8 or 11?

Rabbi Resnick went on a trip to Mexico for a Conservative Rabbi's conference, and in his place, he asked me to read torah at today's morning minyan.  After verifying that the kriah was only about 12 psukim, I happily accepted.  It turns out that recently some women have been coming to morning minyan and wearing Talitot and Tefiilin.  This does not sit so well with some the regulars, and so one of them, a regular Torah reader, has more or less stopped coming.

After a short 10 minute walk in the quiet early morning, appreciating the sun and the smell of fresh bread from the bakeries, I arrived early to minyan.  At that point there was one other member distributing the siddurim and tanachim.  Slowly the others filed in until there were 7 men and one woman.  There were a couple whispers as she put on Tifilin, and then an open discussion about the Rabanit.  Which really means Rabbi Ilana who regular attends the Shul.  Apparently the 'correct' word is Rabbi.  There is no such things as Rabanit.  In hebrew it might be Rav, or Raba, but not Rabanit.  Eventually the woman with her Tefilin walked over the men's side to explain that the word is "Rabbi" and yes it can apply to a woman!  There is no need to invent fictious words.

The numbers slowly increased until we had 9 men and three women.  Depending on how you count, we might have reached a minyan -- in this case the counting was 9.  Tfilot started, without Kaddish.  Finally, somebody ran downstairs to drag in a guy, who stood around without Tefilin or Talit obvioiusly not partipating, until Yossi arrived just in time for the Torah service.

I had to suppress my desire to run out of the room as Yossi arrived -- because honestly, I find it hard to count myself as part of a minyan that does not count women.  Clearly that is what some of the men have done -- to the detriment of all.  Being that I had agreed to read torah, it really wasn't an option.

If it were for the fact that others share my egalitarian views, I might feel like I was from Mars.