The halacha disqualifies various classes of people from being judges
or witnesses, but these disqualifications are not all for the same reason.
A person who is in a position to give testimony about a case is required
to appear in court; thus if a woman's testimony were acceptable, she could
be forced to appear in court. [Similarly, a king cannot serve as either a
judge or a witness.] Thus women are restricted for a constructive reason:
to avoid interfering with their more important responsibilities. These
disqualifications apply only to matters that require appearance in court;
a woman's testimony is perfectly acceptable in matters involving religious
law (issur ve-heter).
The source that disqualifies women from testifying in court is Deut.19:17,
which refers to people who appear in court as "men". The fact that a woman's
testimony is valid in religious matters that don't involve a court is
derived from Lev. 15:28, which says that a woman can count unclean days
for herself.
Ask a follow-up question |
