Yoatzot Halacha: Ruling the Internet, One Question at a Time

This chapter explores the ways in which Jewish women use the internet to affirm and challenge Orthodox rabbinic authority offline, increase women's authority in limited areas of Jewish law and alter the practice of Judaism for halachically observant women. The focus of the chapter, however, is on the Q&A section of the website. As noted earlier, Yoatzot Halacha and yoetzet.org represent an expansion of women's leadership roles in Orthodox Judaism, but the internet has long been a site of expanding female roles in the Orthodox Jewish community. The reaction by the ultra-Orthodox group, Agudat Israel, and the more centrist Rabbinical Council of America (RCA), led Weiss to agree not to confer the title on further graduates of his program. All of these factors create a way for women to practice Orthodox Judaism that adheres to Orthodox Jewish law but is informed to a great extent by women's experiences and women's applications of the laws.