Of manels and women scholars

Women are frequently unjustifiably excluded from various religious settings. I think of women not being allowed into a men’s adult education shiur, women’s section doors remaining locked during communal prayer, opposition to women speaking at funerals, and the like. Certainly, our community should take steps to rectify this situation. I would like to think that I have a solid track record when it comes to supporting women’s Torah study having once refused to give a high school Talmud elective if it was closed to the girls and being part of a group that led a successful revolution in my local shul to include women among those delivering the Shabbat morning parsha shiur. Nevertheless, like all good ideas, this too can be pushed too far. Different segments of Modern Orthodoxy struggle to find the correct balance.

Let us begin with an institution worthy of criticism. The Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society never features women even though our community now includes women worthy of publication. After all, the male authors writing in that journal are perfectly competent, but not of the caliber of R. Moshe Feinstein. A parallel Israeli journal called Tehumin only started incorporating women about a decade ago. No excusing men who refuse to acknowledge the excellence of female scholars or who resist ever granting them the stage. There are worthy female teachers and writers out there and our community should give them encouragement and a prominent platform.

We now turn to the other side. A fellow who runs adult educational programs in a shul which frequently includes female speakers posts on Facebook about a program with two male panelists and a male moderator and is criticized for running a manel. A shul that has had a female president and also hosts many women Scholars in Residence is taken to task by Orthodox feminists because the shul’s speakers list is not evenly divided by gender. I find the above criticisms off base and unhelpful. One does not win allies by attacking those supportive of female educators. More importantly, there are often good reasons why more men get invited to speak.

Several reasons explain why it is harder to find outstanding female educators and writers. Communal expectations often place an unfair share of domestic responsibilities (cooking, cleaning, and child rearing) on mothers, granting the fathers more study time. In the Orthodox Jewish orbit, men have far greater educational opportunities than women; just compare the amount of advanced Torah study options for a man or woman. Contrast the more than sixty Hesder Yeshivot, in addition to Yeshivot Gevohot and Mehinot, with the amount of midrashot for women. The educational opportunities that R. Re’em Hacohen or R. Moshe Lichtenstein had in life far outstrip those of any female Talmudist. They enjoyed many years of yeshiva learning, exposure to greats such as R. Aharon Lichtenstein and R. Yehuda Amital, and a beit medrash environment with dozens of advanced scholars. Given such advantages, of course they will know more than parallel women. Finally, societal attitudes often encourage men to confidently teach and publish while simultaneously hindering female confidence. We hope society will reach a point where these factors are far less influential.

The discrepancy in knowledge applies to yeshiva high school educators as well. Imagine two teachers coming from the YU world. Men are much more likely to have studied for two years in an Israeli yeshiva rather than just one. The male who attended YU had many more undergraduate hours of Talmud Torah than his female counterpart at Stern. He then spent at least three more years studying for semikha while she may have gone to GPATS or Revel but also may have headed directly from graduation into teaching. Though no fault of the women, the men will naturally know more. Logic dictates that the men will be more erudite and I think that empirical evidence supports that. That men will know more Talmud and Halakha seems obvious but I contend that their added time means that more educated men exist in the realm of Jewish Thought as well. In the interest of not insulting anyone, I will not list names but am happy to discuss this further offline.

Reality being what it is, there are currently more learned men than women in both a quantitative and qualitative sense. The ramifications merit exploration. Book and journal editors receive criticism for only featuring a minority of female authorship. Those who organize “manels” face censure for not including women voices. Sometimes, these criticisms are on target and the men in charge did not look beyond the old boy’s network. Yet the accusations may also be misplaced; once we include other values such as quality control, we cannot always strive for a fully egalitarian space. If enough women turn down editors requesting that they write, we can only include more women by lowering standards. In fact, some of the very women who complain about a paucity in female writers reply in the negative when asked to write

Now I agree that sheer amount of Torah knowledge is not the only criteria for who should speak. For some topics, a women’s perspective will add a lot. For example, if the topic is shul architecture, education, parenting, minyan attendance, or dating, we probably need a female voice, irrespective of whether or not she has gone through Minhat Hinukh on kibbud av va’em or Rambam on Hilkhot Talmud Torah. At the same time, erudition and expertise should be criteria.

A friend I respect recently wrote that he is no longer willing to hear the excuse that women say no. Willing or not, it remains the truth. If we nonetheless insist on equal gender representation, we will diminish the quality of our product as less qualified women will write. Furthermore, we will ultimately hurt the cause of women when readers see them as those producing poor articles.

A similar tension may affect our hiring of teachers for seminaries. On the one hand, our female students should have women role models and teachers and students who share the same gender can develop a closer relationship. Perhaps all the central educational roles should be held by women. On the other hand, demanding a completely female staff may deprive students of some great teachers. If the choice for a weekly Tanakh shiur is between Dr. Yoni Grossman or a fairly good female instructor, it seems clear which selection will benefit the students more.

It is unfair to create many limitations on women and then note their lack of grand achievement as support for those limitations. Nevertheless, we must balance our desire to include more women with attention to maintaining a very high level of learning. One option for balancing values would be to insist on some female voices in any large gathering of speakers but not to demand fifty percent representation. Concurrently, we will consistently strive to alter communal structures perpetuating this gap. We men could certainly wash more dishes and cook more dinners and the community could generate more programs that allow women extended years in the beit medrash. I hope that some thirty years hence, my evaluation will completely change. Still, we should honestly assess the contemporary situation and not pretend the educational results are already equal. The approach championed here will help maintain a strong level of scholarship and not patronize women by lowering standards for them.

I can think of many more productive ways to improve matters than to complain every time an event has more male than female speakers. Support Matan’s Kitvuni program or Sefaria’s Word by Word which provide resources enabling female scholars to publish. Fund institutions with learning opportunities for post-college women such as GPATS, Matan, Nishmat, or the International Halakha Scholars Program. Encourage our brightest yeshiva high school graduates to attend the strongest seminaries in Israel including Migdal Oz, Drisha, and Midreshet Lindenbaum  (full disclosure: I teach there). Above all, create more opportunities for female Torah study on every level; Rabbanit Michelle Farber’s Hadran being one outstanding example.

Women have often been given a raw deal in life and even more so in many traditional religious societies. I favor actively trying to even the playing field and look forward to an ever growing number of female scholars. Moreover, we can celebrate the progress women’s education has made over the last century even if we wish the growth occurred more rapidly. At the same time, the desire to aid women should be balanced against the values of honesty and protecting the quality of Torah. Ideology should not overcome reality.