Halachic Issues and Non-Issues

...So maybe there can be a compression of the normal process...

...The institution of the prayer ':'\ leader in the synagogue goes back to the days when there were neither printed nor handwritten prayer-books...

...He thought I would be interested, and I was blown away...

...It's saying, for instance, "We want to be counted in a minyan...

...That the Reform laity as a whole did not demand the innovation is obvious from the very conscious and feverish steps which are still, seven years later, taken jointly by the Hebrew Union College, the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations to "prepare" the Reform laity, psychologically and otherwise, for the employment and for the ministrations of woman rabbis...

...vative ordination diploma...

...But there have also been moments when the Conservative rabbis have felt their Reform colleagues to be an encumbrance in that particular battle, and when they have urged the Conservative movement to go it alone...

...Orthodox likes and dislikes are, therefore, a consideration of rather doubtful value if applied as a yardstick to the question of the ordination of Conservative women rabbis in the United States...

...Nobody likes to lose his treasured pedigree, and the realization on the part of the moderji American rabbi that more than time and geographical distance separate him from the "Rabbi of Vitebsk" could be both painful and humiliating...

...The sense that I get is that, while there is definitely a concern for women's issues, most of the women are tired of talking about women, and want to get down to being rabbis...

...There are arguments for not unduly disturbing the peace of the congregations...

...It is called smicha ("laying on of hands") for reasons of sentiment only—a kind of philosophy of "as if," a wistful search for "roots" and historical continuity...

...For us now, there is an interest in the fact that we are women, whether it's to deny it or to be it...

...But one thing is certain: the ordination of Conservative women rabbis would put an end to the hope for any such deal once and for all...

...At this point, refusal to ordain women can only mean to the world at large that Conservative Judaism has abdicated in favor of Orthodoxy...

...Judaism's idealization of the "woman of valor" in Proverbs, chapter 31, will simply no longer do...

...After all...

...and the prayer leader is far more concerned with the aesthetic structuring of communal worship than with fulfilling the liturgical "obligations" on behalf of unlettered congregants...

...But the American Conservative rabbi, like his Orthodox and a few of his Reform colleagues, does, on occasion, sign religio-legal documents in the capacity of a witness...

...In that case, the more traditional branch of the movement will feel alienated—and possibly find its spiritual home elsewhere...

...G: You know, a good story comes out of the particular, and, if it speaks, it touches the universal...

...In part, this was easy...

...V When the more traditional Christian churches argue about the ordination of women, an important consideration is the problem of "apostolic succession...

...The striving for Jewish unity cannot be a unilateral effort...

...There's the whole notion of the feminization of American culture which has been written and spoken about, and priests, rabbis, being an extension of that...

...The eye of the storm is the question of the ordination of woman rabbis...

...Or was it intentional, inherent in the very nature of the sacrament of ordination, so that ordination would lose its validity if conferred upon women...

...M: But the contrast is your assertion of particularity as a starting point, whereas women who are involved in a more superficial equal rights agenda are not arguing from the particular at all...

...As in the primoridal myth accounting for Paradise Lost, so in the situation of Conservative Judaism today, the disturber of the peace, the provider of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and the uncoverer of a certain theological nakedness, is "the woman whom Thou gavest to be with me...

...Was that accidental, a by-product of the mores of the times...

...Nor must it be forgotten that, in terms of world Jewry, Orthodoxy represents a distinct minority...

...There are some men in our time who have played with midrash-making...

...There has been no uninterrupted "laying on of hands" which would link Rabban Gamaliel to the writer of these lines...

...Certainly I love to sit and daven with a male community, but at the same time I'm interested in exploring what is there for the female community...

...It's positive in some ways because it's a first step...

...One of the things that I like about what I do is that it allows me to do rabbi-things...

...But the acceptance of rabbinic ordination for women on the part of Conservative Judaism does not have to mean, as is claimed in some quarters, that Conservative Judaism is on its way to a merger with Reform Judaism...

...But those are not religious arguments, nor are they arguments based on second-guessing the future course of the Orthodox Establishment in the State of Israel...

...But that first ordination, though defended on principle, arose from other motives as well...

...It will have to be faced...

...The fact that Conservative Judaism, like Reform Judaism, might have women rabbis does not mean that Conservative Judaism has traded its own ethos for that of Reform Judaism...

