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Rabbi Riskin Appoints First Woman In History of State Of Israel To Head A Religious Beis Din


riskDr. Jennie Rosenfeld, serves as a “Manhiga Ruchanit” in the community of Efrat after being appointed by the city’s “Mora D’asra” Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Riskin. She has completed “heter hora’ah” in the Susi Bradfield Women’s Institute for Halakhic Leadership and holds a doctorate in English from the CUNY Graduate Center and has co-authored “Et Le’ehov: The Newlywed’s Guide to Physical Intimacy.

Now Dr. Rosenfeld has become the first woman in the history of the State of Israel to be appointed to head a religious beis din, once again in Efrat. The new beis din opened recently in the hope of adjudicating machlokes between neighbors as well as inheritance, landlord/tenant and work dispute issues. It is pointed out that while she will head the beis din, for the time being she is not going to serve as one of the dayanim.

The dayanim who will be serving on the Efrat Beis Din are certified by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel as well as having a legal background, some being attorneys. Dr. Rosenfeld explains the beis din will not have the authority to compel one to come in monetary disputes and therefore, both parties will have to agree to permit the beis din to adjudicate a machlokes. Both will have to sign an arbitration agreement before the beis din accepts the matter.

Dr. Rosenfeld explains that if a party does not implement the ruling of the beis din, there is a possibility that a district court will enforce the ruling and hand the case to enforcement authorities.

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YWN notes that Chief Rabbi of Efrat Rabbi Shlomo Riskin has previously referred to “J” as a “model Rabbi”, and called him “Rabbi J”. [VIDEO IS BELOW]

Some excerpts of the 5 minute video:

Shalom to all. My name is Shlomo Riskin. I am the Chief rabbi of the City of Efrat…..I am an Orthodox Rabbi…and an Orthodox Rabbi who is very profoundly interested in religion in general, in Christianity, and especially in the persona of Jesus in particular….I was truly fascinated by the personality of Jesus, whom to myself I have always referred to as “Rabbi Jesus”….because I think he is indeed a “model Rabbi” in many counts…and he lived the life of a Jewish Rabbi in Israel in a very critical time in our history…..I have constantly come back to the study of his personality and his teachings which are very strongly rooted in Talmudic teachings…..”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem/Photo from twitter)



13 Responses

  1. Shall we apply the verse poretz geder……..,, or is this supposed to be considered an accomplishment I guess he is bigger than the Gemara melamda tiflus what a rasha

  2. Although I do appreciate this article I still do not understand why people keep looking to to Jesus. I understand he is a Jew and I do not have Ill Will against him or Christians but to me the biggest thing about him being the Messiah is having everlasting peace in this world and we clearly do not. Also Christianity says there is a new covenant and that Jesus is G-d when G-d is finite and has no physical form. Its contradictory to me. I respect someone else’s opinion don’t get me wrong but it seems more like a fallacy than the truth

  3. He loves “j” and the reform movement (i.e. the deform Torah movement), so don’t go anywhere him, his court or anything else he does!

  4. Rav Stav works with Riskin as head of OTS Rabbinical Seminar for Women. Just the other day Rav Stav stated in response to HaRav HaGaon Yosef, shlita’s accusations against him:

    “Rav Yosef’s words are lies and nonsense. They are groundless…”

    When asked by a Srugim do you permit women to give a drasha on Friday night or recite sheva brachos?

    “Absolutely not. There is no basis for these statements. There are instructions specifically forbidding this and to the best of my knowledge, this does not occur. Hence, the words are baseless.”

    See more at: http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/493556/rabbi-stav-fires-back-following-harsh-criticism-against-tzohar-rabbonim-by-hagaon-harav-yitzchak-yosef.html#sthash.UpddyN4Z.dpuf

    Now that he claims that “There are instructions specifically forbidding this and to the best of my knowledge, this does not occur.” will he now sensor Riskin for doing something that is even MORE prohibited than what he himself was accused of allowing?

    Speaking in front of men is technically not Asur if done the proper way as we see from Bruria (the wife of Rebbi Meir). However, it is clear that women paskining is Asur as we see from the fact that Bruria was a Talmida Chochoma, non-the-less, she did not have the official title Rebbe Bruria, nor Rav Bruria.

  5. the fact that YWN keeps calling this guy rabbi and keeps putting him up there is more offensive than anything else. let him do his stupid things and lets stop giving him all the attention

  6. Clarification on my previous comment:

    After some extensive research I discovered that there is a machlokes Rishonim regarding women giving halachic rulings or not. However, 1) psak halacha follows mesorah, not preference. 2) There are other aspects that effect the halacha as well.

    For those that want to delve more on this topic Rabbi Hershel Schachter wrote very nicely on this subject. Worth looking at. You can google “Rabbi Hershel Schachter can women be rabbis” to read his article.

    As for these charlatans may Hashem protect Klal Yisrael from their damage and help them to do Teshuvah!

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