Women don't need partnership minyans - The Jewish Chronicle

Over the past year we have heard a good deal about partnership minyanim - religious services where women take on more active roles such as leading some prayers, leyning from the Torah and receiving aliyot. Their proponents have trumpeted them as pivotal in determining the future direction of Orthodoxy in what is said to be "a male-dominated" environment.

In addition, there is the implication that Orthodox rabbis should be quaking in their boots because supporters of partnership minyanim are said to include some of the most religiously committed and educated members within the United Synagogue.

This innovation is presented as the thinking woman's - and man's - choice for the future of Orthodoxy. As an Orthodox feminist, I understand why Jewish women feel that there are areas in communal life which require change. Yet when I hear women clamouring to modify our synagogue services, I disagree.

When Sarah Schenirer created Jewish schools for women 100 years ago, saving generations of girls from assimilation, she did so with the approval of the accepted authorities of the time such as the Gerer Rebbe and the Chofetz Chaim. In contrast, voices from all sectors of the Orthodox world have presented uncompromising and categorical refutations to the halachic validity of partnership minyanim.

Nevertheless, leaving aside the alarmingly dubious halachic basis for these minyanim, the social arguments also merit some discussion. For among the small number of voices demanding change perhaps there are alternative viewpoints. Perhaps some would question why a set of ancient traditions and laws should need modifying. Perhaps some women would take offence at the assumptions made about how we should all apparently think and feel.

Women are required to pray but not in the same formal way as men

A recognised problem in today's society is the emphasis placed on personal comfort and gratification over improvement and achievement. While low standards or poor performance would have once suggested a need to take responsibility, work harder and change behaviour, in today's culture the responsibility for personal weaknesses is often deflected on to others such as teachers, society or the government. It is as though someone else out there somehow failed to discharge their responsibility to provide for the needs of others. This is a world of rights, not
responsibilities.

It follows then that if someone is dissatisfied in their worship of God, it must be the style of worship or the community's expectation of women that is at fault.

Although equality does not necessarily imply sameness, equal access to God must take in to account physical and spiritual differences. For example, numerous studies indicate that the hormone oxytocin plays a critical role in the formation of lasting social relationships which are the foundation of a healthy society. Women create and respond to oxytocin more readily than men and men tend to compensate for this by using group similarities and structure to build those social relationships.

Prayer is our most direct way of forming our own, personal relationship with God. Our ancient traditions which provide men the opportunities to lead structured prayer services reflect this fundamental reality. Women are required to pray, but not in the same formal, organised and structured way as men.

Equalising roles in prayer services both obstructs men from this important opportunity in their own growth and is a denial of a woman's true potential to create close connections with those around her and with God, without the need for structure and rigidity. Yet these differences in no way suggest that either gender is better or worse, or should be treated with different degrees of respect and dignity.

It is unfortunate that today's Judaism is so strongly centred on the synagogue and its activities, as opposed to personal mitzvah observance such as charity, character refinement or Torah
learning.

Many women may feel that receiving an aliyah to read from the Torah or lead a service makes them feel a spiritual connection. But why shouldn't a woman feel a spiritual connection to God by lighting Shabbat candles or separating challah? Are these mitzvot less valuable because they are not public?

We have apparently confused the public aspect of mitzvot with their value and appeal. Consequently, we have completely missed the point that a mitzvah is a means by which we connect to God and our community, not about our own feelings of spirituality or self-worth.

It is wrong to feel entitled to public roles in the ritual services in our synagogues simply because of the public roles we have in our professional lives. Our challenge is to emphasise and focus on our personal connection to God. By doing so, we can recapture our true purpose and bring genuine femininity back into Judaism.