What does it mean to be both halakhic and egalitarian?
Traditionally, halakhah (Jewish law) has been understood to exclude women from participating in certain aspects of public prayer. However, an examination of the classic Jewish sources for prayer reveals that there is ample support for equal participation by women and men in davening and leyning (Torah reading), and for counting women equally with men in a minyan. At the first Shavuot retreat, our community studied these issues in depth, focusing on the following topics: women’s obligation in prayer, women as shelichot tzibbur (prayer leaders) and as Torah readers, and women counting in a minyan (quorum for public prayer). The source sheets we used, as well as links to a variety of teshuvot (rabbinic responsa) and other resources on this issue, can be found here.
