On June 15, the second-ever class of Manhigei Hilchatit Ruchanit Toranit, were ordained in the Kraft Center, giving women a greater representation among Orthodox leadership in the Jewish community. Victoria Sutton and Rori Picker Neiss joined Ruth Balinsky Friedman, Rachel Kohl Finegold, and Abby Brown Scheier as the fourth and fifth Maharat ever ordained. After the ordinations of Sutton and Picker Neiss, in which they were each told that they had “been found worthy and granted the authority to teach and determine halachic rulings for the Jewish community and [had] been ordained as a spiritual leader” by Rabbi Jeffrey Fox and Rabbi Daniel Sperber, R’ Sperber, a professor of Talmud at Bar-Ilan University, assured everyone that the titles were deserved.
“I want to assert very clearly, that I examined these women very rigorously and found them highly motivated, extremely intelligent, very discerning, and with a very capable knowledge of the sort of material that they need to have in order to fill the role as halachic and spiritual leaders,” he said. “Of late, there’s been a resurgence of criticism on the part of many renowned and respectable talmidei chachamim both in Israel, England, and here in the United States… The main argument was that these innovative directions constitute a breach with tradition. I wish to state very clearly, that quite the contrary is true. Innovation is the hallmark of Jewish halachic tradition…Halacha comes from the route halach, to move, to step forward, to progress. That is how halacha has to function.”
In addition to the ordination of the two new Maharat, one of their teachers, Devorah Zlochower, was conferred with the honorary title of Chachama. Eleven years ago, Zlochower spoke at the Drisha graduation of Rabba Sara Hurwitz, Dean of Yeshivat Maharat; she then spoke again at Hurwitz’s ordination six years ago, just before Hurwitz founded the school with Rabbi Avraham Weiss.
In accepting her honor, Zlochower spoke of the challenges women who want to learn have faced and continue to face.
“We still face significant obstacles. Many Batei Midrash are not open to women. It is not a simple matter to find superb teachers of Torah and it is even harder to find our own place as recognized teachers of torah and religious leaders and yet we are here and here to stay,”
Zlochower said before addressing the two graduates directly. “The three of us have in common that our seats in the beit midrash are not something any of us take for granted. You have indeed earned your spots in the beit midrash.”
Prior to their studies at Yeshivat Maharat, Sutton attended Mechon Hadar and Barnard while Picker Neiss attended the Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College and the Drisha Institute. Sutton has worked as an educational intern at SAR high school and taught at the Drisha High School and Women’s Collegiate Programs. In addition, she has worked as co-chair of the BJ/SPSA homeless shelter, as a Victim Intervention Advocate at New York Presbyterian Hospital, and has done a variety of interfaith work. Sutton also works at Ohav Sholom in Merrick, NY.
“It was exactly one year ago that I was sitting, surrounded by hundreds of people in Ramaz, eagerly awaiting the graduation of my colleagues,” Sutton said. “At that moment, I knew in my heart that I was in the right place,” she added.
Picker Neiss has spent the past year as Director of Programming, Education and Engagement at Bnai Abraham in St. Louis, MO. In the past, she has worked with Religions for Peace-USA, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, the American Jewish Committee, and the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations. She is also currently on the board of the Leadership Council of the International Council of Christians and Jews, a member of the Religions for Peace Global Youth Network, a CLAL Rabbis Without Borders student fellow, and a co-editor of InterActive Faith: The Essential Interreligious Community-Building Handbook.
“It is because of you that our voice of Torah is coming to into the world. And not only our Torah, but the Torah of all the people who we teach, all of the people who see us and recognize that there are no barriers to Torah,” Picker Neiss said after her ordination.
As per her address, everyone received a portion of Torah at Sinai and it is only with the acceptance of women into the world of learning that all those portions of Torah can be revealed.
“The first is the breakthrough; the 2nd gives permanence to the breakthrough…,” Rabbi Weiss said in his closing remarks. “Our second Smicha ceremony sends a message that smicha for women, b’ezrat Hashem, is here to stay.”
By Aliza Chasan
