1) Is there a concrete halachic (Biblical?Rabbinic?) basis for women not being permitted to become Rabbis?
2) After 2000+ years, what changed so the JTS's Commission in 1979 decided that they can?
A sub-question: are they recognized by the State of Israel, or only in America?
I was searching for a while, figuring this was already on here somewhere. the questions about maharat were close but not what I was looking for.
On the first page of Yoreh Deah - וכן המנהג שאין הנשים שוחטות - Rav Schechter quoted from The Rav (Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik) that this is because the shochet would commonly act as an assistant rabbi, and since that is assur, it became forbidden for women to be the town shochet.
The official position of the Conservative movement can be found in Women and the Minyan by Rabbi David J. Fine. It was released in 2002 as an explanation of the 1983 decision by the Jewish Theological Seminary to ordain women as rabbis and cantors.
The main question that caused debate in the period of 1973-1983 was whether a woman could be a sheliach tzibur, an agent of the public who says prayers for those who cannot do it themselves. An agent must be at least as obligated as the person they are doing it on behalf of. The dean of the rabbinical school Rabbi Joel Roth argued that if a woman voluntarily takes on the obligation of praying every day, this obligation becomes binding on her. The traditionalists at JTS, including the great twentieth-century Talmudist Rabbi Shaul Lieberman argued that there is a clear hierarchy of obligation and that even if she took this obligation on voluntarily, it would still be a lesser obligation than that of a man. This was a bitter fight within the Conservative movement at the time and resulted in some people defecting from the movement to set up the Union for Traditional Judaism.
A brief summary of this can be found in Women in Judaism - Changes in the Conservative position. A narrative account of the struggle can be found in the book "One God Clapping" by Rabbi Alan Lew who was a student at JTS during this time.
The same reason why there are no female masseurs - they're called masseuses!
Rabbi (1) (feminine: Rebbetzin) A Torah scholar, teacher or authority.
Rabbi (2) (feminine: Rabbi) A scholar or teacher hired to lead a Jewish congregation.
In other words, the reason there are not female Orthodox rabbis is the same reason there are no gentile Orthodox rabbis (even though there are some in other movements): because Orthodoxy does not accept the second definition. There is no prohibition of a woman being a scholar, teacher or authority, which is why to this day we have among us world-class female rabbis known as rebbetzins (Rebbetzin Jungreis, Rebbetzin Heller, et al.)
Rav Hershel Shachter intimates that , since certain non-masoretic groups ordain women as rabbis, it is a violation on the level of "yeharag v'lo yaavor" (i.e. one must give up ones life, rather than trangress) to give Orthodox smicha to women.
...we encourage one to give up his life in order to secure the continuation of the chain of semichah from the days of Moshe Rabbeinu.
Rav Shachter goes on to explain that, although smicha today isn't the same as Biblical smicha, it is considered an extension of it, and thus, must conform to the same standards. Anyone who gives smicha outside of those standards, threatens the very existence of masoretic (i.e. halachically observant) Judaism.
Being [called] a Rabbi can mean:
We address this issue of female Rabbis a bit differently - it is not a matter of permitted or forbidden it is a matter of validity. For example, it is not "forbidden" for a woman to witness an event, just her testimony is not valid. So there's no problem with women being called Rabbis/Rebbetzins or whatnot, the question is about the validity of their deeds.
For example, (some say that) if a Rabbi Posek that a chicken is Kosher or a stain is pure, he turns it into the reality of Kosher, but if I say it's Kosher, I don't set the reality and I might make others fail. So the question is "what's needed for a woman to reach that level of validity of her verdicts. It appears, that similarly to judges or witnesses, the Torah does not provide an option for a woman to set the reality. Therefore a woman can not become "that sort of" a Rabbi.
there is not much discussion in halacha (talmud,rishonim,acharonim) on appointing female rabbis simply because it was never an issue until today due to several considerations. possibly among them:
the synagogue or study hall is dominated by the presence of men. men are commanded to pray in a minyan (congregation of at least 10 men) and study torah whereas women are not. hence the women will be in a predominantly male area. this will encourage mingling between the sexes by her example and this is highly discouraged in Judaism. "whoever talks excessively to women causes evil to himself and will end up inheriting gehinom" (Pirkei Avot). the ideal way is as "Avraham converted the men and Sarah the women". (Rashi Gen. 2:15). if these female rabbis just wanted a diploma to work in female institutions it would not be so controversial but this is not the case.
women have a subordinate role to men. this is not PC in our times but this is the official position of Judaism. the torah describes the woman as a helper to man (Gen.2:18). He will rule over you (ibid 3:16). a man is viewed as more of an authority figure. this is important for a leader of a congregation.
According to Rabbi Uziel Milevsky former chief rabbi of Mexico, women's minds function differently than men's. they tend to be less capable of objective thinking than men. the reason is that they internalize what they see and therefore have a hard time stepping back and looking at it objectively. for this they are disqualified from being witnesses (would also be absurd to have a rabbi or judge who is not even a kosher witness). the talmud is built on highly abstract arguments and remote cases whereas women's minds tend to be best at practical things. on this talmud says “Women’s wisdom is solely in the spindle.”
related to previous, the talmud itself discourages women from learning it. many of the talmudic sages discourage the study of torah by women with some even forbidding it such as Rabbi Eliezer, “The words of the Torah should be burned rather than entrusted to women” (JT Sotah 3:4, 16a. see commentaries there which says he holds it is forbidden). you have to ask yourself why these women are so gung ho about learning a book that holds this position
update: The RCA (Rabinical council of America) states regarding a new school which ordains female rabbis: "the RCA views this event as a violation of our mesorah (tradition) and regrets that the leadership of the school has chosen a path that contradicts the norms of our community" found this quote on emes v'emuna which has a good discussion on this
