] that they will behave toward him with reverence and awe, just as they behaved toward you (Sifrei Pinchas 23; Rashi, Bamidbar 27:20). With all due respect to Jewish feminists and female Torah leadership – which I consider myself part of – who is more likely to be awe inspiring and affect reverence a male or a female rabbi? Rashi answers this question in his commentary on the verse: “Every man shall fear his mother and father” (Vayikra 19:3). “Here, Scripture mentions the mother before the father, because it is clear before Him that a child fears his father more than his mother [and therefore, by mentioning the mother first, Scripture emphasizes the duty of fearing her also” (Rashi, ibid.). Although we are a generation that gravitates towards love rather than awe, without reverence it is impossible to keep the congregation in check as it states,

משנה מסכת אבות פרק ג משנה ב

רַבִּי חֲנִינָא סְגַן הַכֹּהֲנִים אוֹמֵר, הֱוֵי מִתְפַּלֵּל בִּשְׁלוֹמָהּ שֶׁל מַלְכוּת, שֶׁאִלְמָלֵא מוֹרָאָהּ, אִישׁ אֶת רֵעֵהוּ חַיִּים בָּלָעוּ.

Rabbi Chanina, deputy to the kohanim, would say: Pray for the welfare of the government; for were it not for the fear of it inspires, a man would swallow his neighbor alive (Pirkei Avot 3:2).

Is a Woman Fit to Render Halachic Rulings?

In addition to being an awe-inspiring leader and teacher, the main definition of rabbi is his ability to render a pesak halacha – authoritative halachic ruling. It is the job of the rabbi to apply the halacha to the particular case presented before him. A competent rabbi must completely detach himself from any personal preconceived notions of the case, and from his affinity with one of the people involved in a dispute, in order to render his cold, objective application of the Torah law to any given situation. Women are naturally warm, caring and subjective. We need these attributes to raise our children and protect the family. Even if today, many women may be able to develop their objective halachic ruling abilities by learning and engaging in Talmudic disputes, this is not to be recommended, because this will affect their natural femininity negatively. Women are in general disqualified from giving pesak halacha, because women’s main domain and specialty is to develop personal relationships and care for other people. Therefore, women have a greater ability to identify with others and show empathy. It is, thus, a positive phenomenon that women’s subjective sense remains greater than her objectivity. We can explain וְנָשִׁים דַּעְתָּן קַלּוֹת עֲלֵיהֶן – “Women’s da’at is light upon them (Babylonian Talmud, Kidushin 80b) in the light of women’s tendency to be more subjective than objective, as דַּעַת/Da’at is the ability to see the entire picture in a complete objective way. This objectivity is required for rendering a halachic authoritative decision, which does not necessarily consider the feelings of the individuals requesting the halachic ruling. A woman’s personal connection to the person she is asked to ‘pasken’ for, may influence her legal decision to deviate from giving the true objective Torah pesak. Hashem created her this way because the role of a woman is not to organize the public, but to build the coming generations within the family (Rav Aviner, Eishet Chayil).

Wasn’t Devorah a Female Rabbi?

Devorah, the Prophetess, is a role model for female rabbis. She served as an exceptional Jewish female leader, and judged Israel for possibly 60 or at least 40 years (Shoftim 5:31; Rashi ibid. 11:26). Yet, Devorah’s judgment differed from the regular process of rendering pesak halacha since it was based on her prophecy. She judged according to the Divine command. She did not decide the p’sak halacha on her own, but received the law in prophecy (Tosfot, Niddah 50a D”H Kol). She did not apply the halacha on her own to each case that was presented before her by the people who came to her for judgment. Rather she judged according to special Divine guidance for each situation, received directly from the Shechina. Devorah’s judging Israel was Hora’at Sha’ah (an exceptional case). This is clear from the verse “She judged Israel at this time” (Shoftim 4:4). At that specific time there was no one else who could lead Israel. The entire Jewish people were weak. Even Barak, son of Avinoam, refused to lead the warfare unless Devorah would go out with him to war. She agreed since there was no other choice. There is another possible reason why Devorah was accepted as a judge in Israel, which applies also today: “The Jewish people accepted her upon themselves” (Tosfot, Baba Kama 15a). Although a woman is generally disqualified because she is not suitable for judging, if people agree to accept her to become their judge, she is permitted to judge (Sefer Hachinuch, Mitzvah 77). This principle also applies to other cases where certain people are disqualified from judging. For example, a person is not permitted to judge a relative, to whom he would not be impartial. However, if a person says, “I trust your father’s judgement,” the father may judge between them, since they are both accepting him as their litigator (Chidushei Ran, Shavuot 30a). A woman may also answer halachic questions when a given halacha is clearly known and written in books. She then gives over what she read or what is already well-known halachic knowledge. Thus, a learned woman’s Torah knowledge may be relied upon to teach well-known halachic information, but not to apply this knowledge into making legal decisions in questionable areas. Having stated all that, it is unquestionable that in our time, female Torah leadership is vital. The voice of women in the Torah is needed to bring about redemption. With so much work ahead of women in Torah leadership, in teaching Torah, in mentoring, counseling healing and bringing back our lost children into the fold, can’t we leave the Rabbinic title and halachic rulings to the qualified men?