Female Torah scholars need a title. Suggestions?
You might want to start with the comments to my previous post.
Here are some titles currently in use (or suggested titles that I've seen elsewhere) for Orthodox female Torah scholars: Rabbah, Maharat, Tannait (I don't remember where I originally saw that one), Rosh Kehillah (Head of the Community), Rosh Bet Midrash (Head of the Study House), Maggedet Shiur (one who "tells" a "lesson/class"?--I hope my grammar's correct), Community Scholar.*
Here are some titles currently in use (or suggested titles that I've seen elsewhere) for Orthodox female Torah scholars: Rabbah, Maharat, Tannait (I don't remember where I originally saw that one), Rosh Kehillah (Head of the Community), Rosh Bet Midrash (Head of the Study House), Maggedet Shiur (one who "tells" a "lesson/class"?--I hope my grammar's correct), Community Scholar.*
The short version: If a man gets s'micha (rabbinical ordination), he takes the title "Rabbi" with him for the rest of his life, no matter what he does for a living (Rosh Yeshiva, pulpit rabbi, lawyer, computer programmer, etc.). Rosh Kehillah, Rosh Bet Midrash, and Community Scholar are all titles tied to a specific job--if you leave that congregation and choose to become a lawyer or a Jewish day school principle or teacher, you're no longer entitled to use the title.
Bottom line: Orthodox female Torah scholars need a permanent title that would be accepted by most, if not all, of the Orthodox community. It would be preferable for that title to be in Hebrew (or Aramaic), so that the title would be taken seriously and would be seen as a manifestation of respect for Jewish tradition and the community.
The floor is open.
*(Yoetzet Halacha is a wonderful program and title, but is too specialized for an overall scholar. Toanot [trained here, I believe] are, sadly, specialized and necessary, but I don't think the program operates outside of Medinat Yisrael/the State of Israel.)
posted by Shira Salamone at 6:33 PM
15 Comments:
Rabbi? It may be necessary to insist on this, and let the naysayers go their own way. There is no way all the tribes will agree on this.
Rabbis aren't (necessarily) Torah scholars. What do you want this title to indicate about its possessor? What do you think the title 'Rabbi' gives to a software engineer who gets to be called 'HaRav' when called for an aliyah but doesn't actually answer practical halachic questions, teach shiurim, or do anything else we might call 'rabbinic'? Is that what you want for the woman who gets this title?
I want a title that makes it known publicly that she completed high-level Torah studies without her having to carry her certificate in her pocket as proof. That's what the title "Rabbi" gives to the software engineer--he doesn't have to pull out his s'micha certificate to prove that he completed high-level Torah studies. I want women of that level of learning to get the same respect, the respect that comes automatically with a title.
But a simple "rabbi" doesn't solve the problem if equated with "high level torah studies" (what do you mean by that?).
There are plenty of self-described Rabbis walking around with individual smicha from an assortment of personalities, with conceivably no "high level torah studies" of any kind. And there are rabbis from institutions whose coursework is more akin to an MSW than Kollel.
What about the Judith Hauptmans of the world, who had phd's in the subject and at the level you appear to want, but either did not initially pursue smicha, or received it much later?
TOTJ Steve, I will grant you that rabbis don't necessarily all have the same level of knowledge. But, as a general rule (to the best of my knowledge), most rabbis have had at least three years of post-high-school Torah studies. The title covers both the low and high end of scholarship.
"What about the Judith Hauptmans of the world, who had phd's in the subject and at the level you appear to want, but either did not initially pursue smicha, or received it much later?"
This is exactly the type of case that I'm discussing, but within the Orthodox, rather than non-Orthodox, community. (For the benefit of my readers, Rabbi Dr. Judith Hauptman received her PhD in Talmudic Studies at a time when the Conservative Movement was not yet ordaining women, and was ordained some years later.) By now, there most be thousands of Orthodox women who've graduated from academic programs such as Yeshiva University’s Graduate Program in Advanced Talmudic Studies and such high-level Midrasha studies as Drisha’s Scholars Circle or Midreshet Lindenbaum’s Manhigot Program, just to name the few of which I'm aware. The YU grads receive a PhD, which is not universally recognized as a *Jewish* scholar's credential, and the Midrasha grads receive no title at all.
Okay, maybe I'm being optimistic, but there are at least *hundreds* of graduates of these types of programs.
I should perhaps have said that a PhD is not universally recognized as a *Torah* scholar's credential. Not all PhD programs in Jewish subjects are dedicated to Talmud studies.
If they won't call her rabbi, they might as well call her zonah. That's what they really think.
Anyone who tells you the Semicha is a higher level of "academic achievement" than a PhD is lying... or involved in a Yeshiva's compensation committee. If their Torah writing is good, they'll get quoted as Dr. (first initial) last name, there just, for obvious reasons, hasn't been a draw of Orthodox women toward advanced Talmudic scholarship.
