Teaneck—The second annual community-wide Yoetzet event will again be hosted by Congregation Rinat Yisrael on May 12 at 8 p.m. Tirza Bayewitz, one of the organizers, said the event’s theme has been expanded to include the interests of women throughout the different stages of fertility, during their childbearing years, and beyond. In addition to two women practicing locally as yoatzot halacha, a reproductive physician and a reproductive psychiatrist will round out the speakers’ panel.
At the event, which is entitled “Jewish Women’s Journey Through Life,” the four community speakers will come together to present and discuss the wide range of questions women may pose to a yoetzet or other halachic posek on issues relating to family purity at each stage of their lives.
“Yoatzot are women trained in the laws of taharat hamishpacha, the laws of family purity [niddah], and in related areas of modern medicine and psychology,” said Shoshana Samuels, a teacher at Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls, who serves as Yoetzet Halacha for Congregation Rinat Yisrael and Congregation Netivot Shalom and is one of the event’s speakers. “This includes basic knowledge of gynecology, fertility and infertility, relationships and sexuality,” she explained.
Yoatzot, the vast majority of whom are graduates of the two-year Keren Ariel Yoetzet Halacha Program at Nishmat in Jerusalem, were joined by five new graduates last year of the satellite program run by Nishmat’s Miriam Glaubach Center and housed at Teaneck’s Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School. One of the five graduates of the Teaneck program is Nechama Price, a professor of Judaic Studies and Bible at Stern College, who is also one of the event’s speakers. Price is an incoming yoetzet halacha for the Englewood and Tenafly communities, made possible by funding initiatives from Congregation Ahavath Torah and Kehilat Kesher. Price has been teaching niddah courses at Stern College for ten years. “Her specialty is preparing brides for marriage and being available to answer questions that come up in the early marriage years,” said Bayewitz.
According to some, an advantage of having the yoetzet resource available is that there are now more people than ever before available to ask a wide range of questions related to niddah. “Sometimes, when women have questions, they either delay asking or do not ask at all. This can be damaging. Women should reach out to their rabbi or yoetzet to get direction for their immediate situation and guidelines for as long as the situation persists and, whenever relevant, advice for the future,” Samuels said.
The role of the yoetzet has been more clearly delineated in the greater Teaneck community than in some others, and several other Jewish communities in the United States have begun to either host yoatzot on a semi-regular basis for shiurim and classes, or take advantage of the services of a yoetzet from another community on a regular or semi-regular basis.
“I have found that women in our community in Teaneck are much better educated in the laws of taharat hamishpacha than women in other places that have not brought yoatzot to lecture or as a recurring scholar-in-residence or for continued employment,” Samuels said. She added that she also regularly travels to Los Angeles to provide yoetzet services to a community there.
While two communities in Teaneck (Rinat Yisrael and Netivot Shalom) have Samuels serving as yoetzet, and Englewood and Tenafly are soon to host Price, it is just as important to note that a larger majority of the community’s rabbeim continue to prefer that questions related to niddah be addressed exclusively to an Orthodox rabbi with semicha, all of whom must have mastered the subject of niddah. (If their ordination is from Yeshiva University, niddah is one of four main curricula required as part of their extensive training.) The reasoning is that such rabbis have immense experience in the types of questions that are asked and a larger breadth of sources to cull from that would allow for a wider array of questions to be answered.
Another of the four speakers is Rabbi Dr. Zalman Levine, a practicing reproductive endocrinologist and Director of the Fertility Institute of New Jersey and New York in Westwood. Levine, who holds semicha from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University, is also trained in medicine and was previously a member of the medical faculty at Harvard University. He is a fertility specialist well known in his field and is well-versed in the wide range of assisted reproductive technologies available to women today. “My role is to discuss the fertility journey couples undergo, and the challenges they may face from medical, halachic, and hashkafic perspectives,” Levine told JLBC.
Levine said his presentation will entail an overview of the extra effort and emotion that some couples have to put into their fertility endeavor. “I will try to provide a taste of the sensitivity we need to show, as individuals and as a community, in helping couples face issues that are not only medical in nature but also require significant emotional support, and that raise weighty questions requiring the help of rabbis and yoatzot,” he said.
At the question and answer session, Levine said, he will welcome specific questions, and he also invites people to give him a call afterwards if they have additional questions.
One of the speakers at the Yoetzet event this year is Dr. Naomi Greenblatt, a reproductive psychiatrist who practices in Englewood. While Greenblatt’s specialty may call to mind postpartum depression, in fact the issues she treats are quite a bit more wide-ranged, said Bayewitz. Greenblatt’s practice, called The Rocking Chair, seeks to address all areas of women’s mental health, including pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), infertility, peri-menopausal issues, eating disorders and mood and anxiety disorders, in addition to postpartum depression.
“Education is the first step in dealing with concerns that a woman may face over her lifespan, and includes raising awareness of symptoms to look out for as well as treatment options that are available,” Greenblatt told JLBC.
The annual Yoetzet event is part of the Bergen County Yoetzet Initiative sponsored by Congregations Rinat Yisrael, Netivot Shalom, Ahavath Torah, Kehilat Kesher, and with the support of community members. Organizational partners are Sharsheret, Project S.A.R.A.H, Emunah of America, AMIT, NechamaComfort and American Friends of Nishmat. The event has a suggested donation of $10, and sponsorships are available. To reserve your space, please email [email protected].
By Elizabeth Kratz