...Where nobody wears a tallit or dons the tefillin, a woman sans prayer shawl and phylacteries experiences no discrimination...

...It is, in fact, more correctly called hattarath hora-ah, which means no more than "the permission to render decisions in Jewish Law...

...And a lot of talk about God, which in itself is unusual...

...The fact that Conservative Jews, like Christians, recite the Twenty-third Psalm does not mean that Conservative Judaism is about to merge with Christianity...

...Conservative rabbis have been quite innocent of many of the misdeeds, in terms of Jewish Law, of which Reform rabbis rightly stand accused...

...It is completely new, so why don't we look at it and figure out what it's about...

...I occasionally get that kind of continuous response from men, but generally, men have to be at a certain point in order to get into that...

...Obviously, nice people do not go out of their way to offend others...

...Once you say "Elohay Sarah," you have to know what that means...

...Rabbinic ordination, moreover, is not a sacrament...

...Or, what happens when you combine those energies...

...If the Talmud freed women from certain religious obligations, Reform Judaism abolished the "discrimination"— not by imposing those obligations on women, but by freeing men from them as well...

...The fact, previously mentioned, that the organizational arms of Reform Judaism are compelled to undertake a sustained campaign in order to make woman rabbis "acceptable" to Reform congregations should certainly give us pause...

...On the whole, Conservative Judaism has managed to be the typical form of Judaism in America...

...And we have to break that, and say, "Now wait a minute...

...HALACHIC ISSUES AND NON-ISSUES JAKOB PETUCHOWSM i Conservative Judaism affirms Tradition as well as Change: it understands Change as something that takes place within the broad boundaries of Tradition, yet it conceives of Tradition as itself subject to historical development and Change...

...Moreover, especially in the present religious fragmentation of Jewry, the building of bridges is preferable to the widening of existing gulfs...

...Among the rank and file, too, both championship of the cause and fierce opposition to it have become vocal...

...The traditional benediction which praises God "who has not made me a woman" has become downright offensive...

...Most of them are only ordained as yoreh yoreh...

...Some of the senior professors, particularly in the field of Talmud, have lost no time in voicing their opposition...

...the separation between the sections of the synagogue reserved for men and women respectively, has become an insult...

...He or she is no longer dependent upon the simple "Amen" uttered in response to the prayer leader's recitation...

...Even though Conservative Judaism's reading of the Jewish Tradition has for more than a hundred years differed essentially from the Orthodox understanding of that Tradition, regardless of Conservatism's degree of conformity to traditional practice, it is still true that many Conservative rabbis and laypersons regard the Orthodox as the really "authentic" guardians of the Tradition...

...Two years ago, the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly won a concession from the Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary...

...Whether the institution of the prayer leader would have ever developed if the early rabbis had not so strenuously objected to written prayerbooks is a moot question...

...I am not concerned here with making value judgments of the activities of old-time and modern rabbis, but merely with the fact that their roles differ considerably...

...It's not inherently a woman's role...

...Of course the Orthodox will not like it...

...That's important, but a rabbi, a really good rabbi, has to be the interpreter of Jewish seeing to the community, and right now, I can do that...

...In the former two cases, the autonomy of the individual congregation and its freedom to "take advantage" of the new ruling were preserved...

...G: Absolutely...

...On the other hand, he has also known himself to be wedded to the Tradition, not given to the highly untradi-tional vagaries in which Reform Judaism occasionally likes to indulge...

...No such questions need intrude upon the discussion of ordaining women as rabbis...

...If you're given something unique, you want to^feel normal in what you're doing...

...and the options for the solution are rather limited...

...His last two books are Theology and Poetry (1978), and Melchisedech—Urgestalt der Okumene (1979...

...And, of course, the Orthodox will feel mortally offended—and confirmed in the suspicions which they have always had about Conservative Judaism...

...That potential offense will weigh heavily in some Conservative quarters...

...And there is the recognition that none of us can use the same kind of language that has been used in the past, and there is a need to change...

...The outcome of the present agitation is anybody's guess...

...How much of all that is Conservative Judaism prepared to give up in order to win favor in the eyes of the Orthodox...

...And the Lord God called unto the man, and said unto him: "Where art thou...

...This is a new thing...

...Many of us haven't been taught our own powers, abilities, for transformation...

