Supreme Court Forces Women's Rights

This should definitely work

The Israeli Supreme Court ruled recently that women can take the Chief Rabbinate’s rabbinical exams:

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Supreme Court Justice Noam Solberg issued a landmark ruling on Monday, requiring the Chief Rabbinate to allow women to take the rabbinical exams, stating clearly:”Discrimination is prohibited.”

In order to understand the background behind the Supreme Court decision, it is important to note that the rabbinical examinations have two goals: One is for those who wish to acquire rabbinic ordination to serve as communal rabbis in Israel, and the other is to grant financial benefits to those who have passed the examinations, as they are deemed equivalent to an academic degree, which in many professions including civil servants, police and academia, confers a higher level of remuneration.

Thousands of rabbis in Israel who pass the examinations do not serve in a rabbinical position but do receive significant financial benefits, and the women’s groups claimed that since only men can take the examinations, it constitutes unfair discrimination.

The panel of judges, led by Solberg, included Justice Daphne Barak-Erez and Justice Ofer Grosskopf. In their ruling, they wrote:

“Barring women — ‘expounders, righteous and wise’ — from the opportunity to take exams held by the Chief Rabbinate constitutes prohibited discrimination, for which there is no sufficient justification — in fact, no justification at all. Given the lack of practical alternatives, it appears there is no choice but to make the conditional order absolute.”

Justice Solberg added:

“The Chief Rabbinate and the Ministry for Religious Services are attempting to have it both ways: on the one hand, they block women from taking the exams on the grounds that the tests are only for ordination to the rabbinate (which, in their view, is not available to women); on the other hand, they allow any man who meets certain basic criteria to take the exams and to receive various certificates and benefits — even though there is no necessary connection between those benefits and the intention to be ordained as a city rabbi, or any actual ordination. Clearly, such conduct is unacceptable.”

In conclusion, the justices wrote:

“Discrimination between women and men in eligibility to sit for the Chief Rabbinate’s exams is unacceptable, just as discrimination in access to any public service in the State of Israel is unacceptable. For me, this is the beginning — and the end — of the matter.”

Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu Zini, head of the Ohr V’Yeshuah Hesder Yeshiva in Haifa, said in an interview with Srugim that the Supreme Court ruling requiring the Chief Rabbinate to allow women to take rabbinical exams is, in his words, “a case of ‘Yehareg ve’al ya’avor'” (one must be killed rather than transgress).

Zini said that the court has no right to intervene in a religious issue and added that “If the Chief Rabbinate agrees to implement this ruling, it will immediately lose its status as the Chief Rabbinate. Every religious Jew will then be entitled to disagree with it on any matter, because it will have become secular! This is exactly what the charedim have been doing for decades — and now, specifically, a religious judge is giving them the seal of approval to do so.”

Not emphasized in the article is that fact that the Chief justice is quoting the medrash of Benos Tzelafchad:

I don’t understand the point of this. It will just backfire. All this will do is make the Chief Rabbinate exams become worthless in the eyes of many.

From Tzohar:

The Jewish organization Tzohar has conducted halachic exams for women for years, “quietly and without headlines,” the group said in response to Judge Sohlberg’s decision.

“There was no revolution, and the skies were not shaken; only a precise, practical, and uniform way was created to assess Torah knowledge. This is important in itself, and is not necessarily connected to authority or positions.”

Evolution works. Revolution does not. Open Orthodoxy has essentially vanished in America for attempting a revolution. In contrast, in Israel, Yoetzot have become the norm by not making a huge deal about everything.

Stupid move by the feminists here.

Related:

Two attitudes towards women learning Torah