Page 4 - The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, February 9,1984
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RABBIMOSES J3URAK
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QUESTION: Can women be ordafaied as
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When a question arises in Jewish law, the § answer must be found in the great sources of i|
our faith: the torah, the Talmud, Maimonides, |i
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the Shulchan 'Aruch, and the responsa of the i| great decisors. If one can take a question all the way back to the Bible, it is the best step to take.
bi Judges, Chapter 4:4 we read: "Now Deborah, a prophet-IP ess, the wifeof Lappi-|| doth, she judged Is-^ rael at that time." || If you always bie-^ lieved that women
were denied all ^. „ .
opportunities by
Judaism, you should be quite taken aback by this sentence in the Bible. Here was a woman who occupied a position in Israel of greatest eminence, long before such offices became available to women in the modem world. Here was a woman whQ served as rabbi thousands of years before the Jewish Theological Seminary even talked about ordaining women.
Tosfos in Tractate Shevuoth,29B subjects this Deborah story to a very, sharp scrutiny. How could she be a judge, they aisk. One answer is that since she was a prophetess they accepted her as a judge. How could you deny a woman who talked with God the privilege of beingajudge? *
Another answer is that she wasn't a judge; she was only their instructor on the laWs of pi Israel. " 'V . . %
There is an erudite iainailysis of the Tosfos in || the Mleches Betsalel on Shevuoth. However, || while a Deborah could be a judge, you can't |^ have a lady m that office unless she is a >| prophetess. i
This is the way one should look at this she'elah^ and that's only the beginning. But that is not the way of those who opt for the ordination of women. : M
Mr. WOUam Abnunsvlnitla CJN articte of I Jan. 5, teds as of a different way to rrach declalons on Jewish law. fle tells as that "the i United $ynagogae, comprisfaig 83(1 syna- ^ gogaes, and the Women's Lei^e for Con- % servatlve Judaism have both endorsed (he U
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move.
Suppose we take a look at the synagogues in ™ the movement and rate the religious zeal of their people.
A gentleman who recentiy c^sed the sea decided that while he had always attended an Orthodox synagogue, in Canada he would Join a Conservative temple. It felt good to be one of 2,000 worshippers on Rosh Hashanah. But, a few weeks ago, when he came for Friday evening iservices, he was mortified to find only 20 worshippers at the service. So your young giant of a temple with its hundreds of families, has a bunch of spiritual illiterates voting on the queistion of ordaining women. Another congregation in New Jersey is § equally impressive as an example. The rabbi of J this Conservative temple stated at <^ seminar i that his president gave out mstructions that on
I Friday night tiie lights must be littil 10 "so tiiat ^ the non-Jews will think that there are services i being held there." These are some of the
deeply religious people who vote on questions of Jewish law.
The question as to who are the voters has been at the heart of heated debates within the Rabbinical Assembly itself.
When a shift in direction was being contemplated. Rabbi Samuel Rosenblatt of Baltimore, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, ordained by Chief Rabbi Kook z.l., addressed his brothers m the Rabbinical
II Assembly with these words: "Gentiemenjyour law committee is like a Supreme Court. I beg of you to please take care that only men learned in our laws serveon it," To this, ayoung graduate of JTS replied: "I disagree. In my opmion, as a graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary I am entitied to sit on the house committee and on the law committee."
From his standpoint, the young man was right. If Solomon Schechter could say "It is neither Scripture nor primitive Judaism but general custom, which forms tiie real rule of practice. .."^e need not be learned in the law.
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He need only know how to bow to his masters' W
i win. :
ii In the papers delivered at JTS oh the
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g ordination of women, the opening statement
ii describes the Conservative way as "creative
I beti-ayaL" Betrayal it is. It is not Toras Moshe
j| but sociological considerations.
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By
JOSEPH PpLAKOFF
WASHINGTON —
During his riecent North American visit, Chinese premier Zhao Zyang met with Jewish Americans on both coasts, including San Francisco mayor Dianne Feinstein and Edward Koch, mayor of New York.
