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From The Balcony

From the balcony where women sit
they need a pole to slide and join the men,
but if you lower the mehitsah just a bit,
will they still iterate “amen, amen, ”
which Numbers in five twenty-two explains
a woman has to say if she ignores
the warning to be separate, and remains
suspiciously sequestered with señors.
Oh bitter are the waters she must drink
in case she swells with pride because she knocks
her man on floors of sanctuaries to sink
with sanctimony that is Orthodox.

Inspired by an article Anthony Weiss in The Forward, “An Orthodox woman rabbi by any other name” copied in Haaretz on May 25,2009:

Plans for a new school to train Orthodox women as clergy are pushing the issue of the role of women in Orthodox Judaism to a new and untested frontier. Avi Weiss, a leading advocate for a more liberal Orthodoxy, and Sara Hurwitz, a protege of Weiss, are now taking inquiries and applications for Yeshivat Maharat, a four-year program set to open this fall to train women as 'full members of the Rabbinic Clergy, ' according to an e-mail announcement. But they will not, as of yet, be called rabbis. 'We're training women to be rabbis, ' Hurwitz told the Forward. 'What they will be called is something we’re working out.” The move appears to place Weiss and Hurwitz at the precipice of what is possible under traditional Orthodox law without actually jumping off. In striking that balance, they are risking the possibility of alienating those to the left who want an equal rabbinical role for women and those to the right who argue that spiritual leadership is incompatible with the place of women in Orthodox society. 'My best guess is that we are seeing further evidence of a coming division in Orthodoxy between left and right, ' said Jonathan Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University. But, he noted, 'Rabbi Weiss has not only been able to push the envelope, but to do so successfully.'…

Indeed, the new program has already spurred criticism that it will make women’s roles in Judaism a more charged issue. 'I don't see how this promotes the growth of women's learning, ' said Rabbi Yosef Blau, spiritual advisor of Yeshiva University's rabbinical seminary. 'It makes it more controversial and more difficult for women who are ready and who are committed to learning.'
He added: 'There are already programs of advanced study for women. If any women showed interest, or if shuls showed interest, in something like this, they would be doing it.' But Weiss has experience in successfully pushing the boundaries of Orthodox liberalism while still remaining a respected, if controversial, member of the Orthodox world. His recently established Yeshivat Chovevei Torah has become an important training ground for progressive and social activist Orthodox rabbis who, despite resistance from a number of prominent leaders, have found jobs and roles in mainstream Orthodox institutions.

5/26/09

poem by Gershon Hepner
Added by Poetry Lover
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