There's an extraordinary story in The Jerusalem Post about Haviva Ner-David, who has become one of the first women to receive an Orthodox smicha (ordination) in Israel. (Note: a great deal of this story appears to be lifted from inspired by this article at Jewish Virtual Library, which cites its sources.)
Ner-David's journey is especially interesting to me because, back in 1972, with only a tiny smattering of Jewish learning under my belt, I decided that I wanted to go to rabbinical school. I was mightily disappointed to discover that the only one open to me at that time (if my goal was smicha) was Hebrew Union College. The Reform approach to Judaism just wasn't the program I was seeking, even though (actually, because) it was the one in which I'd been raised. So I gave up on the idea and went in a different direction. Subsequently, both the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and the Jewish Theological Seminary began ordaining women.
Forget Yeshiva University. Ner-David's application there didn't even receive the courtesy of a response. But a few women have now been ordained in non-institutional settings within the Orthodox tradition (as oxymoronic as that may sound to some) and just last month, Ner-David joined them. Unlike the others, she intends to use her title, even if it isn't official.
"I have deep respect for Rabbi Strikovsky, and I am so grateful to him for all he has taught me, modeled for me and been willing to risk for what he knew was right," she says. "His hesitation to give me a title is understandable, but really that was not his role as I see it. He acknowledged my readiness to go out into the world and act in the role of a rabbi and he left it up to my community to decide what title to give me. And it seems to me already that my community has decided that it is ready for a woman rabbi.
"I have been called up to the Torah twice since my ordination, and both times, without my inserting the title myself, the gabbai [sexton] calling me up to the Torah called me up as Harav Haviva. People are already calling me rabbi, and so, it seems that there is a community out there that is actually more ready for this development than some might have thought."
Ner-David has a very interesting perspective on her role as a rabbi -- one that didn't get much traction among Jewish feminists 35 years ago, which I guess is one of the reasons I've never considered myself one.
She continues, "What we need now is not women who simply want to prove that they can also be men, but rather, we need women who can bring a new and fresh perspective. In many ways, we are at a transitional point in the Jewish world. The world is changing and Judaism will have to change too, as it always has in the past.
"But it is crucial to figure out the right balance between innovation and tradition and the way to incorporate change without losing a sense of continuity with the past or the essence of Judaism's message about how we as Jews should connect to the Divine."
Ner-David says that "it is crucial that at this point in history, when women's voices are finally being heard in the general culture, that women be part of the conversation of how to bring Judaism into the 21st century. But we have to enter this conversation as ourselves, with our true voices, without trying to prove anything to anyone about how like the men we really are and can be.
"Even if men come to regret having agreed to share their power because we are not willing to comply with their rules, we must insist on having our true voices heard. Because what will we really have gained if we enter the rabbinate only to perpetuate the same patriarchal, hierarchical model that we have had until now?"
She doesn't have an easy road ahead (witness the comments already accumulating at the JPost), but I doubt that she'll be easily intimidated. Anyway, read the rest.
Shabbat Shalom.
