Reader Response

To the Editors of Nashim:

Having carefully read David Golinkin's article, "The Participation of Jewish Women in Public Rituals and Torah Study 1845-2010" (Nashim, 21 [Spring 2011]: Women in the Responsa Literature), I was surprised to see no mention of Kehilat Yedidya in Jerusalem alongside several references to the innovations made by another Jerusalem congregation, Shira Ḥadasha. Of course, Shira Ḥadasha has gone further than Yedidya in the direction of egalitarianism, but of the various innovations practiced there, about 70% originated at Yedidya more than two decades earlier. Indeed, the latter might be considered a kind of "breakaway" from Yedidya, of which some of its founders had formerly been members.

Kehilat Yedidya was a pioneer, certainly in Israel, but I think in the Orthodox world in general. Since the late 1970s and early 1980s, the seating has been separate, but with the meḥitzah down the middle so that men and women are equidistant from the aron kodesh. A man takes the Torah out, carries it through the men's section and hands it to a woman, who carries it through the women's section. Women open and close the aron and, after the communal reading, put the Torah back. Women at Yedidya participate in the services in other ways, too, by:

1. 1. giving divrei Torah, in the middle of the service;

2. 2. making kiddush for the whole community;

3. 3. participating fully in the hakafot on both Sukkot and Simḥat Torah, and dancing with the Torah on Simḥat Torah;

4. 4. wearing talitot, and sometimes tefilin;

5. 5. chanting from the megilot for the entire congregation; and

6. 6. saying the mourners' kaddish, not only on shabbatot and ḥagim (in both the hashkamah and the main service), but also in the daily morning minyan, even if there is no man saying it.

At Shira Ḥadasha, there are mixed Torah readings; Yedidya has separate women's readings at least once a month. Both men and women are called up using the names of both their parents.

All of the above innovations have characterized Yedidya from its inception. Changes in the last few years have included girls singing the Yigdal and An'im zemirot hymns for the entire congregation, and women reading or chanting the special tefillot for the sick, for our soldiers, for peace and for the State of Israel.

These innovations, within an Orthodox setting, are at least worthy of mention in a historical survey.