The Chief Rabbinate of Israel on Monday requested from the High Court of Justice a retrial for broader legal consideration on a July judgement by Deputy Chief Justice Noam Sohlberg allowing women to sit Rabbinate exams.
The Rabbinate’s argument rested on what it presented as firm halachic noncompliance with women taking the exams, as certain topics covered therein are prohibited by nature. It also requested a delay in execution – meaning that the instruction to allow women to sit the exams should not come into effect right away, pending further action.
The petitioners in the case have about two weeks to issue a response.
In the landmark July judgment, and about six years after the original petition was filed, the HCJ unanimously ruled that women cannot be barred from sitting the exams, putting end to a years-long fight for equal opportunities and financial benefits.
The judgment was authored by Sohlberg, with concurrent Justice Dafna Barak-Erez and Justice Ofer Grosskopf.
Rabbinate pushes back against landmark ruling on women sitting Rabbincal exams
In its written position, on Monday, the Rabbinate noted that there is “willingness” among the current chief rabbis to alter the existing exams so that they include only the clearly-permissible topics – and that regarding the others, women may take alternate exams.
In other words, the Rabbinate’s argument is that even if the intentions of the women sitting the exams are not to shoulder authority inconsistent with Jewish Law, halacha, the result of sitting – and passing – the exams grants them, in reality, that authority anyway; therein lies the halachic clash.
The position also touched on the contentious nature of opinions and traditions within Jewish Law over the differences on the topic of Torah learning between men and women, arguing that this carries weight in the debate over the exams as well.
“The ruling changes essential and critical foundations of the rabbinic institution in Israel, and greatly harms the halachic conception that guides it,” reads the position, adding that the judgment is a “steep deviation from ancient rabbinic traditions,” and directly opposes the accepted consensus among contemporary halachic authorities.
Tasked with the goal of providing the Jewish-Israeli public with qualified religious authorities, the Rabbinate’s Examination Unit administers exams that test for general and specific halachic knowledge and provides certifications upon successful completion.
Of these, three certifications require six exams, three of which are mandatory – those of the “neighborhood rabbi,” the “local rabbi,” and what is known as Yoreh Yoreh, i.e., someone who can issue halachic rulings. Yoreh Yoreh is considered the lowest of the certification tiers.
To become a “regional rabbi,” one must take nine exams and pass an interview, while a “city rabbi” must take 11 exams along with an interview.
Of these, the “city rabbi” title is the only one that carries with it official authority capacity enshrined in the 1980 Rabbinate Law to issue halachic rulings. The other certifications reflect a strong base of halachic knowledge and carry communal weight, but they do not grant official standing in terms of public leadership.
Passing the exams and obtaining a certificate often grants communal legitimacy, indicating widespread halachic knowledge.
However, these certificates are not only symbolic, carrying soft power; they have real financial implications. Any regional job openings consider the first-tier certification (Yoreh Yoreh) – along with at least six years of yeshiva study after the age of 18 – to be equivalent to an academic degree. This is applicable to nearly all public clergy positions, and extends to some teaching positions as well.
On March 15, 2018, six women, religious leaders, and scholars in their own right – Avital Engelberg, Shlomit Flint, Sarah Segal-Katz, Rachel Keren, Michelle Cohen Farber, and Shlomit Piamenta – registered for a Chief Rabbinate exam, but were told several hours later that their candidacy had been canceled.
When they queried the Rabbinate, they were told, in a letter dated April 12, 2018, that “because the Chief Rabbinate does not certify women, it cannot allow women to [take] the exam. The Rabbinate is a government body that certifies religious leaders for public service, not a testing ground for those who want to show how much they know.”
ITIM founder Rabbi Seth Farber said that the Rabbinate's request "raises embarrassing claims about the status of women, their relationship with and ability to learn Torah, about the Rabbinate itself, and may thrust us years back, throwing away significant progress in the field." He added that as the judgment was issued, there is no logical reason to reconsider it.
The women persisted and were told by a Rabbinate representative, in a letter dated March 3, 2019, that there are alternative ways for women to reap the financial benefits, such as through academia.
This led to the 2019 petition by NGO ITIM – The Jewish Life Advocacy Center, which is representing the women, along with The Rackman Center, and Kolech: Religious Women’s Forum, against the Chief Rabbinate, the Examination Unit, and the Religious Services Ministry – not to have the ability to be certified as rabbis, but simply to sit the exam.
The Rabbinate at the time suggested a different testing method be created for women – completely separated from the Rabbinate, and operated by a different authority to solve at least the financial aspect. This idea was probed, but it never progressed.
After a May 2022 hearing in the case, a conditional order asked that the Rabbinate explain its policy to the court. The conditional order was for 90 days from the hearing. During that time, then-religious services minister Matan Kahana decided that his office would be the authority that would operate the alternative testing services. Seventeen women took its first exam on November 23, 2022. However, not all of the proper equivalencies were made between those exams and the ones provided by the Rabbinate.
Then, the 2022 elections took place, bringing in a new government and a new religious services minister: Shas MK Michael Malkieli. On April 24, 2023, he said that he had examined the issue and determined that it would be more appropriate to have a different ministry oversee the exams.
It then landed at the Labor Ministry, but there was no significant advancement. These are the exams the Rabbinate suggested on Monday that women take for the topics that are less specific in their halachic permissibility.
In his ruling, Sohlberg explained that, in their petition, the organizations and the women did not seek to challenge the fundamental basis for the Rabbinate’s position, and added that the authority of the Rabbinate to ordain rabbis does not extend as far as dictating who can sit the exam.
“The Rabbinate is trying to have its cake and eat it too: Block women from taking the exam because they cannot be ordained, while allowing any man who wishes to do so to take any exam, even while not achieving the level of official leadership and dissemination of Torah knowledge – which is the stated goals of the Rabbinate – all while reaping the [financial] benefits included therein,” Sohlberg wrote in July.
He added that the alternative testing method would lead to a “separate but equal” scenario, which is unacceptable.
“I can only express sorrow at how this was handled and hope it will be [managed] better in the future,” he wrote, adding that a plethora of Jewish sources, ancient and modern, encourage female religious leadership.