Today, the 18th of Tammuz, marks exactly one year since the ruling in the petition over women’s right to sit the Chief Rabbinate’s ordination exams (the “Yoreh Yoreh” track) on the same terms as men. The presiding justice, Noam Solberg, cast it as a modern case of the daughters of Zelophehad, the women in tomorrow’s Torah portion, Pinchas. I am one of the petitioners in that case, brought by ITIM, the Rackman Center, and Kolenu (formerly Kolech). Registration for the October session closed yesterday, and a year on, we can only hope for a second round of halakhic exams, for women too, on a wider range of subjects.

Over the past year, the Rabbinate’s halakhic exams moved in a rhythm of advance and retreat. Registration, for women and men alike, was shut down almost immediately after the ruling, then reopened in February. The exam eventually held still bore the marks of gender discrimination, and the court had to intervene. The Rabbinate then threatened legislation to bar women, and the July session’s registration was closed again. Only afterward was the October session opened. At last, despite every obstacle and every act of harassment, the grades came with news and, in the end, one of them passed.

Just as we return to each Torah portion seeking new meaning, this one too calls for a fresh look. The powerful link forged between the daughters of Zelophehad and a petition before Israel’s Supreme Court is not merely something to marvel at for the resemblance between today’s petition and the biblical plea and demand. It is worth contemplating the space between two moments: the one in which the daughters came before Moses with their plea, and with their winning it and “the law was hidden from Moses” so that justice had to be established anew; and the one in which that justice is tested in practice.

A State Institution May Not Discriminate, and the Correction Is for Women and Men Alike

The correction this petition seeks is not for women alone, but for women and men together. We should not be seen as “orphaned” petitioners forced to act on our own and turn to the court, as the daughters of Zelophehad surely felt; opening the Rabbinate’s gates to us as well is a shared request. The growth of the women’s world of Torah matters to the life of whole communities, far beyond the private lives of learned women.

The system of halakhic examinations sits within the Chief Rabbinate, a state institution funded by the taxes of us all: religious, secular, traditional, and Haredi. It touches the life of every citizen at life’s most significant crossroads, from birth to marriage to burial, even for those who place no faith in it whatsoever. A state body may not discriminate on the basis of gender, and so this ruling concerns all of Israel’s citizens, including those who keep their distance from the rabbinic establishment. This is no narrow sectoral matter,........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)