Ordination of Women: 199
has endowed woman with a finer appreciation and a better understanding than man(Nidah 45b);“Sarah was superior to Abraham in prophecy(Tanhuma , Exodus, beginning);“It was due to the pious women of that generation that the Israelites were redeemed from Egypt ”(Sota); and“The women were the first ones to receive and accept the Torah ”(Tanhuma ,(ed. Buber ), Metzora, 18, p. 27a); and“They refused to participate in the making of the golden calf.” These and many other sayings could be cited from Rabbinic literature in praise of woman, her equality to man and, in some respects, superiority to him. So we may safely conclude that their excluding of women from the rabbinate does not at all imply deprecation on their part of woman's worth.
But with all their appreciation of woman's fine talents and noble qualities, the Rabbis of old have also recognized that man and woman have each been assigned by the Torah certain spheres of activity, involving special duties. The main sphere of woman I activity and her duties centered in the house. Since she has her own duties to perform, and since especially in her position as wife and mother she would often be prevented from carrying on many of the regular activities imposed upon man, the law frees her from many religious obligations incumbent upon men, and especially exempts her from such positive duties the performance of which must take place at certain fixed times, like reciting the“shema” or at prescribed seasons, like Sukkot (M. Kiddushin 1.7):“Vekhol mitzvot aseh shehazeman geramah, anashim chayavim venashim peturot.”
This fact, that she was exempt from certain obligations and religious duties, necessarily excluded her from the privilege of acting as the religious leader or representative of the congregation(sheliah tzibur). She could not represent the congregation in the performing of certain religious functions, since, according to the rabbinic principle, one who is not personally obliged to perform a certain duty, cannot perform that duty on behalf of others and certainly cannot represent the congregation in the performance of such duties:“kol she-eino mechuyav badavar eino motzi et harabim yedei hovatan.”(R.H. 111.8; Berakhot 20b)
On the same principle, she was expressly disqualified from writing Torah scrolls. Since she could not perform for the congregation the duty of reading from the Torah , the text prepared by her