The changing mesorah: Orthodoxy on interreligious dialogue and women’s leadership

Abstract

Since the rabbinic legal system came into being almost two millennia ago, Jewish communities have entrusted male rabbis with guiding them in matters related to communal and religious life. At the same time, Jewish women within these communities and non-Jews living outside them have, in different ways, been kept at arm’s length when it comes to active religious life and leadership, orbiting around or on the edges of the rabbinic system. Substantial socio-religious changes, however, took place about fifty years ago that altered Jewish-Christian relations and intra-Jewish leadership dynamics. The first change came about following the publication and dissemination of Nostra Aetate, perhaps the most profound and radical document produced at the Second Vatican Council meeting in 1965. Nostra Aetate affirmed that Jews were not collectively responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus, and are not collectively rejected by God. The second change is a byproduct of Second Wave Feminism, which gained momentum in the early 1960s and offered a platform for challenging long-accepted norms regarding traditional women’s roles in their families, communities, and professions. These changes led to an increase in formal Jewish-Christian dialogue, and increased debate regarding Jewish women’s leadership. This essay will briefly consider how progressive change can be achieved by putting these developments into dialogue with one another.