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‘Social Engineers’

Times of Israel blogger Jennifer Geretz has written a tough essay about the ‘crazy radicals’ ruining Orthodox Judaism

by
Jonathan Zalman
November 04, 2015
(Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images)Times of Israel
An Jewish woman holds up a copy of the Torah in Mumbai, India, November 29, 2008. (Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images)(Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images)Times of Israel
(Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images)Times of Israel
An Jewish woman holds up a copy of the Torah in Mumbai, India, November 29, 2008. (Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images)(Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images)Times of Israel

On Monday, the Rabbinical Council of America published a policy confirming a stance: The organization—in its “sacred and joyful duty the practice and transmission of Judaism in all of its extraordinary, multifaceted depth, and richness”—refuses to “accept either the ordination of women or the recognition of women as members of the Orthodox rabbinate, regardless of the title.” Times of Israel blogger Jennifer Geretz has some choice words about this decision:

There is a particular group of crazy radicals, who are making chiddushim—dangerous, new innovations—based on their own opinions of social engineering. These people are disregarding centuries of Jewish traditions, and are changing—and destroying—the traditional role of the rabbi and eroding the very face of the Jewish rabbinate. I speak, of course, of the individuals who have signed public declarations against ordaining Jewish women as rabbinic professionals.



There are varying traditions of how a “rabbi” has been defined throughout Jewish history. Rabbis have been advisors, pastoral counselors, shochetim, prayer leaders, and halachic decisors. One of the unifying factors for serving as a “rav” in any context has been honoring the millennia­strong tradition of not making halachic psak for individuals or communities without first being asked to do so.



In Pirkei Avot, we learn “asei l’cha rav, k’nei l’cha chaver”—make for yourself a rabbi, acquire for yourself a friend.” This is couched in the reflexive—you make for yourself a rabbi. You find someone whom you trust, with whom you can engage spiritually and personally, to come to with your questions. Jewish jurisprudence has preserved a tradition down through the millennia of respecting multiple attitudes, multiple opinions, even multiple—and opposing—psaks, binding rabbinic decisions, about all sorts of critical issues. So a relationship with an individual, trusted rabbi to help make halachic decisions is extremely important for observant Jews.



To have a group of rabbis make public declarations undermining other rabbis is ridiculous. It’s radical. It’s inappropriate. It serves no purpose other than sowing discord and disunity. It undermines the ability of each individual person and community to decide in which authorities to impose their trust. It violates some of our most cherished traditions. It is a dangerous, new innovation that seeks to transform thousands of years of careful religious jurisprudence and respect for other opinions into a mindless, group­think cult. These public proclamations devalue Judaism. They make mass conformity the goal of religious observance. They disrespect our ancient tradition of psak being a careful, respectful interaction between Jewish individuals and communities and those we choose to render these decisions.

Read the rest of Geretz’s article here.

Related: Yes to Zionism, no to Feminism? [from The Times of Israel]

Jonathan Zalman is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn.