Re: Kol Isha

[TROMBAEDU <TROMBAEDU...>]

In a message dated 2/18/01 10:26:33 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
wiener (at) mindspring(dot)com writes:


> .  We hope that our daughter reflects these attributes of Rabban Gamliel -- 
> a respect for and a willingness, when she determines it is necessary, to 
> work for change of the Halakha.
>  
> 

Bob, I absolutely agree with you that Halacha has to find in it a place for 
those who feel disenfranchised. But that has to come from within Halacha 
itself. Part of faith in the validity of Torah shebaal Peh believes that in 
order for it to be binding, we have to accept that not everyone has the same 
rights to change it. For instance, with the dispersal of the Sanhedrin, 
certain Takkanot cannot be overturned, nor established. Basically, that is 
where Orthodoxy parts company with Reform and Conservative thinking, at least 
to some extent. All I ask of this list is that Orthodox thought not get 
treated with a wholesale lack of respect just because it does not fit in with 
current social thinking. After all, I may be a feminist, but I think we have 
to allow for the possibility that a system which has stood for 2000 years, 
and helped the Jewish people survive exile, may have inherent validity that 
overrides even the best intentioned thinking of secular society. 
That is why I have gone out of my way not to discuss my personal take on Kol 
Isha, or feminism in general. It is besides the point. 

Jordan