Had Barack Obama not clinched his party's nomination, and had the democratic ticket still won the election, the outcome would still be overwhelmingly historic. This country would have elected its first female president. Hillary Clinton's inauguration would have drawn larger than usual crowds and brought women's liberation to its crescendo.
Our Western superpower has much to learn from a younger Middle Eastern democracy. If exit polls are accurate, Israel has elected its second female Prime Minister in 60 years. To be sure, Golda Meir was her country's fourth head of state, but she was hardly the first Jewish woman in a leadership position. Israel's being ahead of its time, is as old as time itself. Throughout our people's history, Jewish women have not only been looked up to and respected, but followed and revered.
Op-Ed: Noblewomen
Had Barack Obama not clinched his party’s nomination, and had the democratic ticket still won the election, the outcome would still be overwhelmingly historic. This country would have elected its first female president. Hillary Clinton’s inauguration would have drawn larger than usual crowds and brought women’s liberation to its crescendo.
Our Western superpower has much to learn from a younger Middle Eastern democracy. If exit polls are accurate, Israel has elected its second female Prime Minister in 60 years. To be sure, Golda Meir was her country’s fourth head of state, but she was hardly the first Jewish woman in a leadership position. Israel’s being ahead of its time, is as old as time itself. Throughout our people’s history, Jewish women have not only been looked up to and respected, but followed and revered.
Sarah is a heroine not only because she mothered the first biological Jew, but because G-d instructed Abraham to heed her wise council. Isaac’s wife Rebekkah proved to have better judgement than the patriarch. In her wisdom and with her action she saved Jacob, and ensured the Jewish future. Rachel sacrificed her happiness to protect her sister from shame. And their noble daughters have replicated their self-sacrifice for thousands of years.
Women in Judaism are more than the finer gender. They are our nation’s finest. Collectively, Jewish women sustain the House of Israel. Individually, the Jewish woman is the foundation of her home.
Among Lubavitcher Chassidim, men and women share equal rights, while they are hardly equals. Many Chabad couples marry and pursue the giving life of the emissary. While together they raise communities, the wife carries greater responsibility in raising their children. While they both feed souls, it is her cuisine that nourishes the throngs of people she graciously hosts. In a world corrupted by misogyny, she is a beacon of integrity and modesty.
The slain Rivkah Holtzberg did not become a luminary when she became a martyr. She was a heroine because she was a Shlucha. Rivka is an example not only for being brutally murdered along with her husband and others in their Mumbai Chabad House. As a newlywed, Rivkah left her family, friends, and community to establish a Chabad House at the ends of the earth.
This weekend, thousands of Chabad’s women emissaries are gathering in the nerve center of their global activities. Legions of women and girls are convening in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in memory of their model Jewish woman, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson, the late wife of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. They are role models tasked with a most demanding role.
In the present Torah reading, when G-d relayed the Law to Moses atop Mount Sinai, he told Moses to instruct the women before the men. G-d knew that the women would introduce their children to the study of Torah, and that they themselves would be more diligent in its observance.
The women gathering in my community this week are not only responsible for their children’s education, but they introduce Jews to Torah in their respective communities. It is a sacrifice for a man to leave his home and neighborhood to become a Jewish leader in a foreign place. However, for a young lady to make that move, leaving her social and familial network, is ever more difficult. Yet she does this with pride and unfaltering commitment.
British historian Paul Johnson captured an ingredient to Jewish success through the ages. In his book “Heroes” Johnson maintains that the Hebrews were different from other nations in that, “They tapped a physical resource which most ancient people denied themselves: They made full use of the brains and courage of their women.” I have always been fascinated by video footage of the Rebbe addressing exclusive gatherings for women. The great leader who raised a force of leaders placed women at its front.
Elki
Beautifully written and well-said. Kol HaKavod for writing and posting this article on CHI. I think that the equality of women in the Chabad approach to Yiddishkeit is an added component in attracting professional ans well-educated individuals to Torah and mitzvos.This was the Rebbe’s shitah and B”H that continues.
Keep up the good work!
Shlucha Pacific
As a Shlucha who has met the author of this piece on a number of occasions, lets just say on another continent where my husband and myself are Shluchim I must say that he is very passionate not just about Shlichus, but about THE shluchim.
