Rosh Hashanah 25
Why don’t
we include women in a minyan? There are
many reasons that are derived from Scripture, such as the fact that the ten
spies are the first individuals that are referred to as an assembly. Some suggest that praying with a minyan is an
obligation incumbent upon males as atonement for the error of the spies and, women,
not having sinned, don’t require a minyan.
There is
one medieval opinion brought in the name of Rabbeinu Simcha that suggests that
perhaps one may include women in a minyan.
As we can see from halachic
practice around the world, his ruling was not accepted. Nevertheless, there are those who hold up the
banner of Rabbeinu Simcha as a ‘traditional source’ for including women in the
minyan, since after all it is quoted in our traditional texts.
Others
contend that we should never open the door to halachic innovation, due to the ‘slippery
slope’ argument. Once we allow one
innovation, there’s no limit to what might happen. Is that a sound argument?
In Temple
times, the new month was determined by the sighting of the new moon. Each month, the High Court waited for
witnesses to arrive to pronounce the new month.
One time, they came to the court and testified before Rabban Gamliel that
they had seen the moon on the correct day but not in the subsequent evening. Rabban Gamliel accepted their testimony.
Rabbi Dosa
ben Horkinus dissented, “They are false witnesses!” he cried, “How can one
testify that a woman gave birth and the next day we see her still pregnant?” Rabbi Joshua agreed.
Rabban
Gamliel sent a message to Rabbi Joshua: “I hereby decree that you shall appear
before me with your staff and wallet on the day Yom Kippur occurs according to
your calculation” (which was the day after the date declared by Rabban
Gamliel).
Rabbi Akiva
went and found Rabbi Joshua upset. He
said to him, “I can show you how everything that Rabban Gamliel did is legal, for
it says, “These are the festivals of G-d, holy convocations, as you shall declare
them.” Whether you declare them in their
right time or not, the only festivals are these.” In other words, whenever the court determined
was the beginning of the month and thus the dates of the festival, that becomes the legal date, whether
astronomically correct or not.
Rabbi
Joshua then went to discuss the matter with Rabbi Dosa ben Horkinus, who said
to him “If we were to question the ruling of the Beth Din (court) of Rabban
Gamliel, we would end up questioning each and every Beth Din from the time of
Moses until now, as it says, “Moses and Aaron, Nadav and Avihu and the seventy
elders went up.” Why were the names of
the elders not specified? It teaches us
that every Beth Din that maintains the law over Israel is like the Beth Din of
Moses!”
Rabbi
Joshua picked up his staff and wallet and went to Yavneh to Rabban Gamliel on
the day of his Yom Kippur calculation.
Rabban Gamliel stood up, kissed him upon the forehead and said, “Come in
peace, my teacher and student. My
teacher in wisdom and my student for you have accepted my words.”
While Rabbi
Dosa didn’t agree with Rabban Gamliel’s ruling, he recognized the danger of public
dissent. Rabban Gamliel was the chief
rabbi and if we were not to accept his ruling, why should we accept any prior
Beth Din’s rulings? The Halacha (Jewish
law) works within a system of tradition and halachic precedent. Sure, there are minority opinions that have
decided differently along the way, but once the mainstream view was accepted,
we can’t simply choose which prior opinions to accept, centuries after the fact.
The
rationale behind the ‘slippery slope’ argument is that once we start uprooting standard
practice – as deemed halachic by Beth Dins over hundreds of years – in favour
of minor opinions from the past, where do you stop? There have always been dissenting opinions
but once the Halacha was determined, there’s no going back.
Movements that initially strove to be halachic, today flaunt clear unambiguous
Torah transgressions. Once one starts
tampering with the traditional halachic process, one starts rolling down the
road of the slippery slope and eventually nothing is off-limits. Rabbi Dosa’s point is, if we can question the
Beth Din today, what’s to stop us questioning the Beth Din from a hundred years
ago, a thousand years ago or even Moses himself? And thus the entire system falls apart and
becomes utterly devoid of meaning.
You might
not agree with everything in Halacha. You might even think that the Rabbis have
messed up on which day is Yom Kippur! It
doesn’t matter. The way the system works
is that G-d entrusted our Sages with the important task of maintaining our
heritage and the halachic process.
As Rashi
says, “Even if they tell you that right is left and left is right, you should
listen.” And as long as you commit to
doing what the Beth Din determines is the correct practice, the Almighty will
bless you!
