Patrilineal Descent in a Pluralistic Community

The group, to be known as Beit Hillel, already has 110 rabbis signed up, along with 30 women who are considered Torah scholars. It was founded by congregational rabbis in the central region, who say they represent the silent majority of the national-religious population that is frustrated and alarmed by creeping extremism and the deterioration of women’s status in the sector. Beit Hillel is granting participating women equal voting rights and influence in the organization.

“We cannot remain silent anymore; we have to state our position clearly,” said Oshra Koren, the director of the Raanana branch of Matan, an institute of advanced Torah study for women based in Jerusalem.

She and a group of 10 rabbis who lead Modern Orthodox congregations formulated the plan after receiving persistent calls from congregants to do something.

“The need for such an organization has been evident for some time,” Koren said. “But the frustration grew following the recent events involving the exclusion of women.

“The big push came when women who know my views urged me to express them publicly,” she said. “People are thirsty for guidance from our leadership on all public issues and news events, and they are frustrated that there has been no clear, balanced and nuanced statement on these questions, as if we are distancing ourselves from religious-Zionist values.”

Rabbi Chaim Navon addressed the issue of a split within religious zionism.

While Beit Hillel prefers to stress its positive positions, the group’s founding reflects the growing rift within the religious-Zionist sector.

“To our great sorrow, religious Zionism is already split,” said Rabbi Chaim Navon, rabbi of the Shimshoni congregation in Modi’in. “But only one faction’s voice was being heard. We are the voice of the other part, that hasn’t been sufficiently heard.”

For previous posts on Beit Hillel see here and here.

Today’s Makor Rishon has an article about Beit Hillel, a new rabbinic organization that I wrote about here. The organization sees itself as a more moderate religious zionist voice. The article notes that the membership of Beit Hillel includes thirty talmidot ḥachamim, female Torah scholars.

From the publisher:

Traditional Jewish religious belief speaks of a divinely revealed, perfect text, authoritatively expounded. The question this book addresses is one with which the author has struggled all his life: in the light of historical criticism, advances in knowledge, and changing moral attitudes, is the traditional notion of divine revelation and authoritative interpretation still valid? The focus is on Judaism but the arguments are easy to transpose to other religions.

Q. What made you want to explore this particular world of Talmudic scholarship?

A. In the beginning I was working with a story about a father and son and the confusion that occurs because of an award. I was looking for a field for them to be in and came across the Talmud department. It changed the whole direction of the story and gave the film its shape and content. It’s a great department and I spent time gossiping with people from the inside. It’s a place that has no limits because of the nature of the people, whose stubbornness is extremely dramatic. Or tragic. I don’t know. But I was attracted to these people.

The article hints that someone very close to Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, for whatever reason, decided to spill the beans. Even if there is no criminality, to me it is clear that this is more evidence that religion is corrupted by money and political power. It becomes just another commodity to be traded.

Update:  According to this discussion on Behadrei Hareidim, the person who sent the letter is Rabbi David Yosef.  Rabbi David Yosef is the author of Halakhah Berurah, a comprehensive commentary on the Shulhan Arukh.  This also comes soon after another son who has been somewhat estranged from the family for some time, Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, was diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Yediot Aḥaronot Jan 20, 2012

The Talmud, the foundation of Jewish law, acknowledges that men can be sexually aroused by women and is indeed concerned with sexual thoughts and activity outside of marriage. But it does not tell women that men’s sexual urges are their responsibility. Rather, both the Talmud and the later codes of Jewish law make that demand of men.

Rabbi Linzer has posted a much longer discussion of the issue on his blog. I recommend this post for those who want a deeper discussion of the sources.

Two news reports from one of Israel’s biggest enemies (see here if you didn’t get the reference) show how this hyper-modesty has infected the national-religious public. The first is about the displeasure of some rabbis from Hesder yeshivas and their students about female instructors in the army. Recently, a paratrooper refused to jump with a female instructor because there might be inappropriate physical contact. While the article only mentions this case, the army is clearly worried about this issue. The son of a close friend recently completed a tank commander’s course. At some point during the course the female instructor fell down. He went over to help her get up, and after she saw his kippah she was afraid that she’d get in trouble if he helped her up. She told him that they are instructed to avoid all types of physical contact with religious soldiers. Whether she understood the protocol correctly is not so relevant, it’s that the army is worried enough about the issue that female instructors are being given guidelines about it. Our friend’s son promptly told her that she had nothing to worry about, and proceeded to help her get up.

The second (Hebrew) is about how the weekly parashah pamphlet from Machon Meir published a notice about the upcoming end of the mourning period for the Fogel family, the family whose parents were murdered by terrorists last year along with some of their children. The pamphlet has a policy of not publishing pictures of women, so the face of Ruti Fogel, the mother, was blocked out. According to this article, Ruti Fogel’s father also works for Machon Meir.

Machon Meir responded and said:

העלון ‘באהבה ואמונה’ הוא עלון תורני המופץ ונקרא בתוך בתי הכנסת. בשל כך מדיניות העלון היא לא לפרסם תמונות נשים בו. פרסום המודעה באופן זה נגרם בשל טעות אנוש ובלא כל כוונה לפגוע חלילה. המכון התנצל בפני המשפחה על כך וההתנצלות התקבלה בהבנה מלאה

The pamphlet “Be-Ahava ve-Emunah (In Love and Faith)” is a Torah pamphlet that is distributed and read inside of synagogues. As a result of this, the pamphlet’s policy is not to publicize in it pictures of women. The publication of the announcement in such a manner was caused by a human error without, God forbid, any intention to cause harm. The institute apologized to the family and the apology was accepted with complete understanding.

If seeing a picture of a woman’s face in synagogue is so problematic, I can only wonder what they think about women being present in a synagogue that doesn’t have them behind a meḥitzah that is similar to the separation fence.

Update:  According to this article in Kipa (Hebrew), Rabbi Haim Navon has said that this week’s pamphlet will not be allowed in his synagogue, and he called upon others to do the same.