No one can dismiss Female Jewsh leaders like Devorah, Huldah, etc. Jewish women often take up the cause of Torah when the men utterly fail to do so. Israelite women have been prophets and Judges, but never “Rabbi’s” ( a LOWER status actually) So long as Men have the courage to act L’shem Shamayim, they will lead…when they do not, Hashem’s back up plan kicks into action.

A female prophet or Shofet ( judge ) would be a welcome thing in today…one that we could be sure derives her strength from HASHEM, and not from goyish ideology.

May Hashem lift up the weak and especially the Yehudim of Belmonte.

R. Yisrael

Thank you very much for your passionate and compassionate answer. I have attentively read what you posted at JVoices, and the letter you sent me. My apologies for taking this long.

What you pose is not only one dilemma suffered by Belmontese Sephardim, but by all Sephardim at large, every where today.

The shortest answer to your question is self-responsibility and self-reliance. This goes for every Jew on planet Earth. Until the members of the community in Belmonte do not strap their boots and begin working with their own bare hands, nothing is going to happen. Having money to pay a rabbi resolves very little, if nothing, if such community does not have the desire to learn and practice, practice and learn Toráh. It all begins with them; they should at least know that much, because otherwise how in the world they maintained certain halakhot for so-long if it were not for self-responsibility and self-reliance?

The quality of the vast majority of rabbis we have today from these so-called Yeshivot is way below expectations according to time-honored Sephardic and Talmudic standards. To begin with, a true Hakham is only considered one when such person has a wide-range understanding of secular and rabbinic issues. Only then, that person can be considered a Hakham to the level of the Rabbis of the Talmud. Among Spanish & Portuguese Jews, it has been customary that our Hakhamim have to have at least one doctorate degree, and who have been training rabbinically ever since their tender youth.

Within Sephardic congregations, we have all sorts of individuals with different levels of observance. It is not only one way or another, black & white, but different expressions and levels of comfort. Of course, for congregational purposes there are certain standards that MUST be maintained according to our Laws, which does not include the stupidity of buying seats or auctioning misswót. The Belmontese Sephardim need to relearn certain concepts and stop mimicking the nonsense they see in so-called “Orthodox” circles, but for that to happen they have to trust other people outside the Black-Hats, which is the furthest and farthest expression from true Sephardic Yahdut.

Anyway, if they need help, and willing to work, I am always here to assist.