Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought

/ n 1997, Nishmat, the Jerusalem Center for Advanced Torah Studyfor Women, opened the Keren Ariel Watsot Halakha [HalakhicAdvisors] Institute to train women to serve as a first address in answering nidda-related questions. The first class of eight women was graduated in 1999; the second class, with fourteen women, completed its studies in 2001; the third class, with fourteen women, is scheduled to be graduated this coming summer. As the program seems now to be firmly established and will probably serve as a model for future programs, it seems an appropriate time to examine both how it has been received and what implications it has for the Orthodox Jewish community. The program' entails more than 1,000 hours of study of classic rabbinic sources, including Talmud, Rishonim, Tur/Bet Tosef; Shulhan Arukh and its nosei kelim, and contemporary responsa. This traditional course of study is supplemented by weekly lectures in areas of behavioral and medical sciences that relate to the application of these laws in a modern society—gynecology, fertility and reproductive technology, sexuality, prenatal testing, and psychology—given by professionals in the various fields. Written examinations are administered regularly, and a four-hour final oral comprehensive examination is administered by a board of examiners consisting of heads of kollelim and recognized halakhic authorities. While this course of study probably surpasses that which is required of men in the nidda section of traditional semikha programs, everyone associated with the Institute makes a point of the fact that it is not a training program for women rabbis. Nishmat awards no official title of any kind to those who have completed the program. Indeed, the dean (rosh midrasha) of Nishmat, Rabbanit [Rebbetzin] Ghana Henkin, uses a title that reflects not her own considerable accomplishments but those of her learned husband. In conferring upon her an honorary doctorate, Yeshiva University noted that Nishmat pioneered Israel's first program in which women are certified by Orthodox rabbis as yo'atsot halakha, "a 54 TRADITION 36:4 /© 2002Rabbinical Council of America Joel B. Wolowelsky