Ordination of Women
in order to take from it a clue for Reform practice, this argument would be of no consequence even if it were valid, as it is not. If a woman is to be debarred from the rabbinate in Orthodox Juda ism because she cannot serve as a reader, then the only logical consequence would be that Reform Judaism, which has decided in favor of the woman reader, should disregard the Orthodox attitude, and admit women to the rabbinate.
[1. The reason why a Torah scroll written by a woman was considered unfit is not, as Dr. Lauterbach claims, because she could not be reader of the Torah , but quite a formal one: whosoever has not the obligation of binding(tefilin), has not the fitness of writing(a Torah scroll)(Git . 45b; Men. 42b). The above reason is given in Soferim 1.13, but there, woman is not debarred from writing a Torah scroll.
[11. In Moed Katan 18a, it is not said that“women were not to be found in the academies and colleges where the rabbis assembled and where the students prepared themselves to be rabbis!! It is only said ishah bei midrasha lo shehiha,“A woman is not often to be found in bet hamidrash. The academies and colleges of those days were not institutions for training rabbis, but institutions of learning, most of whose students were pursuing other vocations. A woman in those days was supposed to keep away from all public places, such as courts and the like, and even, as much as possible, from the streets: kol kevodah bat melekh penimah.
IV. As to the direct question of the legal situation, I have discussed that matter in the opinion I have submitted to the faculty of the Hebrew Union College . I want to add the following remarks: 1. The statement of Yerushalmi San. 21c and Shev. 35b that a woman cannot serve(occasionally) as judge, is not from a baraita, as Dr. Lauerbach claims, but occurs in a discussion Amorain. 2. Lamadnu does not mean“we have rm for an inference on the virtue of se, gezera sheva. 3. Nowhere in tal
between two learned, but is a technical te a hermeneutical rule; in this ca mudic but always by tanya literature is a baraita introduced by tanei, lamadnu, and the like. 4. The emphasis on“men” in the
quotation from Maimonides is not justified.: V. As to the practical question of the advisability to ordain
I do not believe that the
Orthodox will have any additional reason to obj