“Would you like to carry the Torah?” I ask, approaching a junior or senior girl during Shacharit. More often than not, the answer is a polite shake of the head paired with “I’m really tired today,” or “I’ll drop it!” Even after being assured that none of the girls who have carried the Torah have ever dropped it, the girls claim “I’m so clumsy! I will!” However, I don’t think that this wariness towards carrying the Torah stems solely from a fear of dropping it; it is a combination of factors that limits Orthodox women’s exposure to the sefer Torah.

I have never heard a boy refuse to carry the Sefer Torah because he is afraid that he will drop it. The feminine fear of holding the Torah is ingrained into Orthodox women as they grow up and sustained by how rare it is for them to have this opportunity. This lack of experience with the Sefer Torah makes girls feel uncomfortable and nervous about touching it in a way that doesn’t happen to boys, who have these experiences all the time.

Reluctance to assume a greater role in davening isn’t an issue faced solely on the female side of the mechitzah. On the boys’ side, the same few boys lead davening each day. For the boys, this is largely because of social pressures; it’s not “cool” to lead davening. Nonetheless, boys’ reticence to lead davening isn’t an exact parallel to girls reluctance to carry the Sefer Torah. Carrying the Torah requires no experience or practice, whereas leading davening is more skill-based. Presumably, some of the boys who decline to daven worry that they don’t know the tefillah or tunes well enough to lead, whereas this issue doesn’t apply to girls who don’t want to carry the Torah.

Notwithstanding the minimal skill required, carrying the Torah still makes girls extremely nervous. Girls worry about each step of the process, concerned that they won’t do it right: being at the front at the correct time, knowing when to take the Torah from the chazzan and how to carry it, where to bring it, how fast to walk, and how to return it to the chazzan. The women’s side of the mechitzah’s minimal opportunities and lack of experience in this area make the simple action of carrying the Sefer Torah much more nerve-wracking for a girl than it is for a boy.

There is also a difference in expectation. Boys grow up seeing their fathers carry the Sefer Torah, and once they become bar mitzvah, it is expected that they will as well. For girls, this is not the case. First, unlike boys and their fathers, girls’ mothers often cannot be role models in this arena because they themselves don’t have the chance to participate. Second, the expectation of participation that is incumbent on bar-mitzvah aged boys doesn’t apply to girls in the Modern Orthodox community. This is evident from the fact that almost all Modern Orthodox boys leyn and lead davening at their bar mitzvahs, but the majority of Modern Orthodox girls celebrate their bat mitzvahs with a Dvar Torah and a party: no leading davening, and no leyning. If girls aren’t even expected to participate in davening at their bat mitzvahs, how can we expect them to take leadership roles later on?

Then, there is the question of halacha. Despite the fact that numerous sources have established that women carrying the Torah is halachically acceptable, this question still arises on a regular basis in students’ casual conversations and in both Judaic and General Studies classes. The most often cited misconception is the idea that women who are in niddah are not allowed to touch a Torah scroll, when in fact, a Torah scroll cannot become tameh just because someone who is tameh touches it. (In fact, if this were the case, none of us would be allowed to touch the Torah because, in today’s day and age, everyone is tameh.) This misconception is prevalent not only among those who disapprove of the practice but also with girls who would like to carry the Torah; there have been several times when I have asked girls to carry the Torah and they have responded, “I’m on my period – can I still carry it?” The answer is emphatically yes.

Furthermore, the continuing arguments about women carrying the Torah at Ramaz have associated the practice with an unfortunate stigma. If a girl agrees to carry the Sefer Torah, she is labelled radical and a “feminist.” At Ramaz, “feminism” is overwhelmingly and mistakenly perceived as a negative label, a problem in and of itself. For some reason, Ramaz students cannot comprehend the idea that feminism simply means that women should be on equal footing with men and seem to think it is a terrible and radical thing. The first bullet point of our school mission statement states that Ramaz strives to imbue its students with “A commitment to menschlichkeit, reflecting fineness of character, respect for others, integrity, and the centrality of chesed in all its manifestations,” and personally, I see feminism as an example of this basic “respect for others.” This perception of feminism as radical and negative has created the stigma associated with a girl who volunteers to carry the Torah. I believe that this perception is detrimental to Ramaz’s Torah environment in which both girls and boys are encouraged to engage with Torah as fully as permitted by Halacha. Carrying the Torah is one way to fulfill this goal and should be made available to anyone who feels that it would enrich their tefillah experience.

Furthermore, for anyone who feels strongly that the Torah should be brought on the women’s side of the mechitzah, it is important that you volunteer to carry it. In the process of working to ensure that the Torah came through the ezrat nashim, I spoke to many girls who deeply cared that it happened. However, since then, several of these girls have turned down the chance to carry the Torah, be it a specific day that they are tired, or a blanket statement that they don’t want to. While I understand being tired or nervous about it, the Torah can only come on our side of the mechitzah if there are people to carry it. Carrying the Torah should be an experience that you appreciate, and in no way am I looking to force anyone who isn’t interested to participate. However, if you do care about it, you should volunteer! Don’t rely on other people to do it for you – there is a finite number of girls in the minyan, and each person who volunteers brings something new to the minyan. In my mind, it is also disrespectful to the Torah to have so many girls turn down this honor, when ultimately, the goal of this enterprise is allowing both sides of the mechitzah to fully engage in kavod haTorah.

**We’re looking for more female volunteers to carry the Torah in the junior-senior minyan. If you’re interested contact Josephine Schizer.

How to Carry the Torah: A Guide for Girls

1. Don’t worry! You won’t drop it!
2. When we start singing “Vayehi binsoa ha’aron…” go up to the front of the women’s section.
3. After the chazzan says “Gadlu l’Hashem iti…” he will pass the Torah to you. Hold the Torah from the bottom with it rested on your right shoulder (if you are right-handed) or your left shoulder (if you are left-handed).
4. Walk through the main aisle of the women’s section at a moderate pace (slow enough that students can touch and kiss the Torah if they want to, but not so slow as to delay davening). Because of Kavod HaTorah, girls who want to kiss the Torah should come to you – you don’t have to go to them.
5. Return the Torah to the chazzan at the back of the women’s section next to the mechitzah.