I went out to dinner the other night with two good friends. They are both Jewish and very interested in things Jewish, although they are not observant. Jay was very anxious to talk to me. He has been taking a religion class at Princeton and the professor just spent a session on Orthodox Judaism. Jay’s first question to me: How do I, as a woman, stay faithful to a tradition that doesn’t care about me? He learned that in 1985 a woman started a campaign for more women’s participation in Judaism and that she had written a book (he could not recall the name of the woman and when I suggested Blu Greenberg he was so excited that I had guessed right). Furthermore, said his professor, not one thing had changed in all these years.
It is not often I find myself defending the state of Orthodox Jewish women, but that night I did. I told him to go back to Princeton and tell his professor that she is wrong and that there has been a lot of movement and enormous change of late. I intend to send him this issue of the JOFA Journal to prove my point.
Significant change always happens slowly. The halakhic process, a religious and ethical system of legal reasoning, moves more slowly. But what matters is not the time frame, but the fact that there has been change. I have gone to many weddings in the last few months. None of them resemble mine of the 1960’s. At one wedding the young couple, instead of reading the ketubbah, made a siyyum of a tractate of Talmud. And, by the way, at the end, the bride recited the kaddish (a role usually taken by a man). I have also been to weddings where a significant number of women participated in the sheva brachot at the wedding meal. Just this past Sunday at my nephew’s wedding (where an Orthodox rabbi officiated), seven women went up with the men and recited the sheva brachot in English under the chuppah. Years ago, I went to a wedding where the bride wanted a female friend to read the ketubbah. The rabbis participating in the ceremony would not have it. Today, many weddings I attend have a woman reading the ketubbah.
Yes, things are definitely changing. There are women Talmud teachers teaching boys, and yo’atzot (halakhic decisors) who have graduated the Nishmat program and are able to answer questions about laws relating to niddah. There are to’anot who accompany women into the courtroom to give them a fair hearing in cases involving divorce. There are two programs in Israel that parallel the men’s hesder experience, combining Torah study and full army service. One is the Hadas program in Midreshet Lindenbaum and the other is the Ma’ayan program at the Midrasha in Ein Hanatziv.
Our tradition has often been accused of squandering the gifts of its women. But this too is changing. We are living in very exciting times. This Journal highlights many of the innovations currently taking place. The Orthodox Jewish world is opening up to women—and there are so many intelligent, learned women ready to fill these new roles. Yes, “the times they are a changin.”