Madam Frecha-Flora Sassoon


THE DAILY SAGE CALENDAR:
< Nisan 5784 April 2024 >
אבגדהוש
 כב/1כג/2כד/3כה/4כו/5כז/6
כח/7כט/8א/9ב/10ג/11ד/12ה/13
ו/14ז/15ח/16ט/17י/18יא/19יב/20
יג/21יד/22טו/23טז/24יז/25יח/26יט/27
כ/28כא/29כב/30    
A few quotes from the Rabbi on 'Love of Israel'
in which she teaches that a woman is not like the surplus amounts of the Incense Offering, who might be honored as a chairperson once in seventy years

First, I offer my deep thanks to the Beit HaMidrash L'Darshanim committee for their great honor in electing me as Chairperson of the Annual Meeting. I have been told that since the founding of this institution, it has been unheard of that a woman be honored as Chairperson. This is perhaps because it says "I have found no woman among all these", or because you recite "Who hath not made me a woman" in your daily prayers. If so, I find it puzzling that you have honored me as Chairperson. Perhaps this is according to what it says in Tractate Kritot, page 6b, that "Once in sixty or seventy years the surplus would reach half the amount" (a reference to the Incense Offering). For, to your mind, men are the basis and principle of the human species, and woman are only the surplus, something extra and inessential. Just as the incense made of the surplus once in sixty or seventy years was legitimate, so you must have said: This Beit Midrash was founded seventy years ago, and was always chaired by men – they are the essence, and now, once in seventy years, the time has come to give the honor to a woman, one of the gender that is considered as surplus and not essential. I harbor no grudge toward you for the honor you have bestowed upon me, far from it; I rejoice that you have, once in seventy years, also honored a woman. Nevertheless, I will have you note that this fact is not a good sign… Hear me, o teachers and pupils, I hereby reveal to you that you have not entirely erred. I am for the LORD, I love the Torah with all my soul and labor at it, and I lead my children, as well, in the way of Torah.

Y. K. Herzog, Imrei Yoel, C, Sermon of the Great Rabbanit Madam Frecha Sassoon, p. 204-205, Express Printing, London, 1930
לדף חכם
subscribe
media