Historically communal in nature, Hebrew civilization has traditionally placed a high value on an individual’s contribution to the broader collective. This is similar to many other ancient civilizations, in which women would often hold prime leadership positions by the very nature of their biology allowing for the propagation of the entire collective, as well as the education and nourishment of its future members.
Jewish women, however, have also held this position via an additional route – the very nature of our spiritual composition. It’s a common trope frequently thrown around Jewish spaces that women are on a higher spiritual plane than men. While this idea seems to be most often only brought up in order to superficially explain why women are obligated to observe fewer mitzvot, it has also had very deep and far-reaching effect on the historical development of the Jewish people.
Women throughout our history have been held up as the moral fiber of Hebrew society – the inner strength that reminds the people to actually do what we already know to be right, albeit difficult. Almost every heroine in our history has been defined as such specifically because of this quality – a quality that has been expressed by our heroines in a variety of ways that most critically distinguish them from our male heroes: most notably extreme personal sacrifice and orchestrating situations that push society/individuals to make correct decisions.
We can see examples of this throughout our history, from our cherished matriarchs down to modern times. This role as the moral fiber of a community stems from the intuitive ability of Hebrew women to distinguish right from wrong, coupled with our inner strength and conviction to act upon it. This ability actually places women in a unique position to serve in a very specific type of leadership role – one that is both distinct from that of Hebrew men and sorely lacking in our generation.
Male Jewish leadership traditionally falls into the domain of “must” and “how”: “Must I do a, b, and c?” “Must I not do d, e, and f?”
“If I must do a, b, and c, how do I do them correctly?”
This male model of leadership requires delving into our ancient texts to learn what is and isn’t the necessary performance in any given situation of life. The Torah world’s emphasis on the study of Talmud leaves no lack when it comes this form of leadership. But it’s not the only model.
Hebrew female leadership is qualitatively different in that it falls in the domain of “should.”
“While we recognize that we don’t need to perform a, b, and c, we should – because it is the right thing to do.”
It is the female leader’s role to remind society what it should do, what is the right thing to do in any given situation – whether or not we have a technically legal obligation, and even when it’s difficult.
Take the simple example of coming on aliya (ascending) to Eretz Yisrael. A male leader could easily tell an inquirer that in his specific circumstances, with his specific considerations, at this specific time, he is not technically obligated to immediately move to Israel on aliya. But a female leader’s role in this case would be to tell the inquirer that despite those considerations, he should move to the land of Israel, because in his circumstances, even though it is unimaginably difficult, it’s the right thing to do.
This natural inclination towards insisting upon doing what is right is also what often makes women uniquely suited to engage in the moral development of young children – to teach “right from wrong.” Rather than getting caught up in whether or not a child in a given situation is obligated to share his toy, we see the value in teaching the child that, in that given situation, he probably should share his toy.
To bring this one step further, the leadership role of the kohen (member of the priestly subgroup of the Levi tribe) is also unique, in that it falls in the domain of “want.” It is the kohen’s job to inspire the above mentioned inquirer to “want” to come on aliya to Israel, and as such, he too must develop and bolster a female intuition within himself for right versus wrong (there are actually several similarities between the role of the kohen and that of women in Hebrew society that are beyond the scope of this piece).
Though all three of these domains are equally important in the proper functioning of Jewish society, the female form of moral leadership has in recent decades been neglected in favor of the male form of legal leadership (while the priestly form of inspirational leadership has arguably been taken up by kiruv organizations). This hyperfocus on legal leadership has unfortunately been to the detriment of Jewish communities. Overvaluing the “musts” and “hows” has caused women to seek out that model of leadership development in order to feel that our place in society is important. But this form of leadership development comes with the cost of weakening our innate ability to determine the “should.”
In other words, the more Jewish women engage in the exacting rules and procedures of operation in life, the less developed becomes our sense of how one should act in life according to a larger picture. This creates a spiral effect, whereby, as more and more women engage in the male form of legal leadership, the more we risk losing the capacity to engage in and revitalize the female model of leadership. And society suffers because it loses the vision for making decisions that incorporate what is right, rather than just what is legal.
How did the female leadership role within Jewish communities become so diminished? Through the process of Westernization that has brought the values of capitalism, liberal ideology, and an overemphasis on the atomized individual into the Jewish community.
A society that places the moral wellbeing of the collective at its center would naturally have a more honored place for the traditional contributions of women within that society than one that centers the material achievements of individuals. It should therefore come as no surprise that the Jewish communities in which young women have socially conditioned to study Talmud and take on traditionally male leadership roles are those functioning within the ideological paradigm of Western civilization.
Jewish women are hungry to contribute in ways that not only give us a sense of personal value, but also genuinely better our society. Producing more female legal leadership won’t achieve that. Developing the moral domain of leadership, however, is absolutely essential and sorely lacking – and the knowledge that we are contributing by actually filling a gap is the best way to experience our integral value to the collective.
