Rabbi Shalom Arush today announced that he will not be receiving women any longer. He says the yetzer hora of rabbonim is even greater than that of regular people, and therefore rabbonim cannot receive women for guidance and questions. He called on other rabbonim to follow suit.
This is a result of the scandal going on up north in Tzfat with a popular rav, Ezra Sheinberg, being accused by many women of having taken advantage of them and their vulnerability.
I don't know if this is a good idea or a bad idea. I understand his concern, but women need guidance, inspiration and answers as well, just like men do. If the rabbonim will not receive women looking for guidance and inspiration, to whom can they turn?
A couple of interesting ideas I heard that might solve the problem:
1. the offices of rabbis should not be regular walls with doors, where the debate becomes keep the door open or closed, locked or unlocked, can a secretary or other shul member walk in at any time or not, and the like.
Rather, the offices of rabbis receiving women should have glass walls, or at least glass doors. This way they can be seen from the outside without somebody needing some level of brazenness to walk in and interrupt the rabbi. Women might not like that as they would be visible while talking to the rabbi. It invades their privacy to a certain extent, as well as exposing them to the public - people outside the office will see their body language, their reactions of crying or anger, and they might not want to be seen like that, though it would protect them somewhat from being assaulted.
I say "somewhat" because I doubt all meetings happen in the office, so the women would still be vulnerable when meeting outside the office.. It is a good suggestion, but I do not think it solves the problem entirely, and some women might not feel comfortable meeting in such an exposed room.
2. the development of more women trained in rabbinic-like authority positions.
If rabbis are going to stop receiving women for guidance and inspiration, someone will have to fill that void. It is only natural, and makes sense, that women can and should fill this role. There are already women rabbis or rabbi-like women doing this, but it would have to be expanded. There are some women rabbis in the Modern orthodox circles, but even in the Ultra-Orthodox there are some female rabbi-like figures such as Rebbetzin Yemima Mizrachi, Rebbetzin Kanievsky used to be one when she was alive, and there are others.
If women are going to need to look for alternatives to the regular make rabbi, more of these inspiring female leaders need to be cultivated and trained.
And no, I do not think Rabbi Arush's suggestion of women needing advice sending notes with their husband is a good or realistic idea.
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