[Avodah] Women's aliyot to Torah

[Zev Sero]

Michael Makovi wrote:
> Was: [Avodah] Ramp On!, about handicapped kohanim not being able to do
> avodah, and why.
> 
> Regarding someone's wheelchair-bound husband not being given aliyot to
> the Torah on the basis that it is not proper kavod:
>> Come to think of it, I also never get an aliyah or get asked to lein... In
>> both cases, kavod hatzibur, or kavod haTorah, requires "discrimination."

> But a friend of mine said (I don't know his source) that the primary
> reason is simply that women aren't chayav to hear the Torah, and so
> they cannot fulfill the reading for men. Kavod and tzniut are minor
> factors according to him. Does anyone know the sources for this topic?

It's an explicit braita (Megilah 23a) that a woman *can* read the Torah
and count as one of the 7 olim for Shabbat, "but the chachamim said
that a woman should not read the Torah mipnei kevod hatzibur".  This
language is preserved through the whole chain of halacha - at no point
does a later summariser simply say "a woman may not be called up",
never mind the reason; instead, at each step the language is that she
*can* be called up, but the chachamim said that she shouldn't be for
this reason.   Exactly what this reason means is the subject of much
debate, and how one understands it will dictate whether one thinks it
can be waived in some circumstances; but it's clear that without this
reason women could and would get aliyot in most O shuls. 

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas