https://hakirah.org/vol%2011%20schachter.pdf
In the printed notes of Rav Soloveitchik’s shiurim on Shulchan
Aruch, Yoreh De’ah,
1
prepared for publication by Rabbi Eliyakim
Koenigsberg, in the very first essay, the Rav is quoted as having said
that a woman may not serve as a rabbi. The Tanna’im understood
the pasuk in Chumash as implying that women may not be appointed to the position of King.2
The Talmud points out3
that the
repetition of the verb in the pasuk “som tasim alecha melech”4
implies
that this principle applies not only to the position of King, but to
all positions of serarah and authority. Hence it would follow5
that a
woman may not be appointed president of a synagogue or as rabbi,
since these are also positions of serarah.
6
The reason the Rav
brought up this topic in the beginning of Yoreh De’ah is because the
Rama7
quotes the practice of not appointing a woman as the town shochet. The Beis Yosef quotes the Kol Bo who seems to say8
that
although a woman may shecht privately, she may not be appointed
as the town shochet. If indeed this was the intention of the Kol Bo it
could be understood that this appointment would constitute a form
of serarah. Indeed in Europe before the war, the town shochet was,
in a certain sense, the assistant rabbi. The shochet knew sections of
Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De’ah, and often when the rabbi would be on
vacation, the shochet would paskin the she’eilos.
