Reflecting on Judaism

      . WINE. It was not unusual in the UK up till 1973, to provide table wines at celebrations that were not produced under the supervision of a Kashrut Authority. A notice to the effect that the wine was unsupervised was displayed on each table. In 1973 my wife and I started preparing our silver wedding celebration, and invited a firm of kosher caterers to discuss the preparations with us. They asked whether we wanted kosher Israeli wine or non-supervised wine. We chose the Israeli variety. They then told us that this would be the last time that customers would be given a choice, for the Kashrut Commission had informed kosher caterers, that if in the future they did not provide only supervised wine they would lose their kashrut licence. What can be more frightening than to be told that one is about to lose the source of one’s income? It must truly have been for an extremely important reason.

      The caterers explained to the Kashrut Commission that they bought their stock of wine several months in advance. They were then given six months to use up the stock of non-supervised wine, but should they continue to use it after this period they would then lose their licence. This approved extended use of non-supervised wine not only suggests that its use does not constitute a serious breach of the law but that it may not be a breach of any kind as I will show by reference to Rashi. 

      I read Rashi’s biography, perhaps the most revered bible commentator ever, and the author quotes from Rashi’s responses showing that he was quite ambivalent as to whether we may drink non-supervised wine. On one occasion he prohibits it but on other occasions he writes (Teshuvot Rashi p.209, par, 180) that Christians are not pagans, and that therefore there is no fear that their wine, or wine handled by Christians, could have been used for idolatrous purposes. Rashi also wrote that the Gentiles of his day were not familiar with the intricacies of idol worship and that they are to be considered like new-born infants whose touch cannot make the wine forbidden to Jews. He continued, ‘We have neither heard nor seen any one of them (Gentiles) pouring out wine for idol worship’. So the standard reason given against using unsupervised wine appears to be somewhat questionable.

      I lived in the East End of London for the first part of my life among numerous synagogues and ‘shtiebles’.  Together with my father I visited several of them. There was almost always a kiddush following the service, and the alcoholic drinks provided were often Black and White Whisky and 3* Martel brandy, sold by the orthodox owners of Jewish wine shops. The brandy was then never questioned, and I recall seeing Rabbi Shebson, the staunchly orthodox rabbi of the Westcliffe community drinking it. When I asked him about it he replied, ‘it has been double-distilled and therefore unquestionably acceptable to Jews’.  I am not certain whether there was a kosher brandy on the market 60 years ago.

      So what is the reason for today’s rabbis making a mountain out of a molehill regarding unsupervised wine? Can a financial interest sometimes be involved?

       WOMEN. For this section of the essay I will précis extracts from Jewish Encyclopaedias. The fact that men compiled all the classical sources of the Jewish religion may well explain the apparent bias in favour of men, a bias which is slowly, all too slowly, tilting back towards women. Two recent examples of this tilt backward are the facts that a woman was recently ordained as a rabbi by an orthodox rabbi. Women are now studying Talmud and Torah at the Hebrew University, and other places of higher learning, as never before and are appearing as advocates in religious courts.

       Compare these events with the sayings of one talmudic rabbi who said, ‘whosoever teaches his daughter Torah teaches her lasciviousness’.  And compare these recent developments with the sayings of Maimonides, alone among the earlier authorities, who said ‘that a woman cannot hold any position of trust in the community’.  Maimonides also put women together with children as people from whom one cannot expect too much intelligence. We can now see that as the years pass, the status of women is gradually getting better.

       Nevertheless, women must be forever vigilant for there are influential forces forever trying to turn back the clock as is demonstrated by the case that Naomi Ragen, Orthodox Jewess and well known author, is currently bringing before the Israeli High Court, asking for guidance. Some while ago the haredi community made a private deal with a public bus company to provide two buses in a haredi district so that men and women in that district could be segregated; men in front, women at the back. These buses are unmarked, and no guidelines were published. The number of such buses is proliferating. Women who enter these buses- no alternative is provided - and who do not wish to sit at the back, are abused and on occasion assaulted. 

      There should be no differences between men and women in matters of Jewish belief, ethical obligations and the criminal law. They are expected, along with men, to believe in the principles of the faith, to love and care for others, to be generous and kindly, not to steal and cheat. Women are not expected to perform any mitzvah which is ‘time bound’, that is, something that must be done at a given time, although the reason for this ruling is not stated in the Talmud. In Babylonia, because of loose sexual standards, the rabbis ruled that a woman’s voice or her legs or her hair were sexual enticements. So now we know where today’s rabbis learned today’s fashion.

      SONG, or more specifically women’s song. Let us begin by being controversial. We are told in the Torah that when the Israelites crossed the Reed Sea, Miriam led the women in a song of victory. The Torah does not record any complaints from the men who heard the singing voices of women. The book of Ezra, second only to Moses, says in Chapter 2, v 65, that women participated in the Temple choral service. The rabbis say that this great Ezra would have received the Torah had Moses not received it first

      There is a ruling often repeated with conviction, that men may not hear a woman’s voice in song. The late Rabbi Isaac Bernstein, a popular figure and a pillar of Orthodox Judaism in N/W London, held a weekly shiur in the Finchley synagogue, which was attended by hundreds. He was also an opera lover and attended often. I was told by a mutual friend who accompanied him to the opera, that on one occasion he was challenged to explain how he, as an orthodox rabbi, could attend opera and hear the singing voices of women. His reply was to the effect that he was not responsible for the incorrect interpretation of the law by ignoramuses. 

      Recently, orthodox ladies formed a new singing group which performs only to women, for they believe that men must not hear their voices. This has not deterred Neshama Carlebach, daughter of the late Rabbi Carlebach, from giving concerts of her father’s songs to mixed audiences,  in her father’s memory. Neshama was brought up in, and is still attached to, the Lubavich movement.

      About the year 2000 Dr. Eli Holtzer and Dr. Tova Hartman, both orthodox women and educators, founded an extremely successful new type of orthodox synagogue in Jerusalem called ‘Shira Hadasha’ which has now been copied in Australia, Europe, Canada, and the U.S. The synagogue is ‘Orthodox Egalitarian’ which means that the service does not start till there are at least 10 men and 10 women present sitting on opposite sides of a divider. From the women’s side of the divider, women lead optional prayers such as the Kabbalat Shabbat on Friday nights and the psalms on Shabbat morning. Women are called to, and read from, the Torah. They also open the Ark and say kaddish. Additionally, they run full community services, such as care for the elderly and baby-sitting, so that parents can attend study groups.

      According to the Jerusalem Post the halachic dimensions of such a service are best articulated by Rabbi Mendel Shapiro’s article ‘Qeri’at ha-Torah by women’, published in the journal ‘Edah’ and a similar article by Rabbi Dr. Daniel Sperber ‘Women and Public Torah Reading’. I think that the majority of main stream and right wing rabbis are not actually jumping with joy at this new development, but neither have I heard any major outcry either.  The two founders did a great deal of research to ensure the synagogue’s success before embarking on their endeavours.