Miriam at Bloghead just mentioned a fascinating set of posts from Biur Chametz about the question of women and Torah reading at Orthodox synagogues - specifically Kehillat Yedidyah in Jerusalem. Mr. Biur just went to a halakhic forum on the issue at Yedidyah and reports on the discussion between Rabbi Henkin and Rabbi Sperber.
This discussion dovetails nicely with the topic we are now considering in my Gender and Sexuality in Judaism course - women and the mitzvot. I'm going to show the discussion to my students when we return to class in a week (we are now having our spring vacation).
"Mr. Biur"? So my pseudonym has become a surname.... Cute.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, though: Glad to be of interest. I'm not sure how useful the topic is for your course, though. It doesn't fit most of the classical categories relevant to women and the mitzvot (since Torah reading isn't a personal mitzvah).
Enjoy spring vacation. In Israel, we're even enjoying spring weather!