Re: Women's Tefilah Groups
Michael J Broyde (relmb@emory.edu)
Mon, 14 Oct 1996 19:42:07 -0400 (EDT)
There have now been two posts concerning women's tefilla groups, neither of
which addressed the technical halachic questions raised by the initial
poster's question. Let me suggest that there are two distinctly different
issues at work here. The first is a technical halachic one: what may a
group of women do as a group of women when they pray. This issue is just
as relavent to a group of women in seminary in Yerushalayim as it is to a
group of women on the upper west side of Manhattan, and it has nothing to
do with what we call such a service. Included in these technical
questions are whether a woman can read megillah for other women? Recite
berachot for other women? Recite Shemonah Esrei for other women -- (does
it matter if they already know how to pray?). Indeed, these questions
are very relavent to a variety of situations that have nothign to do with
Feminism in its broader sense or any sort of modern issues -- they are
addressed by the classical poskim of times of old. There are certain
rituals that women are precluded from doing, because they need a minyan,
and women do not count in the minyan. There are yet other technical
issues at work here also.
The second set of issues address the "public policy" issue of whether
torah hashkafa permits/encourage/prohibits the institutionalization of
these practices WHEN THERE IS A MINYAN FOR MEN AVAILABLE. These go to the
issues that Rabbi Menken addressed and they raise serious issues for our
community. It might be that even when technical halacha permits women to
do any particular ritual, when they can do that ritual with a minyan of
men, they should. Perhaps in others, they need not. Perhaps it depends on
whether they are really mechuyav [obligated] in the act that they are doing?
However, before discussing those "meta-halachic" issues, it is important
to address the first set of issues, which is what conduct is mutar al pe
din [permitted according to halacha] assuming the motive issue were to
disappear. Perhaps such a discussion should occur first, so that we can
all understand what types of issues we are speaking about, when we
discuss these issues.
Rabbi Michael J. Broyde