But in truth the issue is about a perceived challenge to halachic authority. In some cases it might well be so. But that doesn’t mean it has to be! Whether and in what way some women want or should take on more public religious roles, and use ritual as a tool, is their business and choice. I am not concerned here with that issue.
A girl, a woman wants to find different ways of expressing her relationship to God and her religious tradition and wants to do more than she is obliged to. Why is this any different than a male who wishes to be stricter than the law requires? Some men lay two sets of Tefilin every day to cover the disagreement between Rashi and Rabbeynu Tam on the order of the scrolls. Some give more to charity than others. Some eat only Glatt or super Glatt kosher, or no gebroks on Pesach. Some go to the Mikvah every day, even on Shabbat. Does this make them rebels against early Torah Judaism that never heard of such things? What can possibly be wrong with someone wanting to do more rather than less, if it does not in any halachic way offend? Indeed Mikvah on Shabbat does offend the letter of the law. To say it has not been done before as a general rule is no stronger an argument against wearing Tefilin than it is against riding in a car.
Halcha is a defined legal framework that has its rules of debate and modification. But here we are not talking about challenging law, just custom. And Lord knows there are infinite varieties of custom in observant Judaism between communities, denominations, and sects.
I understand why religious establishments should fight off challenges to their authority. We live in times of excessive sensitivity and all religions try to fight off vigorously any threat to their world view. But why with aggression and disrespect? Novelty frightens, but that does not necessarily mean it is wrong. So why stop a girl who wants to put on Tefilin? If all she is doing is something that gives her a sense of spiritual uplift? If it is a feminist battle for supremacy, then I believe it misguided and bound to fail. But simply an expression of a personal desire to extend observance to another level? Where’s the beef?
Once upon a time men tried to argue that women were neither as intelligent nor as in need of ritual as men. Only a caveman could possibly suggest that nowadays. Have we gone crazy that a girl who wants to put on Tefilin is to be regarded as some sort of criminal and a rabbi who supports her, a traitor? Doesn’t it really make religious authority look an ass?
