Dov Halbertal says that religious feminists, who in the past were mostly religious zionists but now increasingly also charedi, are exhibiting behavior which is very much at odds with the cautious approach to the women's liberation movement espoused by the venerated Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik זצ"ל, who was the undisputed leader of the Modern Orthodox world in the previous generation.
Rabbi Soloveitchik has stated that although in a theoretical sense men and women are inherently equal, and should be treated as such, when it all boils down to practical halacha the Torah assigns very different roles to males and females, depending upon the circumstances. And those ancient guidelines can never be changed.As an example, we find that a woman is disqualified from bearing witness, but then again, so is a king. No one would assume that a king is more lowly than a simple water carrier, and certainly neither would a woman be, and yet that is the halacha.
In another example, Rabbi Soloveitchik professed the idea that a woman should generally not assume positions of authorty in communal life, including forbidding them to become ritual slaughterers, but did allow females to become kashruth supervisors, even stating that in that capacity they are better than the men.
Rabbi Halbertal was close to Rav Elyashiv זצ"ל
In this new age of radical ideas, where we see that feminist rabbis are desperately trying to gain the approval of women by trying to artificially level the playing field in marriage and divorce, we should remind them that their attempt at changing the metaphysical laws of the universe is only going to lead to disaster.