...I think it's the Lillith syndrome, it's feeling that there's something bad, or naughty, or dangerous about what you're doing, and that therefore, you want to be like everyone else...

...There have been no female bishops or popes...

...The form of rabbinic ordination which is in use among jews today goes back no further than the Middle Ages...

...Reform Judaism long ago proclaimed the equality of the sexes in Jewish religious life, and took steps to remove the obvious barriers...

...Yet the question to be raised in this connection is whether the average American male rabbi (Conservative or Reform) represents a more congruent image...

...There remains room, on the Jewish scene in America, for a distinctive Conservative Judaism which, while it continues the process of adapting Jewish Law to the changing conditions of time and place, remains firmly anchored in a Tradition which has been doing the same sort of thing for the last two thousand years...

...What does that mean...

...The moments where they overlap, and enrich each other, are the very special moments...

...Conceivably, a woman could be ordained with the understanding that she would not set her hand as a witness to a document of a religio-legal character...

...In other words, the traditional role of the rabbi as judge is neither an actual fact on the American Conservative Jewish scene, nor is it even a theoretical possibility in terms of the very phraseology of the Conser...

...I'm grateful to the deaf community...

...If you're really a part of a religious life, then you welcome dialogue...

...On the other hand, female rabbinic students will study at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and no longer flock in such numbers as they do now to the Hebrew Union College or the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College...

...It is no more—but also no less—than a testimonial given to the rabbinic student, testifying to his expertise and proficiency in certain branches of Judaic learning...

...If, then, Orthodoxy should decide—if it has not already decided—to read two-thirds of American Jewry out of Judaism, those two-thirds might have their own idea, quite different from that of the Orthodox, as to who constitutes the "sect" and who the "mainstream...

...But the harmonizing is not necessarily the traditional way that Jewish men sing...

...For the religious arguments which could be adduced against the ordination of women could only be those which have their origin within the Orthodox frame of reference and the Orthodox understanding of Tradition...

...and yadin yadin, which is the requisite authorization to render decisions in Jewish civil law...

...The mechitzah...

...And the man said: "The woman who Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat...

...It's saying that you have to have courage to do what they did...

...This has been overlooked in much of the current discussion...

...A Reform rabbi will have to abjure Reform Judaism and become fully Orthodox before his religious acts have validity in Orthodox eyes...

...But questions of "apostolic sucession" were not the issue...

...Or Conservative Judaism could decide to ordain women as rabbis...

...In the United States, it is only at the Hebrew Union College that all rabbinic graduates automatically obtain both their yoreh yoreh and their yadin yadin authorizations— although, judging by the number of required Talmud and Codes courses at that institution, the meaning of those phrases in the ordination diploma seems to be more hyperbolic and rhetorical than legal and technical...

...I use women's stories as a way, but the way has to lead to what I'm really interested in, and that is Jewish collective imagination, survival, life...

...But problems are not necessarily insoluble...

...The Talmud's freeing of women from timebound, positive biblical commandments, understandable in terms of the ancient rabbis' time and place, is seen, in the here and now, as simply another instance of male chauvinism...

...And I think that exploring that can only enrich the total fabric...

...Losing that constituency, Conservative Judaism would of necessity move in the Orthodox direction—without, however, as we shall see below, having any guarantee that Orthodoxy would extend a friendly hand...

...Or the same...

...But that supposition is completely unrealistic...

...There are nig-gunim, which in the traditional setting go on for hours and hours, and of course we've lost that...

...And I make it a point when I'm invited to congregations of doing services in sign, because the service becomes physi-calized, and it's a lead-in to symbolic thinking...

...But what would seem to be of even greater importance within the present context is the fact that the ordinary ordination diploma issued by the Conservative Jewish Theological Seminary (a diploma which seems to pay more attention to the actual meaning of words than does that issued by the Hebrew Union College) contains neither the phrase yoreh yoreh nor the phrase yadin yadin...

...Any distinction between masculine and feminine roles, particularly when grounded in traditional mores, ceases to be a distinction, and gives rise to the charge of "discrimination...

...This is not to say that a woman cannot study Jewish liturgy as well as any man can, or that she would be inherently incapable of gaining the congregation's attention while leading prayers...

...Jesus did not ordain any women...

