Israel – Women are allowed to chant the Scroll of Esther on behalf of men if no competent men are available, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of Israel’s Sephardi community, ruled in a landmark decision liable to outrage many of his Ashkenazi counterparts.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Esther is traditionally read in synagogue on the holiday of Purim, which this year falls next week. And while some rabbis have long permitted women to read the megillah, or scroll, for other women, most do not allow women to read on behalf of men.
In his Torah class, Yosef discussed the rules of reading the megillah and ruled that not only may women read it in front of men, but the men will thereby have fulfilled their obligation to hear the scroll read.
“It is permissible for a woman to fulfill this obligation on behalf of men,” he said, because the obligation to hear the megillah falls equally on men and women.
Yosef said that most rabbis forbid women to read the megillah on the grounds that men are forbidden to listen to women sing.
However, he said, he does not agree that a woman chanting a sacred text is the kind of singing that’s forbidden.
The analogy rabbis have drawn between singing and chanting sacred texts has “no value,” he declared.
Rabbi Yosef said women should not read for men if there are men capable of doing the reading. But in a “small community” where there are no men capable of chanting the text properly, it is permissible to bring a woman to read, he ruled.
Yosef also said that women could write a kosher Scroll of Esther – another task that most rabbis say can be done only by men. He said that ancient megillahs written by women have been found in Yemen, and it would be permissible for women to do so today as well, “to earn a living for their household,” since women “were part of the miracle” that the megillah describes.
However, he admitted wryly, it is an open question “whether anyone would buy it.”
In both cases, Yosef’s rulings were specific to Megillat Esther and do not necessarily apply to other sacred texts, such as the Torah.
Kol hakovod to Rav Yossef for this historic ruling…..it is my understanding that the Belzer rebbe and perhaps other chasidic rabbonim may decide to adopt a similiar posek, maybe not in time for purim this year…..such a decision is a consistent with the intent of the issur on listening to “kol ishah” since there can be no illicit ourcomes or wrong thoughts related to hearing the megillah
according to that , with regard to zachor that women are also mechuyav dioraysa and if they cant go to shul on shabos they are upposed to hear it on purim then women shoulkd also be allowed to read and according to the opinion that they are mechuyav kiddush the same would apply
This is really strange!! Perhaps the great of the gadolim alive today says approves listening to a woman singing the megillah but the heilege rabbonim of Lakewood say we should not listen to Lipa. Whats wrong with this picture??
Is this decision binding on the non-Sephardic rabbonim since it came from the Chief Rabbi? Also, under the logic of his decision, why would there be more concern about “chanting the torah” or “chanting the megillah” since in BOTH cases, the reading is from a holy text and does does not raise the fears that men might somehow engage in illicit thoughts if they hear a woman who is not their wife.
i don’t understand, according to this logic a woman should be able to lein the Torah, and daven for the amud (starting to sound like a reform temple).
This issur of “kol isha” has been taken considerably too far by the same questionable poskim who seem to get off on being a greater “machmir” than the next guy. Rav Yechiel Weinberg (Teshuvot Seridei Eish 2:8) noted that for many generations, yiddeshe women in Europe traditionally refrained from singing Zemirot when there were males who were not family members sitting at the Shabbos table. However, he also noted that this practice changed, beginning in Poland and Germany where weomen increasingly began to sing Zemirot in the company of unrelated men. Rav Weinberg records that Rav Azriel Hildesheimer and Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, the two greatest Gadolim of the 19th century approved of such singing. Rav Weinberg reports that they based their poseks on the Talmudic rule (Megila 21b) that “Trei Kali Lo Mishtamai,” two voices cannot be heard simultaneously. Subsequently, the chasidshe gadolim also went further and said that women can sing zemirot at the Rebbe’s tish as long as the proper seating arrangements were in place.
How could there be a situation where there is not even one “competent” man availale in the shul for megillah reading…its no big deal to read Megillas Ester so how could one argue that all the men have the wrong nusach but we can find a woman in the varbeshe section and have her read the megilla on the other side of the mechitzah
Once somebody asked the Lubavitcher Rebbe Z”ATZAL. Can ten woman have there own miyan etc? The Rebbe answerd “go find out how The Reform and Conservative movement`s started” v`hamaivin yovin
A friend of mine went to a Shabbatton in Riverdale and the shule had the bimah halm in the men section and half in the womens section. When the Torah came out they passed it to a woman who walked up and down the isle for the woman to kiss it. The anouncements in the shul was delivered by a woman. This is an Orthodox shul I belive the Rabbi is Rabbi Weiss
What is the burning need for this kind of ruling? Are there people who can hardly wait to have a woman chant the megilla in public? Well, judging by the photo at the top with the magen david in the background one can understand why……..
