May 1, 2026 – Emor

Qualified: Hadassah Shabbat and Another Historic First for Women’s Leadership

It is poetically fitting that during the week we celebrate Hadassah Shabbat in Lexington (services tonight at 6 at TAI and tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. at Ohavay Zion Synagogue), there has been a significant step forward for women’s equality in Israel. Thanks to organizations like Hadassah, a group of female scholars was finally permitted to take the Chief Rabbinate exam to be recognized as rabbis in Israel. Hadassah had been supporting this effort for some time and deserves to be acknowledged among those who championed the cause of these religious leaders who had been deprived of equal opportunities because of their gender. What these women have had to endure — not only a four-hour wait the day of the exam, but every day leading up to it — is unacceptable. They should be lauded for their courage, persistence and determination in the face of discouragement and disrespect.

This week’s Torah portion is also well-timed for the delightful Hadassah services TAI and OZS will host this weekend. Parshat Emor includes a litany of qualifications for being a priest. The things that can disqualify someone are shocking to modern sensibilities:

“No man among your offspring throughout the ages who has a defect shall be qualified to offer the food of his God. No one at all who has a defect shall be qualified: no man who is blind, or lame, or has a limb too short or too long; no man who has a broken leg or a broken arm; or who is a hunchback, or a dwarf, or who has a growth in his eye, or who has a boil-scar, or scurvy.” (Leviticus 21:17—20)

Why is this fitting for Hadassah Shabbat? Because Hadassah holds up a completely different model of what qualifies people for leadership. Gender is not the point. Speech and hearing are not the issue. The length of our limbs and the health of our eyes are not the criteria in question. What qualifies one to lead at Hadassah, and at all organizations dedicated to equality, is the ability to lead, readiness to lead, and commitment to lead.

During the summer of 1992, I had the good fortune to be among those standing in the courtyard of the Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion when Rabbi Naamah Kelman become the first woman to be ordained in Israel. Thirty-four years later, women have reached the point where they can take an official state exam to be recognized as a religious leader.

What qualifies someone to be a rabbi is not the chromosomes ascribed to them at birth but the knowledge they achieve over years of study, reflection and practice. I don’t when the results of the test will be available to the public, but this sabbath I assert with all of you that these women are qualified to be rabbis. May Hadassah continue its proud tradition of championing equality and may the milestone of progress this week be part of many more to come.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi David Wirtschafter