...Even the more recent decisions of the Conservative rabbinate, permitting women to be called to the Torah and to be reckoned among the ten adults who constitute a quorum (minyan) for public worship, while giving rise to some acrimony, presented no greater challenge than an earlier Conservative rabbinical decision which permitted use of the automobile to enable the Conservative Jew to attend Sabbath services...

...For it is obvious that American Jewish women could be trained for all of the various modern rabbinical functions—with one possible exception—in the same way in which men can be trained...

...The modern worshipper actually reads the prayers in the prayerbook—in English, if not always in Hebrew...

...Altogether, Conservative Judaism has represented that calm spiritual haven in the storm-tossed sea of Jewish ideological conflict...

...IV Chagall's "Rabbi of Vitebsk," adorning the walls of many an American Jewish household, coupled with the ancestral memories of a forebear reputed to have served as "chief rabbi" of Minsk, Pinsk or Plotzk, helps to shape the American Jewish image of what a rabbi is, or should be...

...But the question for me is, do women pray differently from men...

...but the fact remains that this arrangement has succeeded in salving consciences all around...

...Again, the teachers that you study with raise the questions that you want to be concerned with, and they're all studying with men, and the questions that they raise, very often, are the questions of the teachers, so that when they look at the issues, they're looking at them in a traditional way...

...We have already noted that the American rabbi does not normally function as a judge...

...I grant that each type of rabbi has done and is doing his best to meet the needs of a particular time and particular environment...

...If we today suffer from increased sectarianism, then the fault is as much in Orthodox intransigence as it is in Reform or Conservative innovations...

...If one considers the tremendous amount of publicity attendant upon the ordination of the first woman rabbi by the Hebrew Union College, in 1972, one might have justifiable suspicions that more was involved than the righting of an ancient wrong...

...And He said: "Who told thee that thou wast naked...

...Under present Israeli law...

...It would have been so much more convenient if the problem of ordaining women as rabbis could have been postponed until quieter, less turbulent times...

...I think it's very profound...

...True, the Talmud contains no record of woman rabbis...

...The attempt which was made to revive it in the sixteenth century proved abortive...

...There are always two ways of looking at things...

...It may well be, nonetheless, that the contrast in roles between the modern American male rabbi and his European predecessor acts as a psychological barrier to a dispassionate consideration of the possibility of having woman rabbis...

...In the latter case, the individual conscience was made the final arbiter...

...Instead of using that power in an investigation of what is possible, there's an assumption of old modes of doing things...

...The roles of preacher, pastor, counselor, synagogue manager, fund raiser, book reviewer, and prayer leader—roles which preempt the time of the modern American rabbi—were not the roles in which the European rabbi either saw himself or was seen by his flock...

...They've taken the traditional Christian model because the community itself can't sustain traditional Jewish activity...

...But once that separation is faced and realistic "job descriptions" are developed, the question of the ordination of woman rabbis becomes inevitable...

...Conservative rabbis share the legal "non-recognition" of their Reform colleagues...

...I had occasion to be present at a Rosh Chodesh cermony, and the singing was especially striking in that traditional melodies almost immediately became harmonized...

...The scary thing to me is that so many of the women who want to be rabbis have a tendency to see themselves in a very traditional way...

...G: Sure...

...There is a huge resistance to understanding the dynamic possibilities of themselves as women, as revolutionary, as something positive...

...M: Can you say whether you find there is more reluctance to accept you as a rabbi among men or among women...

...That's clearly no longer the case for those two, or for Senators Metzenbaum, Stone, or the others...

...It's a legitimate thing these days...

...That principle asserts that only he can fulfill religious obligations on behalf of others who himself is bound by those obligations...

...M: Let's push for a minute on the theoretical side...

...I know when I go places, women are generally very excited...

...How much of that attitude is rested in fact, and how much of it is grounded in a guilty conscience, we may leave to the psychologists to debate...

...Whether this limitation would meet with the acquiescence of the militant rabbinical feminists, is, of course, another question...

...But they also do not like mixed seating in synagogue, abbreviated litergies, prayers in the vernacular, organ accompaniment of worship, Conservative modifications of the dietary laws, the Conservative formulation of the marriage contract, driving to the synagogue on a Sabbath, calling women to the Torah and counting them as part of the minyan—not to mention the Higher Criticism of the Hebrew Bible as taught in the classrooms of the Jewish Theological Seminary...

