Gedolim's Sensitivity to Women

Bloghead and House of Hock have both written responses to Toby Katz's post on Cross-Currents which takes the position that gedolim can identify with the needs of Jewish women. She wrote:

Gedolim rise to an exceptionally high level of refinement, but all humans who are sufficiently mature and intelligent can understand the feelings of other humans.

In a way I symapthize with Toby Katz. We believe in a tradition which only permits male rabbinic leadership, hence it is essential to believe that these gedolim can serve the needs of the whole community, including the women.

However, even if it is true that the gedolei hador genuinely empathize with all members of the Jewish community, there is a separate question about whether women are comfortable fully expressing their concerns to their male leaders. The yoatzot halacha phenomenon shows that when it comes to female-related issues, such as hilchot niddah, many women prefer to consult a woman. I have heard many women say that they preferred  to be more strict than necessary in their observance of family purity laws rather than have a discussion about such intimate topics with a rabbi.

To me, this is not about feminism as much as it is about tzniut (modesty) and a sensitivity which often only comes about through shared experience. I choose to go to an all female Ob-gyn practice for the same reasons. I think that there are some areas where no matter how knowledgeable and sensitive a rabbi may be, a woman will just be more comfortable consulting another woman.

Comments

[persephone]

I think there might also occasionally be an actual communication gap, based on the lack of shared experience. This came up when I tried to ask a shaylah once about hargasha. The rabbi said, ok, so you have a feeling of some kind of flow, but is it a higher-up feeling or a lower-down feeling?

I was like, um... what? I had no idea what he was talking about, let alone whether I could tell the difference. I figured it was my own lack of attention to my symptoms. But when I reported the conversation to someone else, she said, how does he have any idea what he's talking about?? It's not you. He might as well be talking Martian.

Like you, this is the same reason I prefer female gynecologists. I wrote about a parallel experience here: http://inthebarrenseason.blogspot.com/2005/03/got-uterus-no-didnt-think-so.html

[jack22]

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