Home Home / Exchange with Linda Moed about Women Covering Hair and Wearing Pants, and Learning about Other Religions (1973)

Correspondence

March 1973

Exchange with Linda Moed about Women Covering Hair and Wearing Pants, and Learning about Other Religions (1973)

Practical Halacha Women & Judaism
Background Information

This exchange offers a representative example of Rabbi Lamm’s role as a religious advisor to young congregants, including close friends of his children who remained in touch after high school.

Background Information

1. Linda Moed to R. Lamm

1. Linda Moed to R. Lamm (March 7, 1973)

1. Linda Moed to R. Lamm (March 7, 1973)

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Statement to Jewish Telegraphic Agency About Counting Women in a Minyan (1973)

I am opposed to the ruling on women as members of a minyan on both Halachic and non-Halachic grounds. I see nothing wrong and everything commendable with women accepting on them observances which are Halachically obligatory only upon men. However, such voluntary assumption of responsibilities does not transform the act into one of Halachic obligation. Therefore, a woman who prays with a minyan every day is certainly praiseworthy, but since her act lacks the quality of obligation, she cannot be counted as part of a minyan. To maintain that this in some way bespeaks a patronizing attitude to women is to raise a false issue. Of course there are problems, but this is not one of them, and certainly not the most important one. Insofar as extra-Halachic reasons are concerned, it is for the good of the Jewish community, the Jewish family, and especially Jewish women, that the fundamental patriarchal structure of Jewish society be maintained and continued. This does by no means imply that we are unalterably opposed to an enhanced role for women in general and in the Jewish community in particular, but I am not quite ready to abandon a form of social and familial structure reflected in the Halacha which has stood for 3500 years because of the pressure of cultural fashions.
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Exchange with Bella Wolf about Proper Synagogue Attire (1975)

לכבוד הרב לאם, קראתי בענין רב את המאמר ״לבוש מתאים״ (עלון J.C. כ״א אוור) ואכן איני יכולה שלא להרגיש שנעשה כאן מעין עוול מוסרי לחשיבות מצוות הצניעות ומקומה ביהכ״ן. הרב מדגיש, ובעדינות רבה, שעל באי בית הכנסת לשמור על חוקי קדושת ביהכ״ן וכבוד המקום: אישה אינה יכולה לבוא לביהכ״ן ללא כיסוי ראש ללא אורך מתאים של השרוול, ואל לגבר להופיע בביהכ״ן בסנדלים וללא עניבה. כאשר קראתי מאמר זה לפני כמה חודשים התמרדתי קשות. אם אלה ואלה מחוקי ביהכ״ן, האם עלי לפסוק
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Exchange with Myrna Pollack about Writing Response on the Role of Women in Judaism (1969)

Dear Rabbi Lamm: I recently read the following paragraphs by Bruno Bettelheim about the role Judaism gives to the Jewish woman. He writes: “…And if the Jew was a woman, she felt even more degraded by a religion that required men to thank God each day that He had not created them female. Beyond this I have a feeling which I cannot substantiate. But few religions have been as rejecting of women as was the Jewish one. It was a religion that viewed her very feminity as a curse, that caused men to separate in a place of worship, that even forbade her to uncover her hair, and required her to shave it at marriage. It was this ritual rejection of femininity by her parents, and their own glorification of masculine pursuits, that may have influenced the first kibbutz generation to view man’s work as preferable to women’s, including the work of rearing children.” Bettelheim says, of course, that he cannot substantiate his feeling and thus his statement is nothing more than a generalization. Many people who, like Bettelheim, have not taken the trouble to substantiate their claims, very often express similar sentiments. Would you be interested in writing an article for us on this subject? I can offer you $75 for a 3,000 word piece which I would want to have by the end of March. I do hope you will say yes. Cordially, Merna Pollak, Editor
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