[Avodah] [Areivim] females may not run for an elected position

[Chana Luntz]

On areivim a discussion has been going on regarding women holding elected
positions and on women voting.  

Regarding women's voting, somebody pointed me in the direction of the Edah
journal, http://www.edah.org/backend/JournalArticle/1_2_debate.pdf where a
full translation has been done of both Rav Kook's letters and Rav Uzziel's
psak (although I note that one page of the translation of Rav Kook's second
letter appears to be missing from the on line version).  The section
specifically relating to women's voting in Rav Uzziel's psak can be found in
the first section (aleph), with the rest devoted to the question of whether
women can be a candidate for election.

As you can see from Rav Kook's letters, it mostly based on a sense that
having women vote is "not Jewish" (it was a big issue politically around the
world at the time), not in keeping with the spirit of the Torah, and will
undermine the Jewish home and the place of women in it as well as leading to
the mixing of men and women.

Rav Uzziel rejects all of these statements (I did start doing a translation
of portions of it, but since it has already been done in the Edah journal
mentioned above, if you prefer it in translation, see there).  Note that so
too did the other Chief Rabbi in the piece.  Rav Hertzog, in Tchuka
L'Yisrael al pi HaTorah in section 7 on Bechirut rejects all of these
arguments, going through many in detail.  For example Rav Hertzog
specifically rejected the argument that there is an issur of b'hukotehem
(fascinatingly he makes reference to a report that the Sephardi community in
London had women's suffrage more than 20 years before this controversy) or
that there is a breach of any gederim of tzniut or because of arguments of
nashim da'tan kalot, or the psychological difficulties women may have in
voting.

RSB wrote on Areivim regarding women holding communal positions:

> Also, I have always been told, that if the community agrees - it
> nullifies the problem of Serara (Devora Shofta Et Yisrael....)

This, as you can see from the second portion of Rav Uzziel's psak (sections
2-4) which is also translated in the Edah journal I referred to above, is
the second argument used by Rav Uzziel to allow women to hold elected
positions.  His first argument is that, while the Rambam brings his din of
Serarah from the Sifri, it is not mentioned in the Talmud or in the Shulchan
Aruch, even though it should have been halacha l'maase, and hence it could
be understood to be, like many halachos, one that is not in fact halacha
l'ma'ase (he also argues from Devorah that even if you say she only poskened
for people, that is still clearly a position of serarah).  (BTW, there seems
to be a cryptic reference in the Or Sameach Hilchot Melachim perek 1 halacha
5 which seems to suggest something similar, ie that this is a din only
applicable at the time of the Beis Hamikdash, which I guess would explain
why it was in the Rambam but not in the Shulchan Aruch).

Rav Uzziel's second argument is that even if you do not accept this, and
hold that the Sifri and the Rambam are halacha l'ma'aseh, then it is a
halacha that only applies when appointments are made by the Sanhedrin, and
certainly not when they are done by communal acceptance.  The latter, he
argues, is no worse than the litigants accepting a judge who is a karov or
passul.  And he goes through various of the rishonim, (Tosphos, the Rashba,
the Ran) to show that this is how they explain the situation with Devorah,
that the people accepted her upon them as a leader and judge.

Note that Rav Hertzog, while also allowing women to run for elected
positions, has a slightly different position.  In Tchuka L'Yisrael al pi
HaTorah p97 he holds that the din of serarah described by the Rambam and the
Sifri refers only to appointments which are domeh l'melech (given that that
is the source from which the drasha is derived).  What he understands by
this is that it only applies to communal appointments which are life long,
and which are open to being inherited by the sons of the appointee, just as
is the situation with a king.  Hence elected positions, which are only for a
set term, do not fall within this category and thus women can be candidates
for and take elected communal positions so long as they are for a fixed
term.

> Shoshana L. Boublil

Regards

Chana