Orthodox Jewish Women Scholars; Growing Authority is Recognized in Push to Publish
March 30, 2022
(RNS) — According to the Talmud, the first instructions on how Jews should celebrate the holiday of Purim were set down by one of its founders: Queen Esther, who with her cousin Mordechai helped saved the Jews in Persia from the evil Haman. In writing her book on Purim, Esther became one of two women, with Jezebel, whose writing is recorded in the Bible.
Today, 50 years after the first woman was ordained a rabbi in America, and 100 after the first bat mitzvah, Orthodox Jewish women are being urged to write and publish more widely on religious topics than ever before, as publishers, schools and websites are opening the way to make women’s scholarship and thinking more widely available — including two new programs named for Esther’s decision to publish.
In May the Matan Women’s Institute of Torah Studies in Jerusalem will announce its first group of Kitvuni Fellows. Named for Esther’s command to her rabbis, “Kitvuni l’dorot” (“Record me for all generations”), the program invites female scholars and educators to develop books on the Torah, supporting them with workshops, access to experts and a monthly stipend.
“It is time to make room on the bookshelf,” said Rabbanit Yael Ziegler, who became academic director at Matan last fall and began “thinking what is the next stage of women’s learning.”
Traditionally men, and especially male rabbis, have been granted exclusive authority in Orthodox Judaism, and only recently have women begun to be accepted as Torah scholars and earned the title “rabba” or “rabbanit.” The recent push to publish women’s views on the Torah represents a coming of age for the idea that learned women can claim authority in interpreting Jewish law.
Women’s scholarship itself is new, though there have been exceptional women seen as learned in all eras of history, such as Bruriah, whose opinions are quoted in the Talmud. Opportunities for women to study Torah have been growing for decades, but without access to publishing, learning is rarely recognized. According to Ziegler, female scholars’ accomplishments “have not been reflected in the written Torah scholarship that has emerged.”
After more than 30 years of existence, Nishmat, a center for women’s Torah study in Jerusalem, published Nishmat HaBayit, its first collection of answers to women’s questions about Jewish law and the first book of Jewish legal responses authored entirely by women. The book contains entries on pregnancy and pregnancy loss, birth, nursing and contraception. According to its website, over 400,000 questions asked by women have been answered by the 160 female experts who have trained there.
Ziegler is conscious that changing minds about women’s place in Torah study means providing examples for younger women scholars. If publishers “fill bookshelves with that kind of scholarship that we are looking for, it will be a message to young women,” she said.
Rabbanit Yael Ziegler. Photo courtesy of Matan
Rabbanit Sara Wolkenfeld. Photo courtesy of Sefaria
