On the eve of Simchat Torah, it is worth revisiting the question of whether women are allowed to touch a Sefer Torah – as some communities allow women to dance with a Sefer Torah, while others do not.
There is a common misconception that menstruating women are not allowed to touch the Torah. However, halachic sources dating back to the Talmud do not support such an assertion.
It is, in fact, prohibited to touch a Sefer Torah when one’s hands are dirty, particularly after using the washroom or touching parts of the body that are normally covered. However, this does not extend to people who are clean but ritually impure. As is explicitly stated in Brachot 22a: “Just as a fire is not susceptible to impurity, so words of Torah are not susceptible to impurity.”
The Tosefta in Brachot 2:12 specifically enumerates menstruating women, along with post-partum women, and men and women who have discharges from their sexual organs that render them impure (zavim and zavot), as being permitted to read from the Torah, learn Mishna, midrash, Halacha, and aggada.
In his Laws of Tefillin and Mezuza and Sefer Torah 10:8, Maimonides writes that “all those who are ritually impure and even niddot and even a non-Jew are permitted to hold the Sefer Torah and read from it, for words of Torah are not susceptible to impurity.” This is echoed in the Shulchan Aruch in Yoreh Deah 282. In short, it is halachicly permitted for impure men and women to touch and read from the Torah.
SO WHERE did the idea that menstruating women cannot touch the Torah originate?
In the Geonic era, Rav Yehudai was asked whether niddot were permitted even to pray or enter a synagogue. His answer was that it was perfectly fine for them to pray and enter a sacred space while menstruating. Nonetheless, a medieval text known as Baraita of Mesechet Nidda (author unknown) wrote that a nidda is prohibited from entering the synagogue.
Despite the Talmudic texts, Rav Yehudai Gaon, and Maimonides, there emerged a custom that was upheld among Ashkenazim, for menstruating women to avoid entering a synagogue. This probably had less to do with impurity and more to do with hygiene. This is reflected in the language of Rema in Orach Chayim 88:1 in describing the practice:
“There are those who wrote that a woman in nidda during her days of seeing [blood] should not enter the synagogue or pray or utter the name of God or touch a Sefer. There are those who say that she is permitted to do all of this, and thus is the basic [Halacha], but the custom in these lands follows the first opinion.
“In her white days, they are lenient. Even in a place where they were accustomed to be stringent, on Yamim Nora’im and so forth, when many people gather to go to synagogue, they are permitted to go to synagogue like other women. For this is a great anguish, that everyone gathers while they stand outside” (translation Deracheha.org).
The Rema both acknowledges the practice that expanded to include prayer or uttering the name of God (preventing her from even saying blessings) in addition to entering the synagogue or touching the Sefer Torah. He notes that women distinguished between entering the synagogue while actively menstruating and their “white” days – the seven clean of blood days following their period, which they counted before immersing in a mikveh (ritual bath).
In other words, women would begin to re-enter the synagogue while still impure, since only the mikveh immersion rendered them pure, despite the cessation of menstrual blood days earlier. The distinction he makes suggests that this custom was driven not by the status of impurity but by the dirty physical reality of menstruation. (Today, in parts of the world in which modern feminine hygiene products are unavailable, girls are unable to attend school because of the messiness of their periods.)
NOTABLY, HE shows awareness of the anguish women feel, particularly around the High Holy Days, in being kept away from synagogue while menstruating and rules that even in those places where this practice is in place, it should be suspended to give women a sense of belonging and connection on days when everyone is in synagogue.
In any event, by the 16th century, Ashkenazi women are entering the synagogue even while menstruating, but a strange caveat is found in some of the halachic literature: While menstruating, a woman should look away from the Torah. This practice is a surprising contrast to the ruling in Shulchan Aruch that there is a mitzvah for all men and women to see the writing of the Torah.
The question of women touching, dancing, or reading from a Sefer Torah on Simchat Torah did not appear in written halachic literature until the late 20th century. However, the disproportionate inequality in the experience of young boys and men, who are actively engaged in reading Torah and dancing with the scrolls, compared to that of the women who passively watch from the side, often talking during the long stretches of dancing, has led to a sense of disconnect and anguish on the part of women seeking to make the holiday more meaningful.
While there is room to permit the use of halachic precedent (particularly with regard to touching the Sefer Torah as seen above), women dancing with a Torah remains a heated issue that continues to divide congregations across many Modern Orthodox communities.
Ten years ago, the rabbinic organization Beit Hillel came out with an article emphasizing the importance and value for women to find religious meaning on Simchat Torah.
Several options were suggested for communities to consider:
• Dancing in the women’s section alongside the men or in a separate space for women’s dancing
• Tisch-style learning and singing while the men dance and read from the Torah
• Dancing with or around the Sefer Torah
• Reading from the Torah (this requires a separate halachic consideration as to how to do this).
Ultimately, the goal for every community, rabbi, and lay person is to find a way for this holiday – which is a joyful celebration of our love for and acceptance of Torah – to make us all feel that the Torah, which is at the heart of our lives, belongs to everyone.
This article is dedicated to the memory of Alice Shalvi, who died this week. She was a revered Jewish feminist educator who was passionate about Torah. May her memory be blessed.
The writer teaches contemporary Halacha at the Matan Advanced Talmud Institute. She also teaches Talmud at Pardes along with courses on Sexuality and Sanctity in the Jewish tradition.