Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought

The feminist critique of contemporary society is one of the most powerful attacks on Western culture that has appeared in many years. At this point it is still too early to see how society will change in response to this revolution, but it will surely do so. Simultaneous with the rise of the feminist movement there has arisen a Jewish feminist movement which has demanded a readjustment of Jewish law and values. The literature of this movement has ranged from the polemical to the scholarly. Up to this point, Rabbi Saul Berman's articlel "The Status of Women In Halakhic Judaism"** is the only article by an Orthodox rabbi that has appeared. It is to this article that I wish to respond. Many aspects of this article were vague and were subject to a variety of interpretations. My response is to the way that I and most people that I know have interpreted the article. If the author meant otherwise, then my article is to be regarded only as a statement of my own position on the matter of feminism and Judaism.