[Avodah] woman reading a ketuba

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Jan 01, 2009 at 01:37:16PM -0800, Harry Maryles wrote:
: I agree. But why should this definition of modesty apply any less to
: aman that to a woman? Shouldn't we apply Tzne Halaches be the both?

RHS, when discussing tzeni'us, points to the halkhah that a man who is
offered to be sha"tz should initially decline. Standing as Chazan is a
breach of tzeni'us. Nu, someone has to do it for the minyan to function,
so eventually someone better agree. But it's a sacrifice for the sake
of the tzibbur.

One instance can be found at "Can Women Be Rabbis?",
<http://www.torahweb.org/torah/2004/parsha/rsch_dvorim2.html>:
> Sometimes the halacha requires of us to act in a public fashion
> (b'farhesia), as for example to have tfilah b'tzibur, krias haTorah
> b'tzibur, etc. On these occasions the halacha distinguishes between
> men and women. We only require and demand of the men that they
> compromise on their tznius and observe certain mitzvos in a farhesia
> (public) fashion. We do not require this of women. They may maintain
> their middas hahistatrus, just as Hashem (most of the time) is a Kel
> Mistater (Yeshaya 45:15). Of course, if there are no men in the shul
> who are able to lein and get the aliyos, we will have no choice but to
> call upon a woman, and require of her to compromise on her privacy and
> lein, to enable the minyan to fulfill their obligation of krias
> haTorah. If there is a shul where a woman gets an aliyah, this is an
> indication that there was no man who was able to lein, and this is an
> embarrassment to that minyan. This is what the rabbis meant when they
> said that a woman should not lein - for this would constitute an
> embarrassment to the minyan.(Megillah 23a.)

I would think that similarly we should say, "Nebich, someone is forced
to lay aside their own tzeni'us so that the ceremony has a break. Why
should I force that upon a woman."

The flaw is that if we really felt this line of reasoning, we wouldn't
give the job out as a kibud. Mesadeir qedushin has to be qualified. The
berakhos should be from people whose berakhos are more likely to
matter. So giving these out are compliments, and thus kibudim.
But reading the kesuvah?

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A pious Jew is not one who worries about his fellow
micha at aishdas.org        man's soul and his own stomach; a pious Jew worries
http://www.aishdas.org   about his own soul and his fellow man's stomach.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                       - Rabbi Israel Salanter