As pointed out here, Shul Rabbi's write a few paragraphs for their Shul newsletter, not engage in scholarship.
The lawyer's a Rabbi, the accountant's a Rabbi, the crooked politician's a Rabbi, every other guy in the Orthodox world seems to have Semicha, it's not a big deal either way.
If women want real academic scholarship, they should go a PhD route. If you want to hang out in Kollel than get shifted onto a community to support you after you have 3 kids and no job skills, go for Semicha.
Seriously, unless you want to be a Shul Rabbi, it's a relatively useless title. For those that are serious scholars, they are all Rabbi/PhDs anyway.
So if it is so useless why not grant it to women? We can't say the title has no impact and at the same time assert it is impossible to grant women a meaningless title.
Tzipporah, ouch. :(
"Seriously, unless you want to be a Shul Rabbi, it's a relatively useless title."
And if that *is* what you want to be, Miami Al?
"We can't say the title has no impact and at the same time assert it is impossible to grant women a meaningless title."
Nicely put, Larry.
Larry,
Agreed, but there isn't going to be a comfort level with a female Shul Rabbi. Rabbinic staff, sure, there for women's questions and comfort, sure, but as the Rav of the Shul?
It's a HUGE cultural shift, one that the Orthodox world is not prepared to make, interested in making, or willing to make.
You're dealing with cultural norms. We can celebrate women and their growing body of scholarship, HOWEVER, female Rabbis will cause the cultural shifts in Orthodoxy that you saw in the heterodox movements, which people DO NOT WANT.
I think the problem is that the term Rabbi covers a too wide a range of meanings. It could mean Torah scholar (talmid chacham), it could mean a shul rabbi, it could mean a posek, it could mean someone minimally professionally educated (i.e., a baal habayit with smicha).
If I get smicha through the program I'm presently attending (not likely) what it will mean is that I've done a lot of study of the Shulchan Aruch, the Mishna Berurah, and assorted commentaries on the, some small amount of study of Talmud and of rishonim, and will be at the stage where I can confidently look up the answers to routine questions in original Hebrew sources.
That's what the word 'Rabbi' will mean when it is applied to me. That's a world apart from what it means when it is applied, l'havdil elef havdolos, to Rabbi Heschel Schachter, and is also significantly different from what it means when I call the rabbi at Ahavas Achim 'Rabbi M'. Basically AB, BA, MA, MSW, LL.D, and PH.D equivalents all have the same title. Many people who would have no trouble with women having a BA equivalent education don't want to see them given a title which might also mean PH.D.
I think it would be a good thing if there was a gender neutral term for people who have been educated at the level I aspire to, and if we weren't called Rabbi any longer. I can't see that being implemented though.
Over on facebook someone is suggesting the title Chacham be used instead of Rabbi for poskim and talmedai chachamim. So Rabbi would become the AB, BA, CSW, MSW level title and Chacham would be the PH.D, LL.D etc, level title.
Personally as long as the standard name for a pulpit Rabbi is still "Rabbi" I don't think there is any chance of the O masses accepting the idea of women being awarded the title.
"I think the problem is that the term Rabbi covers a too wide a range of meanings. It could mean Torah scholar (talmid chacham), it could mean a shul rabbi, it could mean a posek, it could mean someone minimally professionally educated (i.e., a baal habayit with smicha)."
That's a good point, Larry.
. . .
I think it would be a good thing if there was a gender neutral term for people who have been educated at the level I aspire to"
Good idea. I guess someone on Facebook was thinking along the same lines:
"Over on facebook someone is suggesting the title Chacham be used instead of Rabbi for poskim and talmedai chachamim. So Rabbi would become the AB, BA, CSW, MSW level title and Chacham would be the PH.D, LL.D etc, level title."
Excellent! Pardon my ignorance of Hebrew grammar, but what's the female equivalent? Is it Chachamah?
"Personally as long as the standard name for a pulpit Rabbi is still "Rabbi" I don't think there is any chance of the O masses accepting the idea of women being awarded the title."
You're probably right.
I really like the idea of calling a talmid chacham (roughly translated, advanced student) or a posek (halachic decisor) a Chacham because the title is not only Hebrew, it also has a distinguished history. Calling an Orthodox woman Torah scholar (talmidah chachamah?) or poseket (a role that I hope will be opened to women during my lifetime) a Chachamah would certainly give her a distinguished and respected title, but one that's less controversial than Rabbi or Rabbah.
Of course, that would mean that many learned *women* would have the same title, no matter what their level of education, just as many learned men, no matter what their level of education, have the title Rabbi. Honestly, I can't think of a better idea at the moment. My dictionary confirms that Chachamah (chet, chaf, mem, hey) is grammatically correct for a woman, so Chachamah it is, unless anyone else has a better suggestion. The floor is still open.
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