Obligation of Women to Perform the Commandments
There are believed to be three different kinds of mitzvot:
those that are inclusive to everyone (observing Shabbat),
those that are gender based (having children), and those that are gender
based but not related to biological differences (reading Torah).
The Mishnah teaches that women are required to follow nearly all the negative
commandments (mitzvot lo taaseh), except trimming one’s
beard and viewing the deceased (Kiddushin 33b). As for the positive
commandments (mitzvot asay) women must perform virtually
all the commandments not structured by time, and are exempted from those
mitzvot that are restricted by time (mitzvot asay she’hazeman
gerama). This is because of women’s traditional domestic roles
of bearing children, raising a family, and fulfilling household responsibilities.
The law was designed to liberate women of obligations
of mitzvot that they would find difficult. For instance, a woman is
not required to pray in
the morning, because it would be demanding for her to also pay attention
to the children. Nevertheless, every Shabbat women are obligated to
recite the prayer over the wine (Kiddush)
because all Jews are required to “remember the Sabbath
Day” (Exodus 20:8).
Additionally, women are expected to light the Chanukah candles because both men and women observed the miracle of Chanukah.
Some rabbis believe that
women are naturally more spiritual than men, and therefore require less
demanding religious mitzvot.
There is no definite agreement among rabbis as to
which positive, time bound commandments women are not obligated to fulfill.
However, many rabbis follow the view of Maimonides and the Talmud which specifically lists five time-bound mitzvot not required to be
performed by women: residing in the sukkah,
raising the lulav on Sukkot,
listening to the shofar on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and wearing tzitzit or tefillin.
It is also stated in the Talmud that women are not obligated to count
the Omer or say the Shema.
Furthermore, women are not expected to study the Torah, which is not
time-bound. All of these commandments that a woman is exempted are outside
the realm of her domestic sphere. These commandments involve a public
religious life removed from domestic life.
Since the Mishnah uses the expression “exemption,” many women voluntarily
choose to perform time-bounded mitzvot. However, the Orthodox community has denied women the mitzvot of wearing tallit and tefillin,
no matter whether they voluntarily choose to perform the mitzvot. Scholars
also debate whether a woman is permitted to recite the suitable blessing
that adjoins a mitzvah that she is electing to perform.
Maimonides also believed that a commandment fulfilled
by a woman, who is not obligated, is less equal than when performed
by a man who is required. Conversely, Rabbenu Tam argued that mitzvot
are a united responsibility of the Jewish people and once a woman or
man takes on a mitzvah they are accountable for all aspects of the obligation.
This has become a highly contested issue of whether a woman can claim
she is accepting the mitzvah on behalf of the community, such as reading
from the Torah.
Most traditional communities have maintained that a
woman may not release men’s obligations by voluntarily opting
to perform a mitzvah required of men. This judgment is emphasized by
the idea of k’vod ha-tzibbur or “honor of the community,”
that a woman discharging men of their obligations brings embarrassment
to the community. However, in egalitarian Conservative and Reform synagogues, women
can read from the Torah and lead services, consequently releasing men
of their obligations. In virtually all Conservative and Reform services
women can also execute the mitzvah of being counted in a minyan,
unlike in Orthodox congregations. In 1973, the Conservative movement
decreed that the omission of women from the prayer service was discriminatory.
Sources: Eisenberg, Ronald L. The
JPS Guide to Jewish Traditions. PA: Jewish Publication Society,
2004; Telushkin, Joseph. Jewish
Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion,
Its People and Its History. NY: William Morrow and Co., 1991;
Kolatch, Alfred J. The
Jewish Book of Why/The Second Jewish Book of Why. NY: Jonathan
David Publishers, 1989. |