The Role of Women
- Early in its history, Conservative Judaism determined that a mechitza separating men and women was not required in services, and that women could be called to the Torah if permitted by the synagogue rabbi. Both decisions were based on arguments from Jewish sources.
- The CJLS passed a takkanah which allowed Jewish women to count in the prayer minyan. Throughout 1973 the CJLS debated various responsa on this subject. In August 1973 a vote was taken. Instead of voting for or against a particular responsum, the committee voted on accepting the conclusions of the teshuvot. A motion was passed which stated that "Men and women should be counted equally for a minyan.", with nine in favor and four opposed. According to Rabbi David Fine (Women and Minyan, 2002, p. 3) this was because those voting disagreed about the reasoning; no one teshuvah's reasoning was totally satisfactory to all members. Some rabbis agreed with the reasoning, but thought that the change was inadvisable because of possible negative effects on the structure of the Jewish family, or the strength of the Conservative movement. (ibid, p. 3)
- Rabbi Philip Sigal and his supporters held that Jewish law did not actually prevent women from being counted in a minyan. (Fine, p.4) Sigal holds that the Mishneh Torah and Shulkhan Arukh do not state that ten males must make up a minyan; rather these sources only say that ten are required. His views were later disputed by some other Conservative rabbis, most prominently David Feldman. (Woman's Role and Jewish Law in Siegel, ed., Conservative Judaism and Jewish Law, p. 300.) Around this same time, Rabbi Sigal later reported that many CJLS rabbis did not agree with the reasoning in his paper, even if they happened to agree with his conclusion. He concluded that counting women in a minyan was justifiable within the halakhic system, but could no longer be viewed as a change in minhag; it was a change in halakhah as established by precedent, and thus and should be viewed as a takkanah. (Fine, p.4) This is also the view accepted in Fine's 2002 CJLS paper.
- In 1983 a number of Conservative rabbis issued responsa on the same subject, arguing that women can and should be counted in the prayer minyan. These papers were written as part of the process of JTS deciding on whether or not to admit women to its rabbinic and cantorial programs. However, the Chancellor of JTS at the time took this process out of the hands of the CJLS, and made the process an affair of the JTS faculty, a move that caused strong controversy, and several resignations of Talmud faculty from JTS. The decision to allow women to become rabbinical and cantorial candidates was then based on a vote of JTS faculty, in principle based on their readings of these responsa and their own understanding of the relevant texts.
- The anger generated by this controversy affects JTS to this day. The sensitivity over this issue causied future JTS Chancellors Ismar Schorsch, and then Arnold Eisen to avoid making future halakhic decisions, and insisting that such issues be resolved by the CJLS, e.g. the issue of homosexuality. This was especially apparent as Schorsch was a strong proponent of not changing the movement's views on homosexuality, while Eisen was a proponent of making such changes. Despite their personal views, each felt it would be improper to overrule the CJLS.
- In 2002, long after the Conservative movement had adopted complete de facto egalitarianism, it offered its first responsum on the subject, the Fine responsum, holding that Jewish women as a corporate entity could agree to assume the same obligations as men and be bound by them corporately, without any individual woman having to do so personally.
The CJLS effectively passed a takkanah ruling that women may be counted as witnesses in all areas of Jewish law. This change is viewed as a lifting of a rabbinical prohibition that were rooted in social dynamics. See Myron S. Geller, "Woman is Eligible to Testify"; Susan Grossman, "Edut Nashim k'Edut Anashim: The Testimony of Women is as the Testimony of Men" and Joseph H. Prouser, "On Women Serving as Witnesses–A Dissent".
Read more about this topic: Conservative Halakha, Specific Decisions in Jewish Law
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