Historical Examples of Women’s Prayer Leadership
How to Use This Resource:
Cut and give each section to a participant (or group). Discuss, journal, or reflect:
- What about this historical example feels familiar? Feels new or unfamiliar?
- What can this teach us about women’s prayer and women’s prayer leadership?
- What further questions does this prompt for you?
After 5-10 minutes, bring everyone back together. Ask each individual or group to summarize their section and share a bit about what came up for them. You may wish to write down any questions for discussion later, or to bring to your Jewish educator.
Other ways to use these:
- Have someone read each section aloud, and then discuss as a group.
- Put one section on each table and set aside some time during the meal for participants to discuss.
- Put each section in a different area of the room. Encourage participants to peruse as they come in. Once everyone is gathered, have everyone stand by the topic they want to discuss. (This could be an ice breaker, a way to mix up groups for tables, or an after-dinner activity.)
In the Torah
The biblical model of heartfelt prayer for people of all genders is Hannah, a woman who had wanted children for many years but was unable to conceive. Every year she would go to the temple and pray for a child. As she prayed, she cried and she moved her lips silently. This was an uncommon practice at the time; most people prayed aloud or asked priests to pray on their behalf. Hannah’s actions were so unusual that the high priest accused her of being drunk! Yet, when she explained herself, he realized the intensity and authenticity of her prayer and blessed her. In the Talmud, the rabbis used Hannah as an example of how one should pray the Amidah, the central daily prayer. (Berakhot 31a)
Second Temple Period
During the late Second Temple period (approx. 300 BCE-100 CE), women actively participated within Jewish society, both socially and religiously. According to archaeological evidence, women don’t seem to have been physically separated from men during prayer. Inscriptions discovered in synagogues from this time testify to women serving with titles like “head of synagogue,” “leader,” and “elder.” And legal literature of the time indicates that women served as leaders of synagogues, participated in ritual services, learned and taught Jewish law, and were counted in a minyan (the minimum of ten required for public prayer).
In the Talmud
There are a handful of female scholars mentioned in the Talmud. The most famous is Beruriah, a daughter of the great sage R. Hananiah ben Teradion. Even as a young girl, her intelligence surpassed that of her brother. It was said she learned “three hundred laws from three hundred teachers in one day” (B. Pesahim 62b). She married Rabbi Meir, the miracle worker and sage. In the stories that portray Beruriah as a scholar, her name is mentioned alone, without reference to husband or father. In these reports she is quick, sarcastic, knowledgeable in areas beyond domestic issues, and respected for her knowledge on matters of both halakhah (law) and aggadah (stories, customs, and folk traditions).
Medieval Egypt
Participation in prayer requires basic literacy. Documents in the Cairo Genizah show that women received a Jewish education at home and learned to read and write so that, among other things, they could take part in prayer. A girl’s father was responsible for her education, but in rare cases adult women tutored girls. Additional evidence from the Cairo Genizah shows that in medieval Egyptian society, women, especially Jewish women, were granted freedom of occupation and economic independence, with some even becoming rich. These wealthy women often contributed to the construction and renovation of synagogues and their upkeep, as well as financing oil for the lamps so that the worshipers could study at night.
Women’s Sections
The term beit knesset nashim, “women’s synagogue,” first appeared among German Jews in the 1100s and generally referred to separate buildings attached to or near the men’s synagogue. In France, women’s sections were usually in the basement, below the ground floor of the synagogue. In Spain, women were often seated in a gallery above the men. In Morocco, women’s sections were typically behind the men’s sections or side-by-side with men’s sections. In Jerusalem in the 1700s and 1800s, young
women specifically were banned from weekly prayer and were only allowed to participate during the High Holy Days. In Yemen, women were often excluded from prayer completely.
The Language of Prayer
Across the medieval Jewish world, it was common for women to lead other women in prayer, often in the local language rather than in Hebrew. A new creative world of women’s prayer flourished, featuring women poets, prayer leaders, and cantors. The tombstone of Ornea, daughter of the cantor Rabbi Abraham of Worms, who died in 1275, reads: “This headstone was erected for the lady Ornea, the exceptional and esteemed woman, daughter of Rabbi Abraham, chief of the poets, whose prayer was glory, who with a pleasant voice petitioned on behalf of his people, and she too in a sweet voice, sang hymns for women.” Women such as Ornea, who were called zagerke and firzogerin (front-sayer) in Yiddish, served as readers and poets who read or sang the words of the prayers and translated for the other women, sometimes more or less exactly and sometimes more freely, often with their own added interpretations.
An Iraqi Woman Rabbi
Osnat Barazani, in 17th century Kurdistan (modern-day Iraq), served as a Rosh Yeshiva and Torah scholar. She was the daughter of a great rabbi, Samuel ben Netanel Ha-Levi Barzani, and received a rare education in Hebrew, Bible, and Jewish texts. Following the death of both her father and her husband, the leadership of the Mosul yeshiva passed on to her without controversy. Although few of her writings have been preserved, she was so revered that she is still remembered as a great rabbi and leader within the Kurdish Jewish community.
Hasidic Rebbes
In the Hasidic community, the term “rebbe” refers more to the charismatic and spiritual capacities of leaders than their legal authority, and this enabled several women to become Hasidic rebbes. These women are described as leaders in their own right, regularly receiving kvitlekh (slips of paper inscribed with requests for assistance or blessing), teaching and preaching, performing miracles, and building a following. They are, additionally, often described as adopting practices unusual for women, such as wearing tzitizit and tefillin. Most of these women were the wives, widows, or daughters of great rebbes. Their family lineage and otherwise conventional roles as wives and mothers often allowed for their unusual leadership positions. (For example: Eidel, the daughter of the Baal Shem Tov; her daughter Feige; Chana Chaya, the daughter of Mordecai of Chernobyl; and Eydele of Brody, the daughter of Rabbi Shalom of Belz.)
The Ludmirer Moid
The Ludmirer Moid, who was neither married to nor descended from a prestigious rabbinic family, is considered the only independent Hasidic Rebbe. The “Maiden of Ludmir,”, Chanah Rachel Verbermacher, lived during the 19th century in Ukraine. In her teens she had a heavenly vision during which she claimed to have received a “new and lofty soul.” From that point on, she acquired a reputation as a healer and miracle worker. When her father died, she used her inheritance to build a study house of her own. She also refused to marry, a provocative decision that inspired others to nickname her the Maiden. Legend has it that Mordekhai of Chernobil, eventually compelled the Maiden to marry; however, her husband was too afraid of her to consummate the relationship and so the couple divorced. Chanah Rachel later moved to Jerusalem and continued serving as a religious leader until she died.
The ‘First’ Female Rabbi
Regina Jonas, born into a poor Orthodox Jewish family in Berlin in 1902, dreamed of being a rabbi at the astonishing age of 11, far before the Jewish world was ready to support her aspirations. During the 1920s, she studied at the Academy for the Science of Judaism, taking all the same courses and exams required of rabbinical students. But the faculty member who seemed ready to ordain her suddenly died and the institution changed their minds. Finally in 1935, she was ordained as a rabbi by the association of liberal (Reform) rabbis in Berlin. At first she was only able to work in schools, Jewish hospitals and nursing homes. As many rabbis fled the country, Rabbi Jonas served in several synagogues that were desperate for rabbinic leadership as catastrophe approached. Rabbi Regina Jonas was killed in Auschwitz in 1944.