Thank you Getzy for this wonderful piece of your heart
-One of the many shluchos whose communities you visited
California Shlucha
A well written article raising some provocative thoughts:
Are we proud that Israel was led by a woman, Golda Meir? Indeed, it is likely contrary to halacha for a woman to take a leadership role. “Melech (a male king) v’lo malka” teaches us that women cannot take any leadership position in klal yisroel.
As far as equality, one cannot lose sight of the fact that man is mashpiah while woman is mekabel. My role as a shlucha is to be an ezer k’negdo – my husband’s assistant, his “ezer”, not his equal.
As chazal tell us “ishto k’gufo”, the wife is like the husband’s guf, while he takes on the role of a neshama.
A guf (the woman) and the neshama (the man) are not equals!
Yes, my husband and I are partners, but we are not equals!!
crown heights
beautiful article!
2 california shlucha
Cali: The rebbe himself told the president woman of the UJA or F that among chassidim there are equal rights there is a video of it
Emes
I saw a Teshuva from Rav Moshe Feinstein that a woman is forbidden to be President of a shul. There is even a teshuva if a woman can be a kashrus mashgiach. In that case, the widow was asking to take over her husband’s position, since she had no other parnassa. Rav Moshe allowed it only if she is to report to the authorizing Rav and he will enforce the kashrus, and even then, only in such dire circumstances.
So please, do not imply that the Rebbe agreed that a woman should be president of UJA or F – contrary to halacha.
Eual rights does not mean man and woman are equal. Simply, they each have their own rights, including some universal rights that apply equally. It does NOT mean thatthey are equal!
Another point: The article mentions the Rebbe having farbrengen with ladies. That was rare and exceptional. Not the norm. he did NOT give “equal time” to the genders.
Fiction cannot create Fact
To 2 Cali Shlucha, you wrote b’shem the Rebbe MH“M ”that among chassidim there are equal rights” –
Would a Bais Din of Chassidim accept a woman as a witness?! Would they let a woman sit on the Bais Din?!
Of course there are equal rights, it is only more equal for some than for others.
Long Time Shlucha
The toes of a body are “equally” part of the body as the head. Yet, they are not equally as important. One can argue that the enire body stands on the toes, and is balanced by the toes, and thus the toes play an important role in having a complete and fully finctioning body, but nevertheless, the toe is of lesser importance than the head.
Let’s not play word games. Equal does not mean equal in all ways.
As a shlucha, my role is very important to the shalichus, but my husband has the primary role and I am like the toes at his feet.
Point is...
Does the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin both have equal roles with their chassidim?!
the rebbe said it !!!!!!!!!!!!
In this video clip the rebbe clearly uses these words “among chasidim there are equal rights for women also”
go to minute 1:50
http://www.youtube.com/watc…
why don’t u people just see the Rebbe saying it himself !!!
im a shlicha and i agree with getzy
I saw a video where the rebbe clearly says there are equal rights among chassidim for ladies
I think u need to take these words carefully. I dont see the author suggesting that woman may become rabanim…. i see him suggesting that we are leaders and that the rebbe invested in us
CH teacher
Jem put out a video once where the Rebbe states that among chassidim there are equal rights for Noshim also and in certain things they are expected more than Gevorim
Maverick
about Getzy: there is a maverick in ever generation. :)
oh, and he is 120% right
Mystery
“among chasidim there are equal rights for women also”
What exactly does that mean?????????? Clearly men and women have diffrent roles in mitzvos and their participation in communal affairs.
And pray tell what specifically do the words “among chassidim” mean? If women have “equal rights” (no matter how this is explained), why only among chassidim and not universally among all Yidden?
Divray Chachomim tzrichim limud – the words of sages need to be studied!
One thing is certain: The Rebbe’s words here should NOT be quoted for their simple meaning, since on a simple level women are not “equal” to men in Yiddishkeit.
Even in the Midbar, the women were not counted among the 600,000 Jews. There are no women kohanim or leviim, no female leaders (except Devorah – which is discussed in seforim as exceptional), indeed. women are forbidden from taking a leadership role amongst Yidden.
