202 lected Reform Responsa

pare Azulai in Birkei Yosef to Hoshen Mishpat V11.12); and as a matter of fact, there have always been learned women in Israel . These women scholars were respected for their learning in the same manner as learned men were respected(see Sefer Hasidim, 978, and compare also Sedei Hemed 1, letter Kaf, no. 99), and some of these women scholars would occasionally even give lectures in rabbinics: but they have never been admitted to the rabbinate, since all the rabbinic authorities agree, at least implicitly, that women cannot hold the office of a rabbi or of a sheliah tzibur and cannot perform any of the official functions requiring the author­ity of a rabbi.

This is the attitude of traditional Judaism toward the ques­tion of women rabbis, a view strictly adhered to by all Jewry all over the world throughout all generations, even unto this day.

Now we come to the second part of our question; that is, shall we adhere to this tradition, or shall we separate ourselves from catholic Israel and introduce a radical innovation which would necessarily create a distinction between the title rabbi as held by a Reform rabbi and the title rabbi in general? I believe that hith­erto no distinction could rightly be drawn between he ordination of our modern rabbis and the ordination of all the rabbis of pre­ceding generations. We are still carrying on the activity of the rabbis of old who traced their authority through a chain of tradi­tion to Moses and the elders associated with him, even though in many points we interpret our Judaism in a manner quite differ­ent from theirs. We are justified in considering ourselves the lat­est link in that long chain of authoritative teachers who carry on their activity of teaching, preserving, and developing Judaism . For our time we have the same standing as they had(comp. R.H. 25a). The ordination which we give to our disciples carries with it, for our time and generation, the same authority which marked the ordination given by Judah Hanasi to Abba Areka or the ordi­nation given by any teacher in Israel to his disciples throughout all the history of Judaism .

We should therefore not jeopardize the hitherto indisputable authoritative character of our ordination. We should not make

our ordination entirely different in character from the traditional

ordination, and hereby give the larger group of Jewry that fol­lows traditional Judaism a good reason to question our authority