A challenge to Rabbi Gil Student, of Hirhurim blog
Here's the evidence, in terms of laypersons quoted:
[ ¶ ]
- 0 women, 1 layman (David Sacks)
- 0 women, 0 laymen
- 1 woman (Rebbitzen Smadar Rosensweig), 0 laymen
Parashah round-up: Matos-Masei
- 0 women, 0 laymen
Parashah round-up: Devarim/Chazon
- 0 women, 0 laymen
Parashah round-up: Vaeschanan/Nachamu
- 0 women, 0 laymen
In six weeks of Parashah round-ups, you've quoted a grand total of two laypeople, one of them a female. If you're so convinced that a woman doesn't need a title to be recognized as a Torah scholar, prove it!
[ ¶ ]
I e-mailed a link to this post to Rabbi Student at 7:09 PM.
posted by Shira Salamone at 6:20 PM
12 Comments:
Shira, I'm not sure I understand your challenge. Can you elaborate?
By the way, R' Gil does not write the Hirhurim parasha round-up, I believe it's Steve Brizel.
Steve has his own quirks, in particular he won't do anything from YCT (in particular Rabbi Weiss, but I think he also doesn't do Rabbi Angel).
He could probably do a Nechama Leibowitz shiur every week, but I wouldn't expect him to.
No one is claiming that the torah output by women comes close to 50/50. Is it Steve's responsibility to find the 2% (WAG) that is and make sure that it appears in every issue.
My suggestion is that you find O sources for a few weeks and forward them to Steve as suggestions. He's a volunteer after all - no reason you can't volunteer as well.
Quick comment before I fall into bed:
I did receive a response via e-mail from Rabbi Student. He confirmed that he's not the person who writes the Parashah round-ups. I stand corrected.
He also said that he wouldn't go out of his way to look for female writers even if he did write the round-up because, since he doesn't believe in quotas or affirmative action, he would consider such a search sexist. That's an interesting point.
He also mentioned that he's reviewed and/or quoted books by female writers such as Nechama Leibowitz, Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, Cheryl Berman, Yael Unterman, and Simi Peters.
TOTJ Steve, Rabbi Student was among the many more-right-wing Orthodox writers who write in opposition to the conferral of the title Rabbah on Sara Hurwitz. I point was that it's perhaps as a result of the fact that there's no universally-accepted title for an Jewish female Torah scholar that female scholars get ignored in round-ups and other publications of Torah talks.
"No one is claiming that the torah output by women comes close to 50/50."
No, but wait another century or so, and we'll see.
"My suggestion is that you find O sources for a few weeks and forward them to Steve as suggestions."
Nu, Larry, you're talking to an am-haaretz-dikeh apikoris (a Jewishly-illiterate heretic) here. I read Parahah round-ups because I wouldn't know where else to look for this sort of material. Have you any suggestions?
>>Rabbi Student was among the many more-right-wing Orthodox writers who write in opposition to the conferral of the title Rabbah on Sara Hurwitz. I point was that it's perhaps as a result of the fact that there's no universally-accepted title for an Jewish female Torah scholar that female scholars get ignored in round-ups and other publications of Torah talks.<<
So, this isn't about parasha, it's about your ongoing struggle with Orthodoxy being less than, as you perceive it, open to egalitarianism. You will never win this fight, because you're coming at it from outside the system. You are attempting to apply prevailing secular concepts, and your own personal preferences, to a system of which you are not a part. In the words of my high school age daughters, "Epic fail!".
You need to accept that you are "hocking a chinek" on this; it simply is not a fight you can win.
Shira already made my points but I'm curious where I can find Rabbi Sara Hurwitz's Torah writings.
R' Gil, WADR, that's rather smug and condescending; I would expect more from you.
How many articles has the average new YU rabbi published before receiving smicha?
I wasn't aware that the average (and yes, I know there are exceptions) pulpit is a "publish or perish" situation.
Shira - some fast googling didn't reveal any freely available sources of divrei torah written by women who explicitly affiliate O. You can't blame Steve for not publishing what doesn't exist.
Your claim, IIUC, is that there would be more freely available divrei torah written by women if there were more women with the title rabbi?
One way to test that claim would be to see what percentage of Steve's selected divrei torah (or ideally the whole universe of internet available divrei torah) were written by non-rabbis.
However, I think the real issue is this: divrei torah of a quality to get republished are most often written by people whose professional duties includes the generating of such commentaries. Relatively few of them are done by pulpit rabbis, IMO. If those professions opened up to women without granting them the title 'rabbi' I think that the imbalance would begin to correct itself.
TOTJ Steve: That was not meant sarcastically and I'm not sure why you assumed it was. Shul rabbis often write short pieces for their newsletters.
I did a bit of Internet hunting, and found some information regarding all of the women mentioned thus far in this post and comments:
Professor Smadar Rosensweig
Nechama Leibowitz (a standing-on-one-foot version)
Dr. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg
Cheryl Berman
Yael Unterman
Simi Peters
And here's an article by Rabba Sara Hurwitz.
TOTJ Steve, I know I'm butting my head against a stone wall, but I'm too stubborn to give up.
"One way to test that claim would be to see what percentage of Steve's selected divrei torah (or ideally the whole universe of internet available divrei torah) were written by non-rabbis."
Larry, I just did that--out of 6 weeks' work of Parashah round-ups, there were links to only 2 laypeople's articles.
". . . I think the real issue is this: divrei torah of a quality to get republished are most often written by people whose professional duties includes the generating of such commentaries. Relatively few of them are done by pulpit rabbis, IMO. If those professions opened up to women without granting them the title 'rabbi' I think that the imbalance would begin to correct itself."
That's possible, assuming that the same people who think that women shouldn't have rabbinic titles don't also think women are forbidden by the rule of serarah from serving in such professions. Some folks would exclude women on the basis of tzniut/modesty and/or serarah (a rule that some say prohibits women from serving in some or all leadership positions, and others would not.
Shira, you rabble-rouser!
Shira here's my response to Rabbi Student's concern that looking for specifically women authors would be 'sexist".
In a setup which systematically devalues and represses women's torah taking extra effort to find it is 'sexist'? Oy.
Tzipporah, yep. :)
Larry, I appreciate your response, both the linked one and your own words.
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