Women rabbis and Torah scholars
Women rabbis and Torah scholars are Jewish women who have received formal semikhah as rabbis or are recognized for their studies and contributions to Jewish religious tradition, respectively. The ordination of women in Judaism has grown since the 1970s, with thousands of Jewish women having received formal ordination since then. The majority of them have been associated with progressive Jewish religious movements, including Reform Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Liberal Judaism, Reconstructionist Judaism, and Jewish Renewal. In Orthodox Judaism, the issue of women's ordination is complex and has not reached a consensus. Although a large and growing number of Orthodox women have received rabbinic ordination, many major Orthodox communities and institutions reject women's credentials if not ordination. As an alternative approach, some Orthodox Jewish institutions train women for various formal Jewish religious leadership roles, including entail training in Halakha, but no formal rabbinic ordination is granted. Instead, women receive alternative titles. These women, even with their alternative titles, are often perceived as equivalent to traditionally ordained rabbis.
Notwithstanding early examples in Jewish biblical and rabbinic tradition, such as Deborah and Bruriah, for much of Jewish history the recognizable roles of the rabbi, preacher, and Torah scholar were almost exclusively limited to Jewish men. With few, rare historical exceptions, such as the case of Asenath Barzani, Jewish women were first offered the possibility for ordination or an equivalent role beginning in the 1920s, but it was not until the 1970s when this became widely accepted. Early efforts to ordain women date to the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. A small cohort of women are recorded as being candidates for ordination; however, eventually, nearly all were denied ordination. During the 1930s, Regina Jonas of Germany became the first recorded instance of a Jewish woman in modern times receiving formal rabbinical ordination. Subsequent decades saw women-led campaigns within Reform Judaism for the recognition of women rabbis. These campaigns also coincided with the influence of second-wave feminism on Western society. These efforts culminated in the 1972 ordination of Sally Priesand at Hebrew Union College, the flagship institution of Reform Judaism. Subsequently, women rabbis were ordained by all other branches of Progressive Judaism. The formal ordination of women rabbis in Orthodox Judaism began in the 2000s, however its acceptance within Orthodoxy is still a highly contested issue. Nonetheless, in the early 2020s, the State of Israel approved legislation to allow all Jewish women to qualify for the state rabbinic examinations, effectively giving Orthodox women a credential equivalent to those of male rabbis. However, the uses of this credential are limited to certain rabbinic roles.
Historical background
Prior to the 1970s, when ordination of women gained wider acceptance, there are various examples of Jewish women who were formally considered as rabbis, rabbinic authorities, or Torah scholars. However, these instances recorded throughout Jewish history and tradition were perceived as rare, and highly exceptional cases of women occupying rabbinic posts.Biblical and Talmudic traditions
In the early portions of the Bible, the Hebrew Matriarchs seem to only be mentioned in connection with their husbands or sons, indicating an absence of the feminine voice and narrative in biblical history, an understandable position in a patriarchal society. However, in the rabbinic tradition, the position of the matriarchs are reinterpreted to highlight their honored status, minimizing actions in the biblical narrative that indicate wrongdoing on their part. Additionally, they are classified as prophetesses whose merit is relied upon by later Jewish generations. The exact number of prophetess-matriarchs included in this tradition is unclear. Many sources list Sarah, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel, while other sources include Bilhah and Zilpah. But while rabbinic views of the matriarchs appear to enhance the status of these women, including a teaching that Sarah converted women to her religion, the matriarchs do not appear as leaders for the entire Hebrew clan.This view of ancient Hebrew women appears to change in the later books of the bible. The biblical figure of Deborah the prophetess is described as serving as a judge. According to traditional rabbinic sources, Deborah's judiciary role primarily concerned religious law. Thus, according to this view, Deborah was Judaism's first female religious legal authority, equivalent to the contemporary rabbinical role of posek. Other rabbinic sources understand the biblical story of Deborah that her role was only that of a national leader and not of a legal authority. Alternatively, other Rabbinic authorities understand Deborah's role to be one that advised Jewish judges, but she herself did not render religious legal rulings. The biblical figure of Huldah the prophetess is understood as functioning in the role of an expert in the Israelite religion. Her contribution is recorded as verifying the legitimacy of changes to the religious practices in ancient Judaism enacted under King Josiah. There are two versions of Huldah's involvement in the Josiah reforms, the first recorded in, the second in, and scholars infer points of difference between the versions. Other scholars note Huldah's mark on the urban landscape of the Israelite temple as an indication of her stature in Israelite society. Huldah's character has led to speculation as to the extent of her involvement in writing the Hebrew scriptures using computer programs to dicipher forms of Hebrew anagrams. However, in reviewing this work, scholars have criticized these findings as flawed owing to the highly speculative methodology.
