Over the past few days, many folks have asked me what I think about the Rabbinical Council of America’s (RCA) latest broadside against Orthodox female spiritual leadership. Especially as the broadside contained several lines directed fairly personally toward me, an RCA member who has hired an inspiring and endlessly creative Maharat graduate as my fellow spiritual leader. So here’s what I think: This is one of the most gratifying and satisfying moments of my life. A cause that emanates from the very root of my faith, from my passion for Torah and mitzvot, and from my commitment to truth and to justice, has been acknowledged — however grudgingly — as being on the cusp of changing the face of the Jewish people.
But I am, of course, only the tiniest of cogs in all of this. This is something we have all achieved together. So to all the visionaries who first imagined the possibility of Orthodox women serving as spiritual leaders, to all of the women who are preparing themselves for these positions, to all of the Jews who are supporting these efforts, to all of the rabbis and shul boards who are contemplating hiring female spiritual leaders: Let us all be strong and of good courage. Let us all appreciate the historic moment in which we now live. Let us all recognize that the stammering bluster of the RCA resolution, which seeks to limit rather to expand the number of teachers of Torah, which seeks to reduce rather than to enlarge the pool of people who can respond to halachic questions, which seeks to minimize rather than to maximize the number of religious role models and leaders that our communities can have, marks the complete abdication of the RCA’s stated mission, “to make Torah great and glorious.” This mission has today been fully transferred to us. Let us work at it tirelessly. Let us be true servants of Torah and of God. Let us be strong and of good courage.
Rav Yosef Kanefsky is senior rabbi at B’nai David Judea, an Orthodox congregation in Los Angeles.
