applauds the Orthodox Union\u2019s [OU] decision to ban women clergy from serving member congregations<\/a>.\u00a0 After all, R.Student claims, \u201cthe leading Torah scholars of the day agree that this development is unprecedented and contrary to Torah tradition.\u201d\u00a0 While R. Student is learned, pious, sincere, and fiercely loyal to American Orthodoxy\u2019s institutions, his defense of \u201cTradition\u201d is misplaced.<\/p>\nJewish law is determined by legislated laws, not by committee vote.\u00a0 In order to argue that an act is Halakhically<\/em> forbidden, that act must be forbidden by legal rule.\u00a0 However, some within Orthodoxy invoke \u201cTradition\u201d as if this term refers to a specific legal rule, without defining its parameters, to be invoked when all other claims fail.\u00a0 In place of the power of persuasion, the OU now threatens its members with the persuasion of its power.<\/p>\nOn one hand, the OU has every right to set standards for membership for its community.\u00a0 It does not have the right to claim that its policies oblige, or define correct doctrine for all Orthodox Jews.\u00a0 What the OU did not do, and is by Jewish law required to do, was to consult with Rabbis Shlomo Riskin, Yoel bin Nun, Daniel Sperber, and Hertzl Hefter, all of whom permit the ordination of Orthodox female clergy.\u00a0 Women\u2019s ordination advocates argue that there is no insurmountable Halakhic<\/em> impediment to women\u2019s ordination; detractors declare that the change in usage violates \u201cTradition,\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 here referring to the fact that woman have not been ordained as Orthodox rabbis in generations past.\u00a0 The Mishnah b\u2019Eduyyot <\/em>2:2 disallows the argument \u201cwe never saw the act being done, so the act, in our present may not be done.\u201d\u00a0 Others, uncomfortable with the Oral Torah\u2019s leniency, argue that folk religion\u2019s standards take social inertia, communal expectations, and political opposition into account.\u00a0 Collegiality<\/em> requires that civil discourse take place with reasoned demonstrations, not with political declarations or punitive threats.\u00a0 Jewish law does not outlaw arguable, principled dissent.<\/p>\nThe \u201cTradition\u201d that is Judaism\u2019s Oral Law ended with the Academy of Ravina and Rav Ashi, the last rabbinic academy\u00a0 with the right to legislate Oral Torah law for all Israel [Baba Metsi\u2019a 86a].\u00a0\u00a0 Maimonides maintains that a ruling is valid as long as its implementation does not violate any Oral legislated norm up to and including Rav Ashi\u2019s academy.\u00a0 In the culture of the Orthodox street, it is the Judaism of the holy community, not the religion of the holy books that determines propriety. If \u201cTradition\u201d is what \u201cthe leading Torah scholars say,\u201d then Rabbi Sperber\u2019s voice should have been addressed. What is presented as a benchmark of rabbinic competence is no more than a staking of political turf.\u00a0 If Judaism mandated distinct gender roles, husband and wife would not have the Halakhic <\/em>right to negotiate marital responsibilities.\u00a0\u00a0 An Orthodox Judaism that instructs its women to praise God \u201cWho has made me according to His will,\u201d a blessing unattested in or authorized by the Oral Law, will reconstruct Tradition in unacceptable, untraditional ways.\u00a0 Jewish Law does not recognize an undefined \u201cTradition\u201d that may be intuitively invoked by a rabbinic elite in order to outlaw innovations which by statute are not forbidden.\u00a0\u00a0 Although Jewish law requires<\/em> the conscription of men and women in defensive wars [bSota 44b], institutional Orthodoxy disregards this obligation.\u00a0 Before condemning proposed changes in usage<\/em>, the OU, to be worthy of its chosen name, would do well to reconsider its own attitude toward unambiguous religious law.<\/em>\u00a0 Only when institutional Orthodoxy submits to Torah law consistently rather than selectively will its moral authority and religious legitimacy be respected.<\/p>\nRabbi Alan J. Yuter<\/p>\n
Rabbi Emeritus, B\u2019nai Israel of Baltimore<\/p>\n
Lecturer, CJCUC, Ohr Torah Stone and Torat Reva, Jerusalem<\/p>\n\n
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The Mishnah b\u2019Eduyyot 2:2 disallows the argument \u201cwe never saw the act being done, so the act, in our present may not be done.\u201d\u00a0 Others, uncomfortable with the Oral Torah\u2019s leniency, argue that folk religion\u2019s standards take social inertia, communal expectations, and political opposition into account.\u00a0 Collegiality requires that civil discourse take place with reasoned demonstrations, not with political declarations or punitive threats.\u00a0 Jewish law does not outlaw arguable, principled dissent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":1362,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,82,78,76],"tags":[],"coauthors":[86],"class_list":["post-1497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-denominations","category-halakhah","category-modern-judaism","category-womens-forum"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1497"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1499,"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497\/revisions\/1499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1497"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}