Vos Is Neias: Rabbinically Certified Female Halachic Consultants

New York – Rabbinically Certified Female Halachic Consultants To Advise Women On Taharas Hamishpacha

by Sandy Eller, published in Vos Is Neias, October 20, 2013
Left to right seated: Rabbi Kenneth Auman, Rabbi Yaacov Warhaftig, Rabbi Yehuda Henkin, Rabbanit Chana Henkin Left, to right standing: Michal Roness, Israeli program coordinator, Nishmat students: Tova Warburg Sinensky, Nechama Price, Lisa Septimus, Dena Block, Abby Lerner, Avital Wiessman and Sharon Liberman Mintz, president of American Friends of Nishmat. This photo was taken in the summer of 2011 in the Nishmat Beit Midrash in the Pat neighborhood of Yerushalayim.
Left to right seated: Rabbi Kenneth Auman, Rabbi Yaacov Warhaftig, Rabbi Yehuda Henkin, Rabbanit Chana Henkin Left, to right standing: Michal Roness, Israeli program coordinator, Nishmat students: Tova Warburg Sinensky, Nechama Price, Lisa Septimus, Dena Block, Abby Lerner, Avital Wiessman and Sharon Liberman Mintz, president of American Friends of Nishmat. This photo was taken in the summer of 2011 in the Nishmat Beit Midrash in the Pat neighborhood of Yerushalayim.

New York – In an effort to provide women with an extra measure of comfort and guidance in their observance of family purity, an Israeli institution which trains carefully chosen candidates on the subject of Taharas Hamishpacha and other related topics is about to graduate its first class of American trained advisers.

The women, known as Yoatzot Halacha, go through an intensive course of study under the auspices of Nishmat, The Jeanie Schottenstein Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women, whose Keren Ariel Halachic Institute has trained some 85 yoatzot over the past 14 years.  While the yoatzot program, under the halachic guidance of Rabbi Yaacov Warhaftig and Rabbi Yehuda Henkin, has been placing yoatzot throughout Israel since its inception, it has only recently begun appointing yoatzot in America.

While all yoatzot are certified by a panel of rabbanim in Israel, five American women bear the distinction of being members of the first class of yoatzot to be educated in the United States and will be officially graduating from Nishmat on October 27th.  The new yoatzot include Mrs. Lisa Septimus, Mrs. Dena Block, Professor Nechama Price, Mrs. Tova Warburg Sinensky and Mrs. Avital Weissman, who serve as yoatzot in the Five Towns, Great Neck, Manhattan, Philadelphia and Plainview.  Three other American yoatzot, Mrs. Bracha Rutner, Mrs. Shoshana Samuels and Mrs. Sara Cheses, who advise the Jewish communities in Riverdale, Teaneck, Tenafly, Los Angeles and at Yale University, were all educated in Israel.

According to Rabbanit Chana Henkin, founder and dean of Nishmat, the role of the yoetzet is to give women a greater comfort level when discussing issues of Taharas Hamishpacha.

“I taught Taharas Hamishpacha for years in many different communities and I found that women were hesitant to ask questions, which leads to both a lot of personal suffering as well as improper observance,” Rabbanit Henkin told VIN News.  “It didn’t matter what community I was in, be it Modern Orthodox, Yeshivish, Sefardi, a kibbutz or anywhere else, women find it very uncomfortable to speak up about