Thursday, June 30, 2011

Dr. Sperber: Part 3

Going over the table of contents in Dr. Sperber's book "The way of Halacha", published in Hebrew by Reuven Mass press in Jerusalem, it occurs to me that summarizing the book would be very difficult. I will however, attempt to outline the major points of the book that related to women's Torah reading:

1. Kavod hatzibur is a subjective, sociological term that can change with time. Congregations may also choose to engage in actions that violate their kavod; the kavod is theirs to give away. Furthermore, the formulation of the Talmud is that while it is not appropriate for women to read, it is technically permissible. There is precedent for allowing women to read from the Torah in situations where kavod did not apply - in family minyans in houses, for example, which are not a shul congregation.
2. There is a precedent of allowing women to touch korbanot on Yom Kippur, in order to provide them with "nachat ruach", relief, even though it is not ideal for them to touch the korbanot. This is analagous to Torah reading - perhaps it is not ideal for women to read, but one could say that in order to grant them nachat ruach they should be allowed to do so.
3. The concepts of kavod habriot, (human dignity), darchey noam (that the Torah is pleasant, and halacha should reflect that) and darchey shalom (ways of peace) can all be used as legitimate halachik reasons to allow women to read from the Torah. The reason they are legitimate is that there is halachik precedent of using these three considerations as reasons to allow certain things and to rule leniently in certain cases.

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