African Christians And The Tefillin Wearing Reform Lady

This is a true story that took place in the 1970s. Rabbi Dr. Nahum Rabinovitch, then Principal of Jews College, the rabbinic training seminary in London where I was a student and teacher, was approached by an organisation that had been given an unusual opportunity to engage in interfaith dialogue. A group of African bishops wanted to understand more about Judaism. Would the Principal be willing to send his senior students to engage in such a dialogue, in a chateau in Switzerland?


To my surprise, he agreed. He told me that he was sceptical about Jewish-Christian dialogue in general because he believed that over the centuries the Church had been infected by an antisemitism that was very difficult to overcome. At that time, though, he felt that African Christians were different. They loved Tanakh and its stories. They were at least in principle open to understanding Judaism on its own terms. He did not add, though I knew it was in his mind since he was one of the world’s greatest experts on Maimonides, that the great twelfth century sage held an unusual attitude to dialogue.


Maimonides believed that Islam was a genuinely monotheistic faith while Christianity in those days was not. Nonetheless, he held it was permitted to study Tanakh with Christians but not Muslims, since Christians believed that Tanakh (what they called the Old Testament), was the word of God while Muslims believed that Jews had falsified the text.


So we went. It was an unusual group: the semikhah class of Jews College, together with the top class of the yeshiva in Montreux where the late Rabbi Yechiel Weinberg, author of Seridei Esh and one of the world’s foremost halakhists, had taught. For three days the Jewish group davened and bentsched with special intensity. We learned Gemara each day. For the rest of the time we had an unusual, even transformative, encounter with the African bishops, ending with a Hassidic-style tisch during which we shared with the Africans our songs and stories and they taught us theirs. At three in the morning we finished by dancing together. We knew we were different, we knew that there were deep divides between our respective faiths, but we had become friends. Perhaps that is all we should seek. Friends don’t have to agree in order to stay friends. And friendships can sometimes help heal the world.


On the morning after our arrival, however, an event occurred that left a deep impression on me. The sponsoring body, a global Jewish organisation, was a secular one, and to keep within their frame of reference the group had to include at least one non-orthodox Jew, a woman studying for the rabbinate. We, the semikhah and yeshiva students, were davenning the morning service in one of the lounges in the chateau when the Reform woman entered, wearing tallit and tefillin, and sat herself down in the middle of the group.


This is something the students had not encountered before. What were they to do? There was no mechitzah. There was no way of separating themselves. How should they react to a woman wearing tallit and tefillin and praying in the midst of a group of men? They ran up to the Rav in a state of great agitation and asked what they should do. Without a moment’s hesitation he quoted to them the saying of the sages: A person should be willing to throw himself into a furnace of fire rather than shame another person in public. With that he ordered them back to their seats, and the prayers continued.


The moral of that moment never left me. The Rav, for the past 32 years head of the yeshiva in Maaleh Adumim, was and is one of the great halakhists of our time. He knew immediately how serious were the issues at stake: men and women praying together without a mechitzah between them, and the complex question about whether women may or may not wear a tallit and tefillin. The issue was anything but simple. [R' Dr. J. Sacks]

Very touching. May I express my reservations? [Putting aside the issue of the debatable issue of whether religious Jews should engage in "an unusual, even transformative, encounter with the African bishops, ending with a Hassidic-style tisch during which we shared with the Africans our songs and stories and they taught us theirs. At three in the morning we finished by dancing together." Hassidic style including African songs and stories. Hmmmmm.]

Thanks:-)

Where do we draw the line? Let us say that she insisted on being chazan? Are we going to embarrass her and say that this is an Orthodox minyan and women don't serve as chazaniyot [how PATRIARCHAL and REGRESSIVE:-)!!]. Let us say that after davening, due to the feeling of camaraderie and brotherhood, the men started back slapping and hugging? She also wanted some hugs. Are we going to embarass her and not touch her just because she is female? What, does she have the "cooties" [an imaginary disease we made up when we were children]?

Would we also allow a woman to use the men's restroom for fear of offending her? What about a guy using the women's room. He would be thrown out on his head!

Embarassing a person is compared by Chazal to killing them but it is not REALLY killing them. We don't have a halachic principal that not embarassing someone overrides the whole Torah [as we do about murder]. We must do everything in our power not to insult someone but I really think that there are limits.

To be honest - she doesn't have a monopoly on hurt. If I were there I would be insulted that she is imposing her religious beliefs on the Orthodox group in an offensive way. I find Reform Judaism offensive. They have taken our holy Torah and distorted it, changed it and cut it down to size. I would be willing to die to uphold the Torah and they wantonly disregard the most basic laws. When they sin - it is as if I am sinning, according to my belief system. It is very hurtful when someone causes me to sin. So must we allow ourselves to be offended and not say anything in order to avoid offending others.

This is what I would have done. I would have asked her to come to a corner to speak with me. Then I would have delicately told her [Reb Linda?] that she is free to act as she wishes but since we are following Orthodox rules - we would all be much more comfortable if she would stand separately from the men [if it is not a shul no mechitza is required]. All of us are not used to davening with a woman among us. Is that OK?

I don't think that it would have caused an international incident.....

What do you think?