The conventional wisdom seems to hold that the availability of Yoatzot Halakha has brought great benefits to the Orthodox Jewish community. For example, in Rabbi Roy Feldman’s recent sermon concerning teaching Talmud to women, for which a link was provided in Lookjed Digest XVII:74, Rabbi Feldman said that, “The success of the Yoatzot Halakha program is itself evidence to the contrary of what this senior rosh yeshiva claims; its existence has certainly led to greater commitment to the mesorah and observance of halakha among many men and women through making the laws of family purity more accessible to women.†Similar praise in passing has appeared in various posts to the Lookjed Digest.
Can anyone point me toward evidence that the availability of Yoatzot Halakha has “led to greater commitment to the mesorah and observance of halakha�
For example, is anyone aware of any study which has found that more families are observing hilchos niddah, or are observing hilchos niddah correctly, because of Yoatzot Halakha?
I do not doubt that there are women who are asking sh’eilot of Yoatzot Halakha. Query, however, whether these women would not otherwise be observing hilchos niddah.
Jeffrey Zuckerman
Silver Spring, MD