Rav Yosef has also been a progressive regarding to listening to women on the radio For example, some rabbonim (e.g. Rav Breisch in Teshuvot Chelkat Yaakov)forbid a men to listen to women singing on the radio. They disagree that the issur of kol isha from Sanhedrin applies only when there could be some form of connection with the woman. Rav Breisch argues that a man’s yetzer hara is stimulated whenever he only hears a woman’s voice, regardless of any relationship or visual fantasy. He rules strictly even in case where the listener is not acquainted with the singer. Rav Shmuel Wosner and Rav Binyamin Silber also poskin very strictly on this question. However, their views are no longer binding since the posek of Rav Yosef who says it is allowed to listen to a women’s voice on the radio if the male listener does not have a personal relationship with the woman singer.
I would prefer women stick to cooking gefilte fish and potato kigel and good kishka in the chulent .
“However as far as you concerned get your self a life and stop living lipa 24/7 this needs help”
Living Lipa 24/7 heist geleibt.
its a mitzvas asei shezman grama which means woman are not obligated and surely not able 2 be yotze 4 other ppl!
The key term here is IF NO MEN ARE AVAILABLE..this psak is bediavad..feminists will distort it and allow it lechatchilah though, obviously
woman have right to be like men in a society like this we should abide by the way the world acts
whats more important is why rav ovadyah yoseph came to the decision to say this is okay,not to say anything bad about the rav but im wondering what kind of pressure he was on
that is the most absurd halacha i hav ever heard and besides u r arguing with Harav Ovadia Yosef-the posek hadar 4 the sfardim!!!
ill be listening to megilla this year at congregation *ayshes ish*
all you poskim check out the MB if woman may hav aliya you will be shocked
i’m a litveshe yungeman learniing in kolllell for six years im kearning daf yomi with my wife for six years i love my wife on a intelectual and a sensual leval for ix years my ife introduced me to chasidus. for me its the best friend i never met……i thank g-d everybday for my wife,,,,,,there is so much more then….??
This is by no means a new psak, as was pointed out by the Arutz Sheva article on this.
Here’s what the Yalkut Yosef (Rav Ovadia’s son) writes:
י”א שאע”פ שהנשים חייבות במקרא מגילה, אינן מוציאות את האנשים ידי חובתם. ויש חולקים ואומרים שהנשים יכולות להוציא את האנשים ידי חובה. ואע”פ שהעיקר כדעה אחרונה, נכון לחוש לסברא ראשונה, אלא אם כן בשעת הדחק. ומכל מקום אין לאסור משום “קול באשה ערוה”. ע”כ
Great! I like this psak very much! We our not Moslem. Our women are full people not half of a man.
The rabbi is a “porets geder”, whats next, mixed dancing with gloves?
While the article calls this a psak, it is in fact merely a recitation of halacha. No news here.
This is a wonderful decision by the greatest rebbe alive today. There have been several emails circulated by women in our Synagogue since last night pointing to this decision to allow greater participation by women in public tfilah in the shul and asking for a special meeting of the religious practices committee to discuss how this can be implemented for Purim now ans perhaps in the longer term for shabbos and other yom tovim. This reaffrims the belief of many frume women that the rabbonim would ultimately begin to find ways of greater participation by women in tfilah and public study of torah while strictly adhering to halacha.
milhouse, the concept of lo plug might apply to certain situations where women could technically read the torah because other criteria don’t apply, and hence one would say that they still can’t.
my wife filed to become a sfardia
rav yosef enjoys attention by sporadicaly stating his views on contraversial topics
This psok is irresponsible for three reasons.
One, it’s hard to imagine that someone living in Har Nof, Jerusalem is terribly troubled by potential communities which simply have no male to read a megilah.
Two, R’ Ovadia has not infrequently ‘issued’ similar psokim as well as inflammatory statements. Is there no other way to gain attention?
Third, this is the best way to give non-Torah observant ‘rabbis’ (i.e. reform) ammunition for their women Torah reading practices.
Has this heter evaded G-d fearing poskim and Jews for three thousand years while it was held unthinkable?