The RCA sends women to the back of the bus

“Go home, put your curlers in, and we’ll get a fresh start tomorrow.”

— Don Draper to Peggy Olson, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”

The RCA says no to women rabbis: Here's the official resolution:

We cannot accept either the ordination of women or the recognition of women as members of the Orthodox rabbinate, regardless of the title.

Only - uh oh - the jokes on them, because in the real world, the one in which real Orthodox Jewish men and women live, there are already plenty of Orthodoox Jewish women doing everything a typical Orthodox Rabbi does. They:

• Give speeches about halacha and hashkafa
• Teach Torah
• Inspire students
• Answer questions
• Take questions they can't answer to more knowledgeable people
• Mediate disputes
• Counsel adults, teenagers and children
• Confort the bereaved
• Share in celebrations and milestones

In fact, save serving as the highest ranking officer of a shul, and issuing psak halacha I can't think of a single thing an Orthodox rabbi does that Orthodox women aren't already doing. And I'd venture to say that 90-95 percent of the male Orthodox rabbis aren't leading shuls or issuing psak halacha either.

So if Orthodox women are already competently doing everything the typical Orthodox rabbi does, why is the RCA denying them the niceties of a title? It can't be about denying them respect and better salaries can it? It doesn't boil down to chauvinism does it?

I sure hope not.

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