Custom Drives Jewish Law on Women

Notes

Reprinted from Conservative Judaism , Spring 1997, vol. 49.3. Copyright by The Rabbinical Assembly , 1997. Reprinted by permission of the Rabbinical Assembly

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deuteronomy 24:1-4; M. Yevamot 14:1; B. Yevamot 1 12b; B. Gittin 49b; Yad, Hil. Gittin 1:1-2; Shulhan Arukh, Even Haezer, 120:1; Be’er Ha-golah, there and 134:1-3.

deuteronomy 31:12

Numbers 5:6; Mek 1, Nezikin, Ch. 6 on Exodus 21:18; M. B. K. 8:4; Yad, Hil. Nezikin, 4:21; Shulhan Arukh, Hoshen Mishpat, 424:9.

deuteronomy 17:15; Sifrei Deuteronomy, par. 157(Ed. Louis Finkelstein ) New York , 1939, 208); B. Berakhot 49a.; Yad, Hil. Melakhim 1:5

deborah: Judges 4-5; Shelomziyyon was the wife of Aristobulus I and

AlexanderYanai, upon whose death she alone ruled the Hasmonean king­dom during the years 76-67 B. C. E. See“Salome Alexandra, ” Encyclopedia Judaica 14:691-3

B. Megillah 232; Yad Hil. Tefilah 12:17; Tur, Shulhan Arukh Orah, Hayim 282:3) that follow that version of the baraita. Note that Megillah 3:5 does not men­tion the honor of the community but rather says two separate, and appar­ently, contradictory things:(1)“Anyone may ascend for the seven honors, even a minor, even a woman;(2) One may not appoint(literally, bring) a woman to read in public.” Maimonides , as is his style, tries to iron out the inconsistency; he says:“A woman may not read in public because of the honor of the community. A minor who can read and knows to Whom prayer is addressed may ascend.” Alfas(1013-1103) the Tur(Jacob ben Asher, died before 1340), and the Shulhan Arukh(Joseph Karo , 1488-1575), however, retain the inconsistency in the original sources. Isserles , following the Ran and Rivash , says“They may be counted among the seven, but all of them may not be women or minors.”

Even Rabbi Aaaron Blumenfeld, who in 1955 wrote a responsum to permit women to be called to the Torah , admits that“there is no recorded instance of a woman called to the Torah either in the Talmud or in the Gaonic litera­ture. However, there is a medieval decision that seems(my italics) to be prac­tical halachah.” He then cites a responsum of Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg (1220-1293), who says this:“In a city whose men are all Kohanim and there is not even one Israelite among them, it seems(my italics) to me that one Kohen takes the first two aliyot and then women are to be called, for“All

may ascend This is hardly, though, a clear indication of an actual case or

of accepted practice. Rabbi Meir ’s very words indicate that he is thinking

through a logical conundrum in the law rather than recording what his community actually did. Aaron Blumenthal,“An Aliyah for Women,” Pro ceedings of the Rabbinical Assembly , 55:168-181; reprinted in Seymour Siegel,

ed. Conservative Judaism and Jewish Law, New York , 1977, 266-280; the cita­

tion is on 275 M. Kiddushin 1:7, B.Kiddushin 33b-36a; Rachel Biale interprets these texts in

the same way, indicating that the general rule that in fact characterizes t