See the interviews with Sara Hurwitz, Blu Greenberg and Judith Hauptman in minutes 2 through 6. I’m still withholding my comments until further review:
Reb Yidl writes: "I don’t see how such half measures will please anyone on either side. To the right, her title is an inauthentic joke, and to the left it’s a patronizing 2nd class position."
Dov writes: "If anybody’s interested in the responsa:
http://www.hir.org/forms_2008/ Co…ara_Hurwitz.pdf"
Jaded Topaz writes: Dov,
The answer you provided in the link, notwithstanding the references to prophets, Queens and matriarchs, appears to be more about teaching and deciding halacha then it is about communal pulpit rabbi officiating at various life cycle related ceremonies.
It starts off with a reference to learning torah and knowledge of both Orach Chaim and Yoreh Dei-ah from outstanding torah scholars……
All of the women mentioned (aside from Prophet’s Queens and mothers of Judaism) either taught and or learned halachah.
(Why wasn’t Bruriah mentioned, she taught 300 halachos to torah scholars on a single cloudy day pesachim 62b)
Page 3 section 3 of the same answer you linked to in your comment, in a discussion concerning the prophet Devorah, other than a good starting argument for the establishment of female poskim and dayanim, I don’t understand the following passage:
“Bnei Yisrael accepted Devorah the prophetess upon them because of her prophecy, and any person whom the litigants in a trial accept upon them can arbitrate (be a dayan), even if that person is otherwise not eligible to be a judge. The Sefer haHinukh brings this down more extensively, saying: "The leaders of Israel accepted her upon them as a judge, and following them, every person accepted her judgments, for in self acceptance certainly anyone is kosher (????? ??? ???? ??????), for every condition in finances exists"- and the Hinukh says all this according to the position which forbids (mostly following the Yerushalmi Yoma 6:1), but according to those who permit (which were brought above in the first answer), there is no problem and no forbidden aspect in having a woman be a judge. This explanation of community acceptance was brought recently by one of the most stringent poskim in this area, the Rishon Letziyon and former Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu Shlit"a (Tehumin 7 (1986) pg. 518-9), who wrote that the acceptance by Am Yisrael of Devorah was due to her powers of prophecy and as a special instruction of the time (hora’at sha’a) (following the language of the Tosafot and not that of the Sefer haHinukh), but this is only in the case of leadership of an entire people, however a "specific community, organization or town, can accept upon them, in a majority decision, a woman as a head of a board, administration, and so on."
Firstly, we need to distinguish between prophet/judge that served an entire nation- accepted by leader & every person!/ chosen judges that served on bais dins (was it not the smallest towns that generally ended up choosing the smartest non-qualified judges when there were no qualified judges )and communal pulpit Rabbis serving specific geographic locales.
It’s also not clear what the Rishon Letziyon is basing his conclusive opinion on, specifically with regards to “specific community, organization or town”. The fact that Devorah was chosen by everyone, and one is allowed to choose any dayan (whether or not one manages to argue away posul la-eidus posul ladayanus) has nothing to do with choosing a female communal rabbi to officiate at life cycle ceremonies.
The bais din dayan choosing reference seems to suggest that Devorah functioned in the capacity of a Judge, at least in this particular argument, Its not clear what both references have to do with choosing a female communal leader and officiating rabbi. Unless the position is about poseik.
I would think the argument would be better off arguing the case of female dayanim.