...He, too, whatever his degree of traditional observance, would hardly win the automatic and unreserved approval of his European predecessor, with whom he shares little more than the professional title...

...But by the same token, now that Jewish education is equally available to both boys and girls, and now that the function of the rabbi has drastically changed, past precedent need not necessarily dictate present practice...

...Even the educational task, which the American rabbi does share with his European predecessor, has assumed entirely new forms...

...Some "right wing" Conservative congregations are indistinguishable from Orthodox congregations, while some "left wing" Conservative congregations could equally well pass for Reform...

...And there are some indications that those things are happening...

...I grant also that, in the past, the education which a Jewish girl received (or rather, did not receive) precluded her assuming the functions then expected of a rabbi...

...You create a dynamic with an audience or the participants which says, "I am telling you something, it's a bare background, and your imagination is invited in to participate...

...On the other hand, the functions which the old-time rabbi did have to fulfill, serving as a judge in civil disputes and as a decision-maker in ritual questions, are hardly the functions which the American rabbi is called upon to serve...

...We found ourselves doing harmony, for hours...

...Hitherto the hope has been based on the supposition that the Orthodox would ultimately relent, that they would yet realize that Conservative rabbis are untarnished by the Reform heresy, yes, that they would accept the Conservative rabbis as enthusiastic champions of Jewish Law, differing from the Orthodox in only some very minor matters of traditional observance...

...The humanistic beliefs of some Conservative rabbis—with or without Reconstructionist affiliation— no more ruffled the calm surface of Conservative waters than did the fact that some Conservative synagogues conduct worship with organ accompaniment, or recite a number of prayers in English, while others do not...

...For more than a decade now, some Reform rabbis in the United States and the majority of Reform rabbis in Europe and in the State of Israel have intimated their willingness to conduct themselves according to strict traditional Jewish Law in such matters as divorce and conversion procedures...

...The blacks in Congress make no bones about a Black Caucus, as clearly they would have 15 years ago...

...And there are arguments against the indecent haste with which we Americans always tend to fall for the very latest fads...

...By eleven votes to three, it came out in favor of ordaining woman rabbis...

...The problematic aspect here is, instead, connected with the history of Jewish worship, on the one hand, and with the talmudic exemption of women from certain religious obligations, on the other...

...In those early days, the learned might well have known their prayers by heart, and might even— as was considered desirable at one time—have had the capacity to compose new prayers as the occasion demanded...

...One day, Conservative Judaism will begin to realize that the Conservative rabbi will have to abjure Conservative Judaism and become fully Orthodox before his religious acts assume validity in the eyes of the Orthodox Establishment...

...You join yourself in the prayer activity of men...

...And there were not any until a Fraulein Dr...

...It's very exciting, an opening up of a way of looking at things which is completely unique and allows a prayer experience to occur...

...The Jewish people are people of exile...

...And there is an added fact, one of politics, involving the State of Israel...

...It is an image which proves to be incongruent with the superimposed image of a woman in the pulpit...

...and Reform Judaism's reinstating of the practice may owe as much to the current Christian form of ordination as it does to earlier Jewish prototypes...

...You have to have the courage to leave, to go out, to make that first act, and not be afraid of feeling crazy...

...In that case, the more liberal segments of the movement, and certainly all of its feminists, would be alienated, or at least driven to swell the ranks of the Reform and Reconstructionist movements...

...and I hid myself...

...Once, however, this changed role of tSe prayer leader is recognized, even the objection to the role of the woman rabbi as prayer leader will fall by the wayside—particularly in Conservative synagogues, where the Orthodox separation of the sexes in worship has almost universally been abandoned already...

...It is, in its institutional form, unwilling to distinguish between more severe and lighter degrees of heresy...

...On the one hand, the Conservative Jew has seen himself as "modern" and "progressive," freed from Orthodox rigor in belief and practice...

...The complete hattarath hora-ah contains two operative clauses: yoreh yoreh, which entitles the holder of the diploma to render decisions in ritual and ceremonial law...

...That is what has made it possible for Conservative Judaism to attract the greatest variety of Jews, differing in both religious belief and traditional observance...

...But the unlearned, who lacked those qualifications, had to make do with listening to the recitation of the prayer leader, and with responding to it with their own "Amen," thereby indicating their own commitment to the stated^sentiments...

