Jerusalem – Yesh Atid MK Rabbi Dov Lipman called on the Ministry of Religious Services on Tuesday to allow women converting to Judaism to be given the choice of not having rabbinical judges in the room when she immerses in the mikvah, or ritual bath, an act which completes her conversion.
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Lipman said he was submitting the request to Deputy Minister of Religious Services Eli Eli Ben-Dahan after he spoke with a convert who was accidentally seen completely unclothed by the three rabbis when they walked into the room, before she could cover herself.
In Jewish law, a woman must immerse in a mikvah to complete her conversion and rabbinical judges, who in Orthodox Judaism are men, are supposed to be present to confirm that she did indeed immerse.
The MK said that he had looked into the issue of how female converts feel about the presence of men during their immersion, as well as the sources in Jewish law that deal with the requirements for the ritual immersion of women when converting and decided that
Lipman said that he discovered rabbinic sources which explain that the presence of men in the actual room is not an absolute requirement, and on the basis of his research issued his request to Ben-Dahan.
“The idea is to continue with the standard procedure in which the rabbis are in the room while maintaining the woman’s modesty,” said Lipman.
“However, we must give women the option of not having men in the room since there is a significant percentage of women who, on the heels of being taught the rigid laws of modesty and accepting those rules upon themselves as part of their conversion, feel very uncomfortable immersing in the presence of men.
“The conversion process, especially immersion in the mikvah, should be a spiritual high and not one filled with anxieties and discomfort,” he continued.
Lipman cited the opinions of Rabbis Shmuel Salant, Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel and Moshe Feinstein, three highly respected Orthodox rabbis from the 19th and 20th centuries, who he said ruled that it is possible to “relax” the requirement for rabbinic judges to be present when a woman immerses.
Lipman’s proposal comes in the wake of the revelations in the US in which prominent modern-Orthodox leader Rabbi Barry Freundel has been charged with several counts of misdemeanor voyeurism.
It is alleged that the rabbi hid a camera in the changing room of the mikvah belonging to the Kesher Israel synagogue in Washington DC to record female converts as they undressed, although the rabbi has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Elections are coming, he has to make himself feel as important.
He better get in all the legislation he can while he’s still an MK. With the elections and Lapids loss in popularity there is no chance that Lipman (17th in the party) will be an MK in the next Knesset.
We have a toire that we have to follow not members of the kennesett.
The event that sparked this is a rare, accidental experience. Such things can happen any time and any place. In fact, the presence of rabbis in the mikva room is not conventional practice. The mikvaos used for conversions typically have a doorway, through which the rabbis (dayanim) can peer into the mikva. The woman is standing in the water, though positioned that the dayanim can only see her head, and can thus testify to her having immersed herself properly. There can be some awkwardness in this process, but it neither places the woman herself in too compromising a position, nor does it give the dayanim the opportunity to ogle at the woman.
Why have a single mishap become the basis to rewrite legislation, to the point of tinkering with halacha?
let him revise the full first Testament idiot! Aren’t they woman too?
What else is new ? Lipman meddling in affairs that has nothing to do with him, other that he happens to have been a member in Knesset via a sinking party.
No one EVER asked him any rulings in any parts of Halacha. If he’s really serious he should propose his issues to the right authorities not to a few clowns in Knesset.
What a Buffoon!
I once thought he means well…
Lipman is a low life and a rasha. Glad to see him very soon defeated.
Why can’t a regular Mikveh lady attest to the fact that the convert immersed correctly? It does seem very uncomfortable for the men to be supervising the immersion of a woman.
Why can’t the “Rabbis” and other women be in there at the same time.
The law doesn’t exclude other women, it just says Rabbis have to be there.
Savtat; The reason for the men, and having three specifically – not two, as required for witness – is that they form a beis din, representative of the Jewish people. It has nothing to do with witness.
Mr. Lipman finds a da’as yachid, and wants to make it hallachah. He has no concept of psak hallachah. The Shulchan Aruch, Rama, and all the poskim we (sefardim, ashkenazim, chassidishe, litvish, etc.) rely on pasken that a beis din has to be present at the moment of tevilla. There are multiple solutions to the tzni’us issue which these poskim have proposed, and which are being used by reliable Battei Din. Just because one oisvorf used cameras to film the events leading up to the tevillah, doesn’t give Mr. Lipman the right – as a tiny amateur in the face of giants – to change hallahchah.
Torah is not hefker.
Lipman lies when he says that R Moshe Feinstien rules that you do not need a bet din. Quite the opposite, he says very specifically in Igrot Moshe that you cannot be lenient.
It is a requirement that there be a bet din by tevila for geirut even by nashim.
But Lipman’s whole premise is idiotic, his proposal does not respond in anyway to what happened with Fruendel. Only an utter moron would make any such connection.
This is Lipman’s kowtowing to a bunch of anti halachic radical feminists who are not mekablei mitzvot or ol malchut shamayim, so there is no geirut anyway.
Unfortunately the BAD BEHAVIOR of some prominent rabbis involved in mikvahs and conversions has shed a high beam spotlight on this issue. These sincere women do have a point. Everything must be done to make these women feel comfortable and not dishonored. Time for the rabbonim to come up with a solution and put their own kavod on the back burner!
Perhaps the solution is not to allow any modern safek-orthodox to be involved in geirus. That way, we avoid the possibility of what happened at Georgetown shul as well as not a trivial number of very dubious geirim.