[Avodah] Kosher Turkey and Women Rabbis and Mesorah

[Ben Waxman via Avodah]

http://attemptsatjewishthought.com/home/if-you-eat-kosher-turkey-you-probably-support-female-orthodox-clergy

But there’s a more telling, and Halakhically rich, irony at play, that 
isn’t about Jews setting themselves around a Thanksgiving table, but 
what they choose to set on it: a turkey. Because in the “its new and 
that’s a problem” theory of Jewish values, turkeys aren’t kosher.

Yet by R. Kluger’s time, and certainly in our own, the majority of 
Orthodox Jews eat turkey.  How? Because Rabbinic leadership is entirely 
capable of resolving a seeming gap between tradition and innovation. 
Numerous Teshuvos were issued that acknowledged the newness of the 
turkey, nodded at the Rema’s need for a Mesorah, and found a way to 
resolve the two.

The strategies taken in these Teshuvos are relevant to today’s RCA 
controversy over Mesorah.  Not because they offer one-sided support for 
ordaining female clergy (they do not) but because these Teshuvos remind 
us that reference to Mesorah ought inspire a conversation, not a 
proclamation. Let us turn to the Teshuvos.
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I personally like the approach of the Netziv (given in the article): Go 
slow, don't jump at every innovation. But at a certain point, if there 
is no clear halachic prohibition, one has to deal with a reality created 
by Am Yisrael's actual practice.

Ben

PS: I am not attempting to claim that there's no actual prohibition 
involved here. That question is above my pay grade.