...There is talk of splinter congregations, even of a splinter movement...

...and there are thus potential problem areas should Conservative Judaism decide to ordain woman rabbis...

...It is the attitude itself which is germane to the case under discussion...

...But if the ordination of woman rabbis had not been the immediate cause, something else would have been, sooner or later...

...G: I think it's an internalization of society's critique on women...

...From a purely religious perspective, the question of the ordination of woman rabbis has precipitated Conservative Judaism's moment of truth...

...IY1: Except that unless and until there are radical changes in the system, for the women who come after you, things will be just as they are now...

...It was to report to the Rabbinical Assembly two years later...

...It's incredible...

...Like in anything else, it's finding a few mentors to help open those ways of thinking, allowing ourselves to be a support group for each other...

...I'm hot really interested in congregational work now because I feel that rabbis in some ways have become social workers...

...Solomon Schechter's dream of a Jewish counterpart to the English "Broad Church" has indeed been fulfilled...

...In view of the modern availability of printed prayerbooks and of the general literacy among American Jews, it might well be necessary to redefine the traditional role of the prayer leader...

...Whatever sacramental transfer of charisma might have been involved in the original form of rabbinic ordination, symbolized by the "laying on of hands" (smicha), came to an end with the closing of the Palestinian academies, a millennium and a half ago...

...They have not made a dent in the Orthodox opposition to having Reform rabbis officiate at all...

...It contents itself with proclaiming the holder of the diploma to be a "Rabbi," specifying neither his expertise in ritual law nor his competence in civil cases...

...Cynics might quip that at the Jewish Theological Seminary, an Orthodox faculty has trained Conservative rabbis to serve congregations largely composed of Reform Jews...

...In the State of Israel, however, where Jewish civil law has a greater applicability, many rabbis obtain the yadin yadin as well as the yoreh yoreh authorization...

...The equitable demand for "equal pay for equal work" has led to the somewhat more debatable idealization of "unisex...

...Ill It is in the nature of the modern feminist movement that it has tended to blur the distinction between the "equality of the sexes" and the "identity of the sexes...

...but most Conservative rabbis in this country have neither taken those courses nor obtained their authorization to render decisions in either ritual or civil law...

...The action is in itself a midrash on the meaning of each word...

...But because some, though not all, liturgical duties fall into the category of obligations from which women are exempt, it follows that a woman could not lead a male congregation in prayer...

...Few Orthodox rabbis in the United States study for and obtain the authorization to render decisions in Jewish civil law...

...Moreover, since it was the function of the prayer leader to fulfill the "obligation of prayer" on behalf of the unlearned, an important talmudic principle came into play here...

...M: The sex-blind image...

...Clearly, without this official prompting, one would hardly be aware of any overwhelming demand on the part of Reform congregations in this country for the training and ordaining of woman rabbis...

...There's an unending hunger, and a need to invite me back, and to find out where I am, to send something, to write, all of that...

...G: Right...

...the storm is now sweeping the whole Conservative movement...

...G: No...

...When, therefore, the question of ordaining Conservative women rabbis is discussed, we ought to bear in mind that the discussion cannot only not be based on any considerations of "apostolic sucession," but that it does not even involve the very real problem of the suitability of women as judges in Jewish Law...

...There is all the difference in the world between the talmudic academy where the old-time rabbi gave daily or weekly talmudic discourses, and the Confirmation Class, taught by the modern American rabbi, or the Adult Education Institute, where he holds forth on "Psychoanalysis and Religion...

...II , But the calm turns out to have preceded the storm...

...That's another reason I use the storytelling mode...

...Jonas was privately ordained in Germany in the first quarter of this century, and then until the Hebrew Union College began ordaining women in 1972 (followed shortly thereafter by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College...

...What I try to do is not present something that is exclusive, or which cuts men out...

...The one possible exception is the role of the rabbi as prayer leader—a role with which traditionally the rabbi had nothing to do, but which in the American synagogue (albeit more in the Reform than in the Conservative) tends to give the rabbi the greatest prominence...

...Are women rabbis really an idea whose time has come...

...Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat...

...Discrimination," however, be it racial or sexual, is the great taboo of the modern democratic person...

