Comments on: Rabbi Ovadia’s Surprising Ruling: Women Can Read Megillah for Men

By: Almost Purim Weekly Review « Ilana-Davita

Almost Purim Weekly Review « Ilana-Davita — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:39:13 +0000

[...] in Israel discusses Rabbi Ovadia’s Surprising Ruling: Women Can Read Megillah for Men and shares new [...]

By: anon

anon — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:29:42 +0000

on kol isha and leining see
http://koltorah.org/ravj/The%20Parameters%20of%20Kol%20Isha.htm

third paragraph under the heading zemirot

By: Abbi

Abbi — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:27:18 +0000

LOZ common= 1-2 readings happen on a yearly basis in many Orthodox communities around the globe and they are accepted or tolerated by the community at large. They are not crazy whacky things that happen in one Jewish community on Earth.

I’ve lived in several Jewish communities over the course of my adult life and there was always a women’s reading to go to where I lived. That’s what I call common. A number of the Orthodox readings I went to even had men in attendance.

By: Lion of Zion

Lion of Zion — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:37:52 +0000

ABBI:

i don’t live in a MO community, but i don’t live in a total coccoon either.

please define “a women’s reading” and “common”

i am aware that there are a *few* shuls with women’s megillah readings, i.e., where women read for women, but it is definately not *common* (i would say it’s an itsy bitsy minority). or maybe i’m wrong. even in manhattan, how many shuls have women’s readings?

and as far as readings where women read for men, i’ll bet that’s even less than an itsby bitsy minority.

By: Soferet Avielah Barclay

Soferet Avielah Barclay — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:12:04 +0000

There have been more & more women copying Megillot Esther as well. Sarah bat R’ David Oppenheim of Prague wrote one in the 1700’s, I wrote one in 2003, Nava Levine-Coren wrote one in 2004…it’s a growing movement within the Modern Orthodox community.

By: Abbi

Abbi — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 09:07:39 +0000

LoZ, it’s been common for years in MO communities to have at least one or two women’s readings on Purim. You don’t live in an MO community (at least from your posts it seems that way), so you wouldn’t know. I’ve been to a women’s reading every year since I’ve been in high school and I’m in my 30’s.

By: mominisrael

mominisrael — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 08:51:48 +0000

Bruce, thanks for posting the link.
LoZ, perhaps common is too strong a word. There is, or has been, at least one in Petach Tikva.

By: Lion of Zion

Lion of Zion — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 07:04:39 +0000

MII:

“it’s common for communities to hold all-women readings”

maybe it’s common where you live

“he does not consider everyday speaking or chanting from a scroll to fall under the prohibition of “kol isha,””

he explained years ago that there is no issue of erva for kol isha when the shekhina is present (or something like that)

(a friend of mine recommended that i daven in shira hadashah. i didn’t realize what i was getting myself into and i ended up leaving in the middle.)

By: Bruce Epstein

Bruce Epstein — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 06:56:55 +0000

See the comments by Professor Jeffrey Woolf at http://myobiterdicta.blogspot.com/2009/03/much-ado-women-reading-megillah-for-men.html

By: mominisrael

mominisrael — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 06:11:00 +0000

Rafi wrote up more here: http://lifeinisrael.blogspot.com/2009/03/interesting-psak-from-rav-ovadia-yosef.html