Ellyse Has The Knowledge And Training Of A Rabbi — But Don't Call Her That
By Alice Moldovan, published on 22 September 2019 for ABC Religion and Ethics
Ellyse Borghi encountered ancient Jewish texts early in her life, but it's taken many years for her to become a recognised authority in rabbinical matters.
She recently received her ordination — or smicha in Hebrew — which qualifies her as the newest and second-ever Australian female Orthodox rabbi.
Except she doesn't want to be known as a rabbi, or a rabba, both common honorifics for Jewish women who are ordained. She's a rabbanit — the Hebrew word for a rabbi's wife.
This may sound confusing, because the Melbourne lawyer has become an ordained religious leader, not the wife of one.
But Rabbanit Borghi chose this title out of respect for rabbis' wives and says she "really identifies with the work that they do".
"I feel really connected to these women who exist today," she explains. "I appreciate that I've come to have a leadership role in a different way.
"I'm not married to a rabbi. But the work that I do is essentially the same."
Rabbis' wives are traditionally leaders in their own right — teaching brides, engaging in community support work and hosting their own ritual events or classes.
A rabbanit's work was historically unpaid. Her husband, the rabbi, was the one who received a salary.
Despite this, the role has been valued and celebrated in Orthodox Jewish communities around the world.
Wives who married what they wanted to be
Shuly Rubin Schwartz, a professor of Jewish history, describes the role of rabbanit — also known by its Yiddish title, rebbetzin — as derivative.
"You only get to have [the role] if you're married to a rabbi," she says, "and the prestige of the role, in many ways, parallels that of the rabbi."
Dr Schwartz knows a thing or two about rabbis and their wives — her father was a rabbi, her son is a rabbi, and she was married to a rabbi for 24 years.
Throughout history, she says, the rebbetzin's role was a unique opportunity for women to have a career in Jewish leadership — although it was one that existed within marriage.
"For most of the 20th century, the idea of marriage and career were seen as incompatible," she says.
"The closest way you could get to what you wanted was to marry what you wanted to be."
Rebbetzins educated the community — what Dr Schwartz describes as their "built-in audience" — by leading text-based learning, preparing brides-to-be and ministering to sick congregants.
Dr Schwartz wrote a book about these women, who, like her mother, served their communities tirelessly in the post-war period in America.
"They were under-appreciated, and certainly not ever written about or recognised in any of the histories that I read," she says.
Dr Schwartz says she is moved by Rabbanit Borghi's decision to use the title "as a way of honouring those female leaders on whose shoulders she stands".
"Since she earned her title in her own right," she says, "the title fails to do justice to the ground-breaking nature of her role as an ordained female rabbinic leader."
Asked whether she ever wanted to be a rabbi herself, Dr Schwartz says, "the thought never really crossed my mind".
Her love of Jewish history has always been her primary focus.
"I was also already married to someone who was sitting for the rabbinate," she says. "I certainly felt that one rabbi in the family was enough."
Women should be 'encouraged and applauded'
Women are not recognised as rabbis by the Rabbinic Council of Victoria, where Rabbanit Borghi practices.
Rabbi Moshe Gutnick, the president of the Rabbinic Council of Australia and New Zealand, estimates there are 100 practising Orthodox rabbis in the country — all men.
"While Jewish tradition does not allow for the formal ordination of women, it does not preclude women who choose to excel in the study of Halacha (Jewish law)," he says.
He says many of these learned Jewish women act as Halachic teachers, and "these women are to be encouraged and applauded".
The Progressive Jewish movement has seven female rabbis, out of a total 14 practising rabbis in Australia, according to Jocelyn Robuck, the executive officer of the Union for Progressive Judaism.
Rabbanit Borghi graduated from the world's first Orthodox co-educational rabbinical program, at the Har'el institute in Israel.
Committed to her Orthodox faith, she decided on the rabbinical path because of "a deep confidence in myself, and a knowledge of my capacities and capabilities — that they would be equal to a man".
She sees deep relevance in ancient texts — especially in the fallibility and redemption of biblical characters.
"Having these ancient stories about what human beings are like, and what a great human being can be — while still making mistakes — is a real source of strength for me, a real source of comfort," she says.
For Rabbanit Borghi, the joy of ordination comes with a sense of duty.
The Jewish community requires more than "teachings about the Torah," she says. "They require comfort during times of loss. They require rituals to celebrate life milestones.
"And to be a caretaker of those times of grace and times of joy, is an enormous responsibility that I feel quite awed to have."