In Washington, Zhao formed a deep respect for the state department's top official for Sino-American relations, Paul Wolfowitz, assistant secretary of state for Far Eastern afiiairs.
Bat the most poignant moments of his trip happened here, when Zhao
met the parents of a yoong Jewish student who died of an Incnrable disease contracted while In China learning abon^ Its people, language and culture.
Tears of both sadness and joy flowed at the Sidwell Friends School when Zhao visited the Chinese language class of 20 students, started in memory of John Fiisher Zeidman, who had graduated from the private school in 1979.
Less than three years later, Zeidman was dead from viral encephalitis which he'd contracted in Peking where he was an exchange student.
2!hao canceled a formal U.S. government
farewell ceremony to visit the class and meet Philip and Nancy Zeidman, John's parents, and One of his two sisters, 16-year-oid Jennifer,
The 64-year-old leader toid the Zeldmans that thefa* effort to. establish the Chinese studies program ^Ms the best way to cherish tiie memory of your 8911. He had a warm heart for China and his schoolmates and teachers In PeUng miss him very mndi.V
The Zeidmans raised more than $200,000 for the program iand were aided by the Chinese embassy in Washington, which contributed some 40Q books on Chinese history, literature and
NEW YORK —
The president of the American Association of Travel Editors (AATE) has urged West German and European officials to effect revisions suggested by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'irith in this year's famed Oberammergau Passion Play in order to remove its anti-Jewish content.
Jurgen Hartmann, head of the journalists' group, whose members have a combined 40 million readers on two continents, expressed his concern about the Passion Play' s anti -Judaism in letters to Frank Hbfihann, mayQr of the Bavarian village where the 350th anniversary production is to be istaged this year; West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl; tiie director-general of the German Tourist Board, and the chahman of the European travel Commission.
' 'I know that virtually all of my colleagues share my feelings re-
garding your passion play," said Hartmann in his letter to Mayor Hof-mann, urging him to follow ADL's recommended script revisions. "By bringing the play into conformity with contemporary Catholic thought,'^ he added, "Oberammergau can become a place of inter-
national understand-mg.
Hartmann's correspondence was prompted by a letter to Mayor Hofmann made public by ADL last November, in which the agency said it was "deeply troubled" that no further changes were contemplated in the pageant.
customs. _i Moon cakes and calendars were also donated to the class. . Zhao invited the Zeldmans and the class members to be his guests in China.
Philip Zeidman wrote the eulogy for his son's funeral service held Jan. 5,1982. at the Washington Hebrew Congregation.
It Avas read by the youth's uncle, Rabbi Danid Jeremy Silyer. In it, the father recalled his son's aptitude for Chinese, his illness, their visit to him in a Peking hospital, and John's bar mitzvah speech seven years earlier at the same altai^ at which the eulogy was being given.
He recalled the boy saying at the altan "For the brief period of our lives, we are allowed to faihabit this earth. And It Is our duty and our privilege to Improve It, cnltiyate it, and enrich it — and, If we are wise, to leave it a better world tltah we found it."
Zeidman also recalled when he was in Peking and his son lay mortally ill tiiat"tiiere is in the world far more love and empathy than a popular cynicism would have us believe."
The lesson, his eulogy text said, emerged ''un-
forgettably at a hastily assembled Kol Nidre service in Peking, where I was surrounded by Catholics and Protestants as well as by Jews, all praying for John Zeidman." The eulogy concluded with the father repeating in Yiddish a "silent message" from John's grandfather.
Zeidman became well known in China by his rebuttal of a published criticism about the medical care John received m China. Both articles appeared in The Washington Post in January 1982.
Zeidman praised Chinese care for his son before he was flown to Baltimore, saying: "John did not die of inadequate care or unsanitary medical facilities! He died of viral encephalitis.
"And while he was far likelier to have contracted that disease in China than in America,, he was a good deal less likely in China to have died at the hands of, say, a drunk driver or an armed mugger.
"One of our companions on an earlier trip to CUna was Dr. Michael Halberstam, who returned safely to Wash-iiigton only to be shot to dirath by a burglar in his own home."
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