This, that women are forbidden from leading, is undisputed. Chas V’sholem to imply that the Rebbe held differently!!!
mystery YOUR a mystery
Its odd. It really really is.
This Op-Ed was on the ball. I don’t understand some readers. Getzy is discussing ewual rights as far as Shlichus and respect.
He qualified everything he claimed.
Did the Rebbe not invest so much in Neshei Chabad and Bnos Yisroel?
Why areyou reading at Peshuto She’ll Mikra.
Of course he isn’t saying any of that!
to mystery
Mystery, the words you ridicule are an exact quote from CH“K Admur N”D.
You must take them literaly. Because the rebbe told them to a secular woman in the video. I don’t believe that he would be “mysterious”
Woman-s Lib
As some quoted the Rebbe saying: there are equal rights among chassidim for ladies, I must comment what the Rambam writes:
Maimonides wrote in Laws of Interpersonal Relations, chapter 21, halacha 7: “We find that every woman performs five tasks for her husband. She spins, washes his face, hands, and legs, pours his drink, makes the bed, and serves him. There are six tasks some women do and some don’t: grind and bake and cook, wash, nurse children, and feed the animals.”
In halacha 10 he wrote: “Any woman who does not do the tasks which she is obligated to do is forced, even with a stick.”
And the Raabad wrote in his gloss on this ruling: “I have never heard of hitting a woman with a stick, but one reduces the necessities given to her and her food until she gives in.” (He should not, then, hit her, just starve her until she agrees to serve him).
Yep, men and women, they sure are equal!
Are we on the same page?
To mystery YOUR a mystery, you wrote: Did the Rebbe not invest so much in Neshei Chabad and Bnos Yisroel?
In your mind, he invested the same amount of time in Neshei as he did with Anshei, right?!
There seems to be a disconnect with reality – the Rebbe N”D gave a few token farbrengs dedicated exclusively to us ladies. The overwhelming majority of the frarbrengs were with the men and for the men (think of the erev Yom Tov ones).
Debate the Issues - without name calling
To “to mystery” – I didn’t see the comment of Mystery as “ridicule” in any fashion. Quite the contrary, she writes “Divray Chachomim tzrichim limud – the words of sages need to be studied!” That is a quote from Chazal that tells us that the meanings of the words of chachomim are often more than the “simple” meaning. To put it differently, a posuk in chumesh often means something quite different than the literal meaning. It needs to be explained, and put in proper context.
My point is, that instead of pointing an accusatory finger at Mystery and telling her that she is ridiculing the Rebbe MH”M, and mocking her, maybe you should address at least one of her several points.
Sleepless in Crown Heights
I am reading some questions about serious issues. I am reading responses that don’t say much at all. That leaves me with unanswered questions. Can someone PLEASE give us all an intelligent response?
Toe connected to the foot
Long Time Shlucha, you see your husband as the head, and yourself as your husband’s toes! That can’t be what you intended to say, but it sure sounds that way.
heartache
It is amazing how you can see how people miss a point when you read their comments.
Did nobody notice the beautiful and emotional part about Rivky Holtzberg HYD?
That proves how no-one really understood.
to same page
“There seems to be a disconnect with reality – the Rebbe N”D gave a few token farbrengs dedicated exclusively to us ladies. The overwhelming majority of the frarbrengs were with the men and for the men (think of the erev Yom Tov ones).”
true, but in his Farbrengens to the men how often were women a theme? He may have not had many many exclusive gatherings for women, but certainly addressed them exclusively at gatherings. The Rebbe spoke so much about Neshei Ubenos Yisroel.
Good job
He does a good job showing the distinctions. Also, he does a great job showing the distinct role of women
Yasher Koach
Shlucha Power
Shlucho shel adam k’moso – the messenger becomes like the sender. A shlucha becomes like the sender, and therefore becomes MAMOSH like the sender, including all the male attributes of the sender. Based on this, a shlucha may take a leadership role – she is like the melech. Among chassidim women have equality because they are shluchos of C’K Admur N’D.
thank
Thank you for giving Shluchos their due credit,
It means allot when we go out to the hedges and someone notices.