In Talmudic literature, women are generally excluded from the project of rabbinic interpretation and legal decision making. Nevertheless, the Talmudic figure of Bruriah is described as participating in Jewish legal debates, challenging the rabbis of the time. Aside from Bruriah, another Talmudic woman, Yalta is noted for her scholarship. Recent research has complicated the narrative that women in the times of the Talmud did not study Torah. Close readings of various Talmudic passages point to the familiarity of Torah and rabbinic teachings among women in rabbinic families.
Medieval and early modern ages
The history of medieval Jewish women includes various individual forerunners to the modern notion of women rabbis and Torah scholars. The daughters of Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, known as Rashi, living in France in the 11th–12th century, are the subject of Jewish legends claiming that they possessed unusual Torah scholarship. In the 12th century, Bat ha-Levi flourished in Iraq. In the 13th century, a Jewish woman in Italy named Paula Dei Mansi served as a scribe and scholar. In Germany, during the 15th century, Miriam Shapira-Luria was known to have conducted a yeshiva and gave public lectures on Jewish codes of law. Also in Italy, during the 16th century, Fioretta of Modena was regarded as a Torah scholar. Eva Bacharach was a rabbinical scholar in Prague, the daughter and granddaughter or notable rabbis. A similar case is Bayla Falk, wife of Joshua Falk. Examples of Jewish women who authored Jewish texts from this period include Rebecca bat Meir Tiktiner and Devorà Ascarelli.It is claimed that in one instance a medieval Jewish woman served as rabbi. In this case, Asenath Barzani of Iraq is considered by scholars as the first woman rabbi of Jewish history; additionally, Barzani is the oldest recorded female Kurdish leader in history. The title referred to Barzani by the Jews of Kurdistan was Tannait, the feminine equivalent of Tanna, the title for a Jewish sage of the early Talmudic rabbis. According to researchers, the origin of the Barzani story is the travelogue of Rabbi Petachiah of Regensburg.
In the early modern era, there were cases of Jewish women translating scholarly texts from Hebrew into Yiddish such as Ellus bat Mordecai of Slutsk who published translations on a Jewish legal guide to laws concerning death and burial.
Hasidism
In Eastern European Hasidic Judaism, during the early 19th-century, Hannah Rachel Verbermacher, also known as the Maiden of Ludmir, became the movement's only female Hasidic rebbe, however, the role of rebbe relates to spiritual and communal leadership as opposed to the legal authority of "rabbi". Other instances have been preserved of Hasidic rebbetzins who "acted similar to" Hasidic rebbes and were therefore de facto women Rebbes. These include Malka, the daughter of Rabbi Avraham Twersky, the "Maggid of Trisk", and Sarah Horowitz-Sternfeld, known as the Khentshiner Rebbetzin, based in Chęciny, Poland. In the second half of the 20th century, the only recorded instance of a de facto woman to lead a Hasidic faction was Faige Teitelbaum of the Satmar Hasidic community who assumed a quasi-leadership role following the death of her husband, Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, in 1979.Modern age
1870s–1890s
The possibility of women rabbis gaining mainstream acceptance began in the late 19th century. An 1871 report on the early career of Susanna Rubinstein pointed to her scholarship as indication of the possibility of women rabbis. An 1875 article describing the inaugural class at Hebrew Union College highlighted that the fourteenth student accepted into the course was Miss Julia Ettlinger, the college's first female student. The report speculated that Ettlinger could serve as a rabbi after graduation. One of the early proponents for women to be trained as rabbis was the journalist Mary M. Cohen who in 1889 authored an article in the Jewish Exponent, a Jewish newspaper in Philadelphia. in which fictional characters articulate arguments for the ordination of women. Similarly, in the 1893 Jewish Women's Congress the call was made by speakers for women to be ordained as rabbis. In the United States, there was one early example of a Jewish woman who, without formal ordination, assumed certain functions typically associated with congregational rabbis. During the 1890s, a young woman living on the American frontier named Rachel Frank assumed a religious leadership role, delivering sermons, giving public lectures and reading scripture. She was referred to as a woman rabbi in the American Jewish press, however, she appeared to have avoided claiming such a title. Frank continued to preach until her marriage to Simon Litman in 1899.Another early report of a Jewish woman who seemed poised to become a rabbi was Lena Aronsohn of Hot Springs, Arkansas. In 1892 and 1893, Aronsohn was reported to have set out to become a rabbi. According to one account, Aronsohn began providing public lectures to the Jewish community in Shreveport, Louisiana to earn enough money to pursue her rabbinical training. In 1897, Hannah G. Solomon of Chicago was touted as America's first woman rabbi following her preaching at Sinai Temple. Solomon later reported that the invitation to speak was offered by Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch and that Hirsch's practice to allow Jewish women to speak from the pulpit was later adopted by other congregations.