Hartman Institute to Ordain Orthodox Women Rabbis

January 11, 2008 at 12:47 pm | In beliefs, culture, education, halacha, israel, jewish denominations, orthodox, sexuality, torah |

In a move that brings Orthodox Judaism hurtling forward through time to the 1960s, the Shalom Hartman institute will ordain women to be Orthodox rabbis.

More accurately, the institute has opened a 4-year program to prepare people of any Jewish denomination to receive rabbinical ordinate.

More on this later, but I think this marks a major turning point in Jewish history, not so much for the content of the decision, but because the decision emerged from an Israeli institute. Is progressive Orthodoxy now an Israeli phenomenon, surpassing Yeshivat Chovevei Torah?

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Remember the molotov cocktail tossed regarding who will be regarded as truly authoritative in Orthodoxy and possible invalidation of conversions and all that? Yeah, that firebomb.

Well, this is the inevitable second round.

Like telling kids that they will be expelled if they skip school too much. “If they won’t come, then we won’t let them.”

This is the kids’ response, “cool, we’ll be free to skip all the time.”

Countdown to threatened invalidation of Orthodox women rabbis in 5… 4… 3…

Comment by suitepotato — January 14, 2008 #
You’re right, except that Hartman has only nominal acceptance in the Orthodox world anyway - just like Halbertal. It’s too bad, I think the two of them are the best integration of religious and secualr worlds.

Comment by rejewvenator — January 14, 2008 #
They may have only nominal acceptance but I think it illustrates the underlying capacity in the people at large to digress from any given party line as it were. The natural human response of (seemingly) irrational tightening of views and solidification of positions when you’re on the out side is… we know, it’s that “fine, whatever, if we’re going to be damned, we might as well go all out” response.

If anything this crack-up can if we hold onto our faith strengthen Judaism over the long term as we separate wheat from chaff. Sure that’s optimistic but that’s the whole essence of faith anyhow.

Comment by suitepotato — January 16, 2008 #
True - I hope to spend a week at the Shalom Hartman Institute this summer and see what’s really going on over there.

Comment by rejewvenator — January 16, 2008 #
I hope you get your wish and would love to hear about how it goes.

Comment by suitepotato — January 17, 2008 #
There is a key fact which is made clear in the article to which you link, but not stressed in your post. It should be noted that Hartman will not be offering traditional semicha, i.e., yoreh yoreh, etc., but rather it is more of a “teacher” certification (whatever that means). I do not think this development represents the watershed moment you claim it to be, since we already have women learning at Drisha and elsewhere at a very high level, and teaching both men and women. While this may be new for the “orthodox world,” Hartman is barely in the “Orthodox world” (or it is in the orthodox world as much as Drisha is) and it remains to be seen what, if any impact this will have.

Comment by mjfire — January 21, 2008 #
If Hartman has come up with a certification that carries the title Rabbi, and grants women that title, the fact that this smicha is not yoreh-yoreh will be lost in the shuffle. As it is,most men with yoreh-yoreh would never dare give a ruling on any issue. In fact, aside from the rabbi of a shul and certain halachic specialists, most rabbis don’t give halachic rulings ever.

For me, what was groundbreaking was that this was happening in Israel, and that largely, unlike the Drisha or Ya’atzot Halacha programs and so forth, Hartman was being egalitarian - it was making the point that equal education means equal certification.

Comment by rejewvenator — January 21, 2008 #