"The best way to accomplish this is for our community to start many different training programs for Orthodox women who wish to work as clergy. " Rabbi Michael Broyde
More on this interesting perspective may be found at:
This whole women as clergy thing is a joke. Those who will accept them don't have a need for them. They don't ask shailos or require in-depth Jewish guidance, just an uplifting sermon once in a while. Anyone can do that, even Obama. Those who know what a real rabbi actually does for a living won't accept them and will politely smile when introduced to Maharet Plonit or Rabba So-and-so while snickering inside. So expect their impact to be minimal.
The question still is clergy v.s. rabbi. What hit me when I read this article is that, for many, there already is a title for female clergy -- rebbetzin. Now you may state that that is not really a title for female clergy; it is a respectful way of addressing the wife of a rabbi. Yet look how this term is used: Rabbetzin Henkin, Rebbetzin Jungreis. The term has been applied beyond its role of "rabbi's wife" to take on exactly what is being describe here -- a term for female clergy, effectively giving these women some status as clergy when really the term Rebbetzin has nothing to do with this (except perhaps as eishet chaver k'chaver). Maybe it is time to have a term for Rebbetzin type positions, when the term is not being used in the context of rabbi's wife, so that thereby, through some type of program to ensure that such term has been individually earned, we ensure that the person in this 'clergy' postion has some qualifications.
3 comments:
This whole women as clergy thing is a joke.
Those who will accept them don't have a need for them. They don't ask shailos or require in-depth Jewish guidance, just an uplifting sermon once in a while. Anyone can do that, even Obama.
Those who know what a real rabbi actually does for a living won't accept them and will politely smile when introduced to Maharet Plonit or Rabba So-and-so while snickering inside.
So expect their impact to be minimal.
The question still is clergy v.s. rabbi. What hit me when I read this article is that, for many, there already is a title for female clergy -- rebbetzin. Now you may state that that is not really a title for female clergy; it is a respectful way of addressing the wife of a rabbi. Yet look how this term is used: Rabbetzin Henkin, Rebbetzin Jungreis. The term has been applied beyond its role of "rabbi's wife" to take on exactly what is being describe here -- a term for female clergy, effectively giving these women some status as clergy when really the term Rebbetzin has nothing to do with this (except perhaps as eishet chaver k'chaver). Maybe it is time to have a term for Rebbetzin type positions, when the term is not being used in the context of rabbi's wife, so that thereby, through some type of program to ensure that such term has been individually earned, we ensure that the person in this 'clergy' postion has some qualifications.
Rabbi Ben Hecht
See http://garnelironheart.blogspot.com/2009/08/rabbi-vs-rav.html
for a nuanced, highly intelligent look at the issue.
Post a Comment