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Ovadiah Yosef Rules: Women may chant from Scroll of Ester even if men listen
Women are allowed to chant the Scroll of Esther on behalf of men if no competent men are available, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of Israel's Sephardi community, ruled last week in a landmark decision liable to outrage many of his Ashkenazi counterparts.Esther is traditionally read in synagogue on the holiday of Purim, which this year falls next week. monday night Mar 9 next week And while some rabbis have long permitted women to read the megillah, or scroll, for other women, most do not allow women to read on behalf of men. Yosef said that most rabbis forbid women to read the megillah on the grounds that men are forbidden to listen to women sing, because a woman's singing voice can stimulate sexual arousal. However, he said, he does not agree that a woman chanting a sacred text is the kind of singing that stimulates sexual arousal. The analogy rabbis have drawn between singing and chanting sacred texts here he is speaking about the rabbis of the 13th through 19th centuries- this is important because if the 'analogy is false' rule is upheld, it could lead to solving the 'agunah' problem- that is the problem that ensues when men leave their wives but refuse to sign a divorce decree- and it could also lead to a way out of the convert problem where rabbis may rule a conversion to Judaism invalid after the fact has "no value," he declared. Yosef also said that women could write a kosher Scroll of Esther - another task In both cases, Yosef's rulings were specific to Megillat Esther and do not necessarily apply to other sacred texts, such as the Torah or the scroll of Ecclesiateses or the scroll of Ruth or the Song of Songs. Posted by: mhw 2009-03-02 |
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