[Avodah] Women: Can women be in positions of prominence/authority?

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 02:40:58PM -0500, jew at when.com wrote:
: Of course, there is a difference regarding whether a woman is merely
: discouraged from being put in such a position and whether they are
: halachically prohibited from doing so. I have heard that a ger is
: technically prohibited from such positions of serara (dominance), while
: some of them have nevertheless became chief Rabbis.

Shemaya veAvtalyon were both geirim. Yet, as one of the zugos, they
were in a leadership position. The question is how they could serve
in Sanhedrin. One suggestion is that even though they ran the Sanhedrin
as nasi and av beis din, neither actually voted and counted toward the
70. I don't know what they would have done had they needed a tie-breaker
vote. Maybe they had 71 voting members, in addition to Shemaya veAvtalyon.

Dayanus goes beyond serara, as it requires producing rulings that aren't
dismissed by people's prejudice against the dayan. R' Aqiva being a BT
got him passed over when they deposed Rabban Gamliel, and I think this
is a formalization of the same rule. And in particular, women can't be
dayanos anyway (CM 7:4), nor eidos... I'm just mentioning it because
you spoke of geirim who became chief rabbis.


The question of whether women assuming positions of serarah in genral is
discussed at length by the Rambam (very much not), RMF (who disallowed
women as shul president), and numerous others.

(RYBS's objection to women as shul president is that he didn't feel that
a woman's place was making announcements in shul. Simply that it defies
the intentional "men's space" feeling that a shul is supposed to have.
Not about serarah in general, and therefore he allowed women to assume
other positions on a shul board..)

OTOH, the Raavad is choleiq with the Rambam, and says that while a woman
can't be annointed queen, it is possible for halakhah to produce a queen
via inheritance.

There is also the question of forms of leadership whose job includes
making judgments on inditviduals. See the Rama CM 37:22, where he includes
this in the ban of having a dayenet.

RAYK held it was assur for women to vote. (Maamarei haRe'ayah pp
189-194). He formally declared in print:
    Resolved: that the item concerning the participation of women in
    the elections, as adopted by the provisional committee, is contrary
    to Mosaic law and Jewish law and contrary to the national spirit in
    general, and until this innovation is abolished, no eligible Jewish
    man shall participate in the constituent assembly
His arguments do not involve the fact that the gov't was Jewish in
particular. One quote, "Even if those people were correct who maintain
that the idea of what is termed equal rights for women and their
participation in the public sphere according to modern ideas is proper
and acceptable, nevertheless it is in accordance with our spirit, for it
is ugly and unacceptable."

Rumor has it that Nechama Lebowitz (who would have objected to my use of
the list's usual titling all women "Rebbetzin") followed this pesaq.

Then there's the question of Devorah. Precedent, a conditional precedent
-- it was okay because the masses voluntarily accepted her leadership
(a shofeit only leads the subset of the nation who follow them), an
"eis laasos Lashem"...?

Search the list archives.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             In the days of our sages, man didn't sin unless
micha at aishdas.org        he was overcome with a spirit of foolishness.
http://www.aishdas.org   Today, we don't do a mitzvah unless we receive
Fax: (270) 514-1507      a spirit of purity.      - Rav Yisrael Salanter