...But if even Reform congregations still have to be "convinced" about the need for Reform woman rabbis, one is entitled to wonder about the timing of the current Conservative agitation...

...It's a new kavanah, a new intention that gets revealed...

...There have been moments when the Conservative rabbis have made common cause with the Reform rabbis in the battle for religious freedom and for the "recognition" of non-orthodox Judaism in the State of Israel...

...G: A friend of mine, in 1972, took me to services...

...We've lived always with difference, with being on the outside, with being witnesses, and I feel that women have to assume that Jewish part of themselves in order to be part of what could be a major contribution to the spiritual life of the Jewish people in our time...

...Genesis 3:9-12...

...But having once been raised, the problem will not simply slink away...

...M: Are rabbis—male rabbis— frightened because there are some very feminine aspects to the rabbi's role, and if women come into the system these men are going to feel terribly vulnerable to being thought of as doing a woman's job...

...No such deal has thus far been worked out, nor is is likely to be in the near future...

...And, of course, the male monopoly on the rabbinate is regarded as the ultimate affront to Jewish womanhood...

...But even in Reform Judaism, the final step, that of ordaining women as rabbis, was taken only very recently...

...Jakob Petuchowski is Research Professor of Jewish Theology and Liturgy at Hebrew Union College— Jewish Institute of Religion, in Cincinnati...

...My work with them is constantly challenging me to find new ways of presenting material, ways which can appeal to all of us...

...A commission was appointed to look into the matter of the ordination of woman rabbis...

...Conservative Judaism could refuse to ordain women...

...But take those two models...

...Distinctions are being made between "true Conservative Judaism" and the "drift towards Reform...

...When Senators Javits and Ribicoff were the only Jewish senators, they bent over backwards to stay away from specifically Jewish issues...

...VI It is clear that, according to traditional Jewish Law, a woman can serve neither as a judge nor as a witness (except in some highly isolated cases...

...It's Jewish thinking...

...But develop it did...

...Orthodox Judaism is committed to an "all or nothing" philosophy...

...And he said: "I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked...

...But they studied women's issues in this way: What does Rabbi Akiva have to say, or Hillel and Sham-mai, about women...

...But there is more involved here than mere technicalities...

...There are psychological arguments which have to do .with the substitution of female leadership roles for masculine leadership roles in as sensitive an area as the religious enterprise...

...VII There are arguments, it must be stated in all candor, which can be adduced against the ordination of women rabbis...

...The commission has now reported...

...Many men are excited by it...

...When I went to the Women's Rabbinical Alliance, their conception of organizing themselves was not to investigate women's spiritual community and what that means, and what it means to come together as women, but it was meeting to set up a constitution, and laws, and chapters, all of which was received very negatively, thank goodness...

...The ultimate decision is now in the hands of the faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary, which is to vote on the matter within the next few months...

...G: In my congregation, we daven "Elohay Avraham, Elohay Sarah...

...Just as the story of Avraham and Yitzhak moves me, when I tell the story of Sarah, which I do in sign, the response has to be a communal response...

...I think it's perfectly legitimate...

...and there has always been the hope that some "deal" could be worked out with the Orthodox Establishment through which the Conservative rabbinate would yet gain its "recognition...

...And the rabbi becomes a functionary...

...So I'm not arguing for women and men to pray separately...

...M: Did you learn sign in order to participate with the congregation, or did you know sign and therefore get invited...

...However one might seek to soften the blow, women rabbis are an affront to Orthodox Judaism—at least on the level on which any kind of religious innovation is always perceived by the Orthodox segment of Jewry as an affront to them and as an intolerable schismatic move...

...To be sure, the Jewish Theological Seminary does offer courses which are designed to prepare the Conservative rabbi for the fuller forms of rabbinic ordination...

...But if rabbis were really strong in their sense of Jewishness, and in themselves, then you wouldn't have to worry about women, because Judaism is such a powerful religious drama, religious mode of being, so strong and so deep, that if that is felt and understood, and there is an eagerness to transmit it and explore it and be in it, then we have nothing to worry about...

...No doubt, on purely theological grounds, it would be hard, if not impossible, to come up with Reform objections to the rabbinic ordination of women...

...It is conceivable that the way women come together and pray, and use breath, song, even the way they sit, is going to be different from men...

...M: That kind of social change is accelerating generally...