Whence Lady Rabbis?

Orthodox rabbis everywhere are condemning Open Orthodoxy and its call for lady rabbis and other engagement by females in halachically prescribed and traditional male activity like reading from the Torah and the wearing of tzitzis and tefillin. However, many of these very same rabbis bear responsibility for encouraging this new trend by teaching that women are more spiritual than men.

The teaching that women are more spiritual than men implies that a man's role is more spiritual than a woman's. How so? One can reasonably ask, if women are more spiritual, shouldn't they be the rabbis and spiritual leaders of the home? So apologists like to say, the men "catch up" via Torah study, tefillin, and other positive time-bound commandments to which women are exempt. However, in order to catch up the man's day must be more spiritual than the woman's or he'd never catch up. Thus, according to that logic, taking care of the home and the children really is a less spiritual path.

But isn't this precisely what we didn't want the women to conclude? See where dishonesty gets you? No wonder we have women today that want to be rabbis and wear tefillin. Rabbis condemn them, but these women are in many respects products of what they have been taught by some of those very same rabbis. These women want to be spiritual. And they have been taught that the man's role is more spiritual.

Why do I call the apologetics dishonesty? Because there are no Torah sources that teach them. R' Samson R. Hirsch is most commonly cited. But one has to read his words carefully. He says only that the Torah “did not consider them necessary to be demanded from women” in part because they have “more faithful enthusiasm for their God-serving calling.” (Vayikra 23, Levy trans.) People get lost on his use of the word "necessary." A Levi doesn't need to do Birchos Cohanim. Only the Kohen, who has more holiness, has that “need.” The woman doesn't “need” those mitzvos for her role. But she doesn't have the man's role. You can't mix and match. R' Hirsch also say that "The male sex is zachar, it is the depository of the Divine revelations and the spiritual attainments of the human race. To it has been entrusted the zicharon, the tradition of the human race as it has developed, in him is formed the spiritual chain which links together the beginning and the end of the human race. (JE, Vol. 2; CW, Vol. VIII, "The Jewish Woman") This is not something you'd want to assign to the less spiritual person. Rav Hirsch also says in many places that men and women are equal in their spiritual levels even as their roles are different. Example:

"In the word איש and אשה. (man and a female man I.L.) lay the guarantee for the equality in rank and mutually complementing calling of Man and Woman. As long as man and woman were איש and אשה. there was no need for man to be emancipated from woman nor woman from man, neither could make the other into a slave nor yet into a god or goddess. The first who altered this designation - as indeed our sages remark, in no other language are man and woman designated by words coming from the same root and so regarded from the same trend of thought – brought it about that one man would yoke his woman to the plough while the other would throw himself at her feet." (R' Samson Raphael Hirsch, Genesis 11 :58)

As for other commentators, the Maharal says in many places that men are more spiritual than women (Tiferes Yisroel 28, Derech Chaim 1:5, Chidushei Agados Makkos 23b, Gur Aryeh, Vayikra 12:2 ) and says that women are exempt from positive time-bound commandments for this reason (Chidushei Agados Makkos 23b). The Baal Magen Avraham says women are exempt from positive time-bound commandments because their yetzer tov is smaller. (Zies Ra'anan on Yalkut Shemoni, Shmuel 1:1).

May we suggest that going forward we teach simply that men and women are equal in spiritual levels but different in roles? So taught the great leaders of our era Rav Moshe Feinstein, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, R' Joseph Soloveitchik, and R' Avigdor Miller.

R' Feinstein said that every mention of holiness in the Chumash refers to both men and women, telling us that the two genders are equal in holiness. The exemption of women from positive time-bound commandments is as the word says an exemption so that she can engage in child rearing and chesed. (Igros Moshe, Orach Chaim IV #49) R' Feinstein writes elsewhere:

"...every Jew should realize that he is sanctified with the holiness of the Jew, and it is only because of that holiness that we were given the Torah and obligated to do the mitzvos. As I have often written, mitzvos cannot be fulfilled properly unless the doer has the holiness of the Jew. The Kohanim, who have additional mitzvos, must have the particular holiness of Kohanim....The expression "Who has sanctified us with His mitzvos" should not be misunderstood as meaning that mitzvos are the source of the sanctity. It is self-understood that the sanctity the blessing refers to is the underlying sanctity of every Jew -- that which enables us to fulfill the mitzvos." (Darash Moshe, Volume II, p. 154, Vayikra, Kedoshim)

Thus, we should not say that men are not unholy until they do the mitzvos because their holiness is what obligates them in those mitzvos. Women also are holy, only they are exempt from certain mitzvos so that they can do other mitzvos. It's not that the women are less holy and not that they are more holy.

R' Soloveitchik said:

"The foremost distinguishing characteristic bestowed upon man is his Divine image, his tzelem Elohim, which denotes particular qualitative endowments, such as a moral sense, free will, and intellect. Man partakes of these attributes within human limitations, while God's representation of these qualities is absolute. Maimonides embodied man's likeness to God primarily in terms of his intellect (Guide 1: 1). This Divine gift was given to both men and women. 'And God created man with His image. In the image of God, He created him; male and female He created them.' (Gen. 1:27). In their spiritual natures, they were equally worthy." (Man of Faith in the Modern World, p. 84).

The Lubavitcher Rebbe said that when a husband (or future husband) does those mitzvos, he does them on behalf of his wife. She is affected by his actions. (Sichos in English, Iyar-Tammuz 5744, Vol. 21, pp. 69-72)

R' Miller says that the father performs those special mitzvos on behalf of the whole family (Q&A: Thursday Nights with Rabbi Miller, pp. 189-190) and that

"As we know, men are commanded to perform mitzvos asei she'haz'man grama, time-bound mitzvos. Women, on the other hand, are not required to perform these mitzvos. What is the reason for this difference? The answer is that women have other important obligations to tend to, which exempt her from these commandments. A woman must know that she is a briah shel chessed, she has been created for the purpose of performing chessed. Being a wife and mother is a very significant role, and it requires her to be selfless and totally dedicated to performing chessed! It takes a woman's entire effort to succeed in being an efficient mother and wife. Investing her abilities in raising children is very time consuming but is a tremendous zechus for her!" (Rabbi Avigdor Miller Speaks, p. 272)

Nobody is spiritually superior. That's the way for this generation to think of it. Let us note how the sages of our generation handle it and follow their lead. Otherwise, to quote a gentile writer "O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!" (Walter Scott)