Waa Hoo!!! The latest video expose. Women getting together to read scripture. And daven. OMG!!!! What's next reading trope?!? Egad. Forsooth! It's time the rabbi's woke up and realize that there are women who are out there and want to daven. They want to participate. They want to study and learn. The 'MEN', rabbis and layity included, want to keep the study halls and sanctuary for themselves, and declare "NO GIRLS ALLOWED". You want to read Torah? NO! You want to daven down in front? NO! You want to read the Megillah in public? EEEEK! That could harm our delicate manly ears and ruin the Kavenah of the service to hear a grown woman's voice. So then when these men turn around and see the women departing for their own prayer service, NOW, they declare that it is the women who are withdrawing from society. Simple cause and effect, if you take your toys and go into your clubhouse and declare that the only place the girls can play with their toys is on their own, they will take you up on your offer, and you're left by yourselves. Just remember, when it comes to making dinner, its make sure you take the foil off before reheating in the microwave. Or, realize that women, while not holding an obligation to these mitvot, desire the benfit of the experience, and if they're willing to invest the time and effort to do such studying and learning, have a right to participate in a full communal service.

Rav Yaakov Ariel is one of the greatest Rabbis alive!

It appears too many people are getting really vain about their praying. Possible they miss the point. You shall give G-d an orginal prayer? Babylonian incantaions built on Magi/kabbalah incanation structure with perfomative language is no more than illegal magic and provocation of G-d. Purim a non-Torah holiday not given by Moses based on a book that makes many Jews fill up with a superiority complex and never mentions G-d's name once, it just seems like the battle is already lost. Call me a defeatest but how can you provoke G-d to anger and then expect Him to listen?

Chumra, Chumra, chumra, chumra. This Rabbi says this, that Rabbi says that, this Rabbi says that, that Rabbi says this. What does G-d say - that's irrelevant. Rabbis - use the seichel that G-d gave you.

This latest "humra" is only part of a modern day trend that goes back at least to the Da'at Torah move toward fundamentalism of the 19th century. Unable to deal with the challenges of modernity, they take refuge in separation and increasing stringency. Even Haym Soloveitchik took note of this unfortunate trend in his "Rupture and Reconstruction" piece in Tradition (Summer, 1994). Years ago, I learned as a general principle that one does not build a "fence around a fence" - "g'zerah ahl g'zerah. Yet that's exactly what the fundamentalists are doing. And they wonder why even we traditionalists tend to ignore them.

"Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, on the other hand, is considered to be more lenient on women's matters and ruled last year that a woman can fulfill the duty of praying for a man as well as a woman" Huh?? Rav ovadia has never said that. I'm pretty sure they are referring to a ruling he gave permitting women to read the MEGILLA on Purim for men; and even then, only if no qualified man is available. He was not ruling on the laws of general prayer at all. You need to correct this basic factual error in the article. If R. Ovadia had ruled that women can serve as a cantor I assure you it would have created a firestorm in the Orthodox world the likes of which we've never seen!

The headline of this article is also incorrect. Rav Ariel came out against women's megillah readings, not women's "prayer quorums". Women having their own megillah readings is a separate halachik issue from women's prayer groups in general. And even women's prayer groups are a separate issue from women's "quorums" (minyanim) since all Orthodox rabbis oppose women forming a quorum for communal prayer (though some allow a limited prayer group which does not formally function as a men's quorum does). This is all very basic halacha. Come on ynet, do your basic research, ask a competent Orthodox rabbi before you write on Orthodox matters.

It's not about what is permitted or not, but it's about the MOTIVATION for wanting to do so. If one is motivated out of either "quasi feminisim" or "seeking a religious experience for women" then Rav Ariel is by no means the first to say it is forbidden. It would be forbidden together with other "innovations" that mimic reform practices or are designed to conform with a western neuvo "ism". This is the view of many, and has more to do with the mimetic tradition.

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your talkbacks . But please answer the following: I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

What do they want from women. We are pushed to the back of the bus, denied legitimacy at the kotel. What do they think of all the powerful women in the Tanach such as Devorah and Miriam? Esther would have been condemned for marrying out and we wouldn't have the holiday of Purim to celebrate.

I think the rabbi is not as erudite as he would have you think. The Torah does not command men to prey in a quorum of 10; neither does the Torah forbid women from praying. All this quorum business came about after the destruction of the 2nd temple and was devised by the rabbis in Yavne as a substitute religion to practice without a Holy Temple. The male/female relationships were based on the norms of that time and was codified in the 16th century when women were 2nd class citizens at best. What is needed urgently is for the rabbis to relearn the difference between what is written in the Torah (Derita) and what was decreed by the rabbis (Derabinan). The Halacha which the rabbis based on their beliefs of what the torah demanded was also greatly influenced by normal behavior in their own times. As these dictums are manmade they should not be considered unchangeable. The time has come for the rabbis to get back to discussions as were held in the Talmud and bring orthodoxy into the 21st century.

Quorum-shuorom... Where did G-d tell about such thing? The rabbis try desperately to protect their man-made concepts and present them as G-d-given. Is G-d really that small that He would care about a woman praying for a man or viceversa? I used to believe it - until I opened my eyes to see that no rabbi (=mortal man) will ever decide for me what G-d thinks.

A prayer quorum in Jewish thought is ten Jewish men fulfilling the community's obligation to prayer. There is no quorum of women for prayer purposes. Women can pray as a group, they can read the megilla, they could even read from a torah scroll as a group, but it won't satisfy the requirements of a public quorum meeting the community's obligation to pray. So, I say, ladies, get together and pray. Read the megilla. Read the Torah. Just don't think its a quorum.

Torah requires that you leave decisions of punishment for transgressions of Torah to a legitimate beit din. Torah prohibits vigilantism. Paqid Yirmeyahu Paqid 16, The Netzarim, Ra'anana, Israel Israeli Torah-reverer (& Orthodox Jew) Advocate for Logic as Hermeneutic Halakhic Authority Welcoming All Torah-reverers (Jews & non-Jews)

that's the nutzarim for you.

The various streams of Judaism seem to have their leading rabbis make pronouncements for their stream's faithful in much the same way as the Catholics have the pope make pronouncements.