Mizrachi SA Jewish Observer - Pesach 2016 | Page 10

AHEAD OF THE CURVE
Soloveitchik paints it, we lay on our beds, and moaned, “I’ve
already removed my cloak, I can’t be bothered to get up and
don it again; I’ve washed my feet, how can I sully them?”
(cf. Song of Songs 5:3). And the call at that stage came from
pious Rabbis – Rabbis Kalischer, Mohilever and Alkalai.

law and a strengthening of the home and connection to
Hashem! It has a proven track record world-wide.
Secondly, as Chief Rabbi Mirvis of the UK put it recently, on
his launch of the Ma’ayan Women’s Leadership programme,
“There are large numbers of women in our communities
who, for a variety of reasons, feel more comfortable asking
a woman for advice or guidance on personal matters and
related aspects of Jewish law. We have a responsibility to
provide for them and this programme will help us a great
deal in that regard.” He writes further and so eloquently,
“The ability to harness the shining light of our mitzvot so
that they do not become a blinding glare, is a very special
gift which many with wisdom and experience have, enabling
them to explain, guide and advise on matters of Torah
observance. I have been privileged to meet women in the
UK and abroad who are blessed with this gift and who are
a great source of inspiration to others. Our communities
should have the opportunity to harness the talent of such
women, appointed in a formal capacity, to ‘enlighten the
eyes’ of those around them.”

Again we missed the wave and then others took up the
banner of a Jewish State. And when Theodor Herzl raised
the flag, most Torah Jews turned their backs – how could he
be leading the charge? An assimilated Jew? No thank you,
said we. And now, we complain that the State of Israel is a
secular state, which has before it so many challenges to its
Jewish soul! What foolishness. Torah observant Jews had
all the opportunity in the world to make the State holy and
sanctified, but we chose instead to sanctify Pinsk, Minsk and
Vilna. Again, we were behind the curve and were adamant
that a Herzl figure could never be the one to teach us.
Although it has been said that some of our opponents never
miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity, it seems that we
Jews have often not been much better. Curve after curve,
wave after wave, we miss. And if we climb aboard, it’s at the
end and too little too late.
Pesach is a time for teaching and learning. It is a time when
we encounter the inter-generational continuity of the Jewish
people. The Seder is the moment when the family gathers
round and all are invited to share and teach. We even have
the wicked son there – perhaps he can learn something?
Perhaps he can teach us? Pesach is a time when we can
challenge the paradigms of the teachers we have and those
we have rejected in the past.
Against this background, with the challenges that we as
the Jewish people face today, a different form of teacher has
emerged slowly over the past one hundred years. As
happened with examples above, some of us cannot accept
this sort, thinking that they do not fit the mould, thinking
that they are not frum enough, most especially, not male
enough. The era of the woman Torah teacher is upon us,
and we are missing the wave.
How many more opportunities does the Torah world want
to lose? How many more pure, holy prospects will we spurn,
instead delivering them into the hands of others who will
utilise them for the opposite ends? 50% or more of the
Jewish world is fem ale, why in heaven and earth would we
not invest the same time and effort in generating Torah
teachers and leaders for that 50% and from that 50%?
Let me cite two examples:
Firstly, the project of the Yo’atzot Halacha (women trained to
offer guidance to other women in matters of family purity)
is a case in point. The statistics are blindingly clear – when
a community has a woman in such a position, more women
ask halachic queries because they feel more comfortable. It
is a net gain to Halachic observance and fidelity to Jewish

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“I wonder,
will we miss
this curve?
Will we
recoil from
the
messenger?”

This is the sort of thinking and programming we need, and
much more, and sooner rather than later. We have been
blessed with G-d fearing, punctiliously observant, frummer
than frum women Torah teachers. We should be way ahead
of the curve, and way ahead of the extremists! We should
have an army of learned, trained, committed women Torah
teachers throughout our communities, ensuring that our
women receive the same level of investment as our men.
Instead, we seem content to let things trundle along as they
always have, and to relinquish the narrative to those whose
agenda is fixated on what designation a woman teacher
should have! We, mainstream Torah Jews, have created the
vacuum which is being filled with the noise of extremists on
either side of the equation.
Yes, there will always be those who would focus narrowly
and anachronistically on achieving exact, complete, purist
feminist parity. On the other hand, I have no doubt that
even this earnest and temperate call for teachers will be
twisted by some scaremongers on the opposite side,
seeking to display rabid, anti-Halachic, suffragette monsters
in every challenge to “the way we’ve always done things.”
But concerns over extremists on either side do not justify
our foregoing the opportunity to nurture, build and develop
a Torah-faithful leadership who will help us conquer our
current Egypts.
This Pesach, though, as we all sit around the table, learning
and teaching, I suggest that it is our own future and that
of our children, both sons and daughters, which lies in the
balance.
I wonder, will we miss this curve?
Will we recoil from the messenger? Again?
I hope not. ■

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