The parsha opens with God's command to Moses our Lord - "Come to Pharaoh.".
Why does God use the phrase "come"? It would not have been more correct to say "go to Pharaoh.".
It is explained in the books of Kabbalah that Moses was already in Pharaoh's palace, and God led him from room to room until he reached a large and powerful crocodile (the large crocodile that Pharaoh relied on when he said, "Glory to me, and I have made you"), and Moses our rabbi was afraid of the large crocodile that had its roots in the upper worlds.
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To this, God said to him, "Come to Pharaoh," come with me to Pharaoh himself in order to defeat him.
We will return to Pharaoh later.
This is the Torah view.
Last Thursday, a launch was held for my first book, 'A Love Affair'.
Haredi women from all walks of life and denominations came to participate in the launch. The profile of the average participant was very far from the image of Haredi women in the media.
It was impossible not to see the common denominator for all of them. What concerns every Haredi woman. And it's not a seat around the government table, or even a Knesset member's office.
This week I had a televised debate with someone who founded an ultra-Orthodox women's party, and despite our differences of opinion, I felt closer to her than to someone who is not ultra-Orthodox. A kind of sisterhood of women with a broad common denominator.
When I left the confrontation, I hurried to call a teaching rabbi, a member of the Beit Din, in order to receive reinforcement and to hear the halachic opinion on the matter (and not that I didn't know this before).
What is interesting is that an ultra-Orthodox rabbi chose to quote Rabbi Kook, who said that women are not elected. I wondered and asked the rabbi: 'Didn't Rabbi Kook also say that women do not vote?' And the rabbi replied that if women do not vote, it will play into the hands of the haters of religion in the country, and therefore the order of the hour is for them to vote.
And the rabbi continued: "There is no doubt that in our history there are many women who 'did' this. The fact that women did not write books of thought and halakhah did not stem from a particular principle, but from the nature of life in those days. Even many men who were engaged in Torah study could not afford to publish books.".
""In general, according to the Maharal's system, a woman can study Torah. When I visited the Prague cemetery, I saw the tombstone of a woman who lived during the Maharal's time and wrote Torah novellas. The Maharal's wife herself was the one who edited his many books.".
Women not elected
""But there is a huge difference between the approach of those women and the prevailing approach today. The study of Torah by women in those days came from a pure place, from a place of concern. It did not come from a place of defiance and from an attempt to change the nature of creation and deny the biological differences between the sexes.".
Feminism (not the ultra-Orthodox one) comes from a place of breaking boundaries and robbing systems.
""Hence, there is no problem with a woman being a rabbinical advocate and representing another woman in court. On the contrary, this way, the woman will be able to have her day in court, as she will feel more comfortable discussing with a woman the things that bother her.".
""In fact, every profession a woman engages in today is an appointment, not a choice. She was appointed to it. A choice requires propaganda, billboards, and public exposure, the exact opposite of the woman whose 'all dignity is the daughter of a king within.'.
""Therefore, there is no room for women to choose, and this does not mean that they are unworthy or cannot serve in certain roles.".
The rabbi's words did not reassure me.
I asked him: After all, they claim that I myself am being exposed in the media, in the newspaper, on the radio, on television, and how can I tell other women not to run for the Knesset?
The rabbi answered: "There is a beginning and there is a retroactive one. When a woman has already reincarnated to a place where this is her activity, then it is incumbent on her to continue doing so if it is done according to the halacha and especially if she elevates her activity to holiness. Like women who have repented and engaged in a certain art that does not contradict the halacha, who are not told to leave this art, but to utilize it for things that are holy.
""But to begin with, to go and break into the career of a public representative?! Even Rabbi Kook himself ruled that women are not elected!""
When impurity pushes for redemption
This week, when the first Haredi Women's Party was established, or the second, who remembers, I understood what they say: where there are two Jews, two synagogues are built, and each has its own intrigues.
The truth is that in media interviews that last just a few minutes, it is impossible to convey a lifestyle. It is very difficult to explain beliefs and opinions in five minutes. But the main message can and should always be conveyed - accepting the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven.
For this, a lot of airtime is not needed. One sentence is enough to awaken the Jewish heart, the divine soul whose love for the Creator God cannot be extinguished by anything in the world.
When I went to that 'confrontation' with the founder of the "Haredi" women's movement, I asked God to come with me, just as He came with Moses to Pharaoh, as implied by the word "come," two against one.
I agreed to the interview because I wanted to balance the picture and provide an answer to the terrible desecration of God that is expressed in the act of going against the Halacha. The Halacha position is clear and it is a great shame that there are not enough men (and women) who express it out loud.
In the end, even impurity itself – even Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, the height of impurity, rushes to accept the kingdom of heaven upon himself (and everyone probably knows the story about the king of Nineveh, he is Pharaoh). When impurity itself rushes to hasten Israel out of exile, this is already redemption.
Leave Sarah Schneier alone.
Every time I join new circles of women, I discover that there is more in common than in difference.
Even in that half-interview, half-confrontation with the founder of the Haredi party, I felt compassion and sympathy for the woman I was sitting next to, despite the polar differences in our opinions.
Later, I heard about another petition filed with the court, demanding that Haredi women be allowed to run for the Knesset within the framework of the Haredi parties, and I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to all those dear women who are fighting for a female Haredi seat in the Knesset: Please, then, mobilize all your vigor and energy to further increase and strengthen the Haredi representation in the Knesset, in order to preserve the principles of religion.
It is clear that we all want the best for women, but their best interests are that their children be able to study Torah without interference and be able to continue the glorious tradition that has stood behind Haredi Judaism for hundreds and thousands of years.
It is not right to use the image of Sarah Schnerer, the founder of Beit Yaakov, and present her as a pioneer. It is not factually correct and not fundamentally correct.
First, her goal was to teach the Jewish women Torah and she certainly did not ask for a seat for them in the Polish Seym or in the large church of Agudath Israel in Poland.
Second, anyone who follows her writings knows that she consulted with the greats of that generation on every step she took, because she came from a place of reverence for God. There is no connection between her being a pioneer and breaking boundaries that is required in light of the desire to seat an ultra-Orthodox woman in the Knesset.
Sarah Schnirer wanted to protect the women of Israel from falling under the spell of all the ideologies that were prevalent in the world at the time. She succeeded. Because her goal was a sacred one.
You, dear women, need to carefully examine what lies behind your desire to introduce an ultra-Orthodox Knesset member into the Knesset of the Sexes...
• Part of the column is based on the talks of the Lubavitcher Rebbe | The writer is the owner of "My Choice", an event host, lecturer, and radio broadcaster. | For comments: [email protected]
