Jerusalem – Women Can Dance With Torah Scroll On Simhat Torah, Says National-religious Group

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    FILE -  flash90Jerusalem – The Beit Hillel national-religious rabbinical association issued a ruling on Sunday permitting and encouraging women to dance with Torah scrolls on the upcoming holiday of Simhat Torah which falls on Wednesday night and Thursday this week.

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    The festival celebrates the completion of the annual cycle of reading the the Torah, or the first Five Books of Moses, and synagogues take out the Torah scrolls for the members of the congregations to dance with.

    Although Conservative and Reform Jewish denominations have long allowed women to fully participate in ceremonies and parts of the prayer services involving the Torah, such practices are generally not approved under Orthodox Jewish law.

    In non-Orthodox practice, women may read from the Torah, get called up to the Torah and dance with the Torah on Simhat Torah, but even dancing with the Torah in Orthodox communities is controversial and many communities and rabbis do not permit it.

    However, Beit Hillel, a liberally inclined national-religious group, said women who so desired should be included in all the celebrations.

    “In our generation, many women are active partners in prayers and [Torah] classes as they are in other parts of community life,” the organization wrote in a halachic ruling posted on its website.

    “If women’s participation on Simhat Torah amounts to watching from the women’s section or arranging the tables for kiddush then this is regrettable. In a place where it is important to be partners in Simhat Torah [celebrations], communities should examine the possibility to include them in a variety of ways.

    “Women who see this as important are permitted to dance with a Torah scroll or around a Torah which is on a table in the middle of the dancing,” the Beit Hillel rabbis wrote.

    The organization said other ideas could be promoted for women to be able to take part more fully in Simhat Torah, including appropriate preparation of dance space for women, and designating two women, or Kalot Torah, to lead the celebrations similar to the two men, or Hatan Torah, who do so in Orthodox synagogues.

    “Simhat Torah, which is one of the high-points of every community, has become a day of happiness for men and a nightmare of a day for many women, who watch the men dancing for hours from the women’s section without being able to take part,” said Beit Hillel director Rabbi Ronen Neuwirth.

    “Communities must allow and encourage women to take an active part in Simhat Torah. This must grow organically and cannot be done by coercion from above, and it is the mission of communal leadership of a community to allow the participation of women if they are interested in doing so.”


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    28 Comments
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    9 years ago

    Kol hakdovod to Rav Neuwirth, shlita, for issuing a psak din that allows women to share in the spirit of simchas torah in accordance with halacha. This ruling confirms the obvious that a woman can dance with a sefer torah in the ezras nashim without creating any issue of tzinus or other concern. I’m especially excited about the concept of women serving as kalot torah which gives them the same opportunity as the men who have always had a monopoly on the kavod of chasan torah.

    zooog
    zooog
    9 years ago

    It smells Reform

    LionofZion
    LionofZion
    9 years ago

    Nothing new here. Women are allowed to carry the Torah, so why should they not be allowed to dance with the Torah? Halacha is Halacha.

    9 years ago

    you need to get your nose checked….they are as orthodox as any other of the many similar frum groups in EY; just because they are not advocating draft evasion or throwing dirty diapers at the police because of construction near a kever doesn’t make them “reform”.

    Miriam377
    Miriam377
    9 years ago

    If i dance with the torah when will i have time to distribute some 600 peckalach to the children of Main st. Monsey. (this year i can’t for personal reasons.) But I have much more fun shul hopping with egg boxes full of them.

    9 years ago

    Women really are wild. Genesis was never wrong about Eve’s influence.

    We really can not bind women. This is just the next of jeopardies.

    I assume that Adam had to live with Chava. So too will we always have to live with the women we love.

    It gets better. They have smiles and glowing grins.

    Humanity sometimes cheats.

    Humble to let this one go.

    Forces can be very difficult.

    But we can see where it comes from.

    Fun.

    Sociologist
    Sociologist
    9 years ago

    Women should know their place, as should men.

    PashutehYid
    PashutehYid
    9 years ago

    Just reporting what Reb Shlomo Carlebach is reputed to have said: If women are holy enough to carry our children for 9 months, they are holy enough to carry a Sefer Torah.

    9 years ago

    Women do in fact give Torah a blessing by touching one with a prayerbook and kissing the prayer book. If they want to dance with the scroll, it is not exactly a kosher delivery. I would think that it is not one contempt to really worry over, but there is a indigression. Ultimately, the woman’s role is not to lift Torah but to lift the family. So I see this as unorthodox.

    Still, the ladies are constantly being told that they deserve a man’s role in today’s society.

    It should surprise none that many women feel they are “left out” because they are not ‘lifting’ the Torah as well.

    No crime if they hold a scroll of course, but the symbolism disqualifies reason.

    So I vote that we do not encourage lady permits on Torah dubbed honors since we should be looking for women to support the home.

    Hard day for orthodoxy. All hateful forces are against every aspect of the Torah and its continuance of hope.

    Terrible.

    9 years ago

    רש״י on the פסוק in קהלת that reads אל תהי צדיק הרבה explains that this referring to instances like שאול who had too much רחמנות. The same clearly applies here with these “Rabbis” and fools like Charlie Hall who believe they are so enlightened. But the plain obvious truth is that what they say is הבל הבלים, הכל הבל.

    But I am sure that Charlie would call שלמה המלך the חכם מכל אדם, a misogynist.

    Because Charlie is the complete opposite of חכם מכל אדם. His כפירה is because of his utter foolishness.

    9 years ago

    “No, there is no איסור whatsoever for a Jewish woman to handle a ספר תורה, but, are there not other more urgent priorities to be considered?”

    what other urgent priorities are there during hakofos on simchat torah? what else is going on at that time, that this issue shouldnt be considered?

    9 years ago

    We were taught that women may conduct their own women-only minyan according to all Orthodox opinions.

    However:
    Shulchan Aruch teaches that a woman who is Nidah should not go to Shul. It is explained that this is a safeguard to keep her “uncleanliness” away from the Torah. It is therefore forbidden for a woman who is Nidah to touch a Sefer Torah.

    Given that nowadays women are lax in following the instruction not to attend Shul while Nidoh, are likely unfamiliar with this Halochoh not to touch the Torah, and it is not biTzenuoh to announce such matters, therefore, lifnei iver lo sitein michshol, it is not permissible to pass the Torah to the Women for there is surely an unclean woman among them who will touch the Torah.

    Furthermore, in a Shul where women do not dress in full accordance with Torah modestly, which is an issue of basic morality among others, it is forbidden to allow the Torah to pass within four amos (cubits) of the women.

    The disgrace in the photo above is like one who carries a Torah to “celebrate” it without clothing, in direct contrast to Torah guidelines, and in opposition to the specific respect which must be given to a Torah scroll.

    Hashem Yishmor