Reply To: Women’s Suffrage Must End

Phil, first you falsely said I couldn’t provide a source from a posek, which I subsequently did (and can provide the maare mokom if you wish.) Now that you were forced down from your position you falsely say no contemporary posek is opposed.

Can you provide any contemporary poskim who rule that toeiva marriage must be illegal? Why would a posek today rule that, which is obvious, when no government will be taking their direction from poskim. Same with women’s suffrage. When it was relevant the Poskim went on the record saying it shouldn’t happen. Now that it’s happened and isn’t about to be reversed, it’s like arkaos.

As to your point that no one stops frum women from voting; of course. The issur was to grant the right in the first place. Once it was granted it’s foolish to throw out half your votes. If they didn’t have the right in the first place, as would be most appropriate, then it would be a non-issue. So, b’dieved, they vote. B’dieved in the sense that they must so that the frum community doesn’t lose half its voice, they must vote; even though ideally it shouldn’t have been a right in the first place.

When the British took over Palestine from the Turks they established an internal voting mechanism for the Jewish community. The old yishuv led by Rav Sonnenfeld ruled women shouldn’t vote, so the British authorities allowed the men’s votes from the old yishuv to be counted twice instead of their women voting. Later, when this arrangement was no longer available (I’m not sure if that lasted until 1948 or some time earlier) the rabbonim in the old yishuv reluctantly permitted the women to vote in other not to discard their voting influence.

In short, it would be most appropriate and ideal if they didn’t have the suffrage altogether. In Torah Judaism and in the natural state in humanity even among the gentiles, the menfolk make the worldly decisions for outside the home while the womenfolk make the household decisions. This was one of the primary reason for the opposition towards women’s suffrage by the rabbonim zt’l as well as the opposition to it that existed among gentiles, prior to the right being granted.

Ideally it would be reversed.