Kiddush by a Woman

 

Question:

I was informed that in 1980 or 1981 Rav Pinchas Teitz told his community that they can take a one-time vote to decide if they will allow women to say Kiddush for the community on Shabbat morning.

I was asked by my community today can rely upon this psak halacha and allow women to say Kiddush on behalf of the community on Shabbat morning.

The Shulchan Aruch states (O.C. 271:2) that women can say Kiddush for men on Friday night, however the achronim have ruled that this is not appropriate. As such, this is not the practice in the Orthodox world. The Shulchan Aruch and most achronim do not address if women can say Kiddush for men on Shabbat morning. This leaves room to assume that it may be possible for women to recite Kiddush on Shabbat morning on behalf of the community, and was presumably the logic behind Rav Pinchas Teitz allowing his community to take a vote on the matter.

I spoke to a rav, who agreed that I may rely upon the psak of Rav Pinchas Teitz and made clear that it was important to note that this is allowed specifically because it is an issue that deals with tzarchi seudah – halacha regarding the Shabbat meal – and is not part of the Shabbat morning prayer service.

Sincerely,

 

Answer:

I see no written psak by Rav Teitz. Word of mouth is meaningless in halacha.

The issue is not whether a woman may make kiddush for men on Shabbos day, although this too can be debated on purely halachic grounds. The bigger issue is why a community wishes to change its standards and have women make kiddush. This comes clearly from a desire to create equality between men and women, a concept which isn’t consistent with Torah and borders on heresy.

The Torah delineates different roles for men and women. Any attempt to change that is deemed as tampering with the Ratzon Hashem. How a shul can go along with such ideas puzzles me, to put it mildly.

Furthermore, the very fact that the conservative and reform movements have made this the cornerstone of their “religion“ is reason enough for us to keep as far as possible from any such innovation. We are instructed not to mimic the practices of heretics. The poskim of yesteryear, as well as poskim in our generation, have taught us by example that whenever these movements introduce a new practice or behavior, we must fight it all the way even when technically permitted and we consider it a breach in the wall of Torah far more serious than other formal halachic breaches.

This isn’t the only situation where the technical halacha can be abused. Halacha recognizes this distinction between the academic theoretical discussion and the practical implementation when stating, in this matter specifically, that although this is the halacha, one should not rule so הלכה למעשה, as halacha is concerned that ruling this way can cause a זלזול במצות, degradation of mitzvos.

It’s no coincidence that specifically in the area of women exempting men from their obligations, Chazal mince no words when condemning such practices, even when permitted under the guise of halacha. The expression used is תבא מארה למי שאשתו ובניו מברכין לו, a curse should fall upon a man whose wife bentches for him.

Halacha considers it a גנאי, an embarrassment, when such is the standard. While the reasons mentioned for such strong condemnation might not necessarily be applicable in this case, the condemnation of Chazal still stands – and is even more relevant – when the underlying reason for introducing these practices is the concept of equality of the genders, an anti-Torah concept.

I urge you to do anything to stop this abhorrent practice.

Obviously, the local Rabbonim need to be consulted.

 

 

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