I would like to respond to the question about tefillin.
For many years I have taught a unit on positive time bound mitzvoth within the framework of a course I teach on women and Judaism. Tefillin and Tallit are an example of Permitted but Prohibited and I will explain.
Tefillin appears in at least three rabbinic sources: Tosefta Kiddushin 1:1, Yerushalmi Kiddushin Chapter 1, Halacha 7 and Bavli Kiddushin 33b. In all three sources it is listed along with shofar and lulav as a positive time bound commandment from which women are exempt.
In addition, the Talmud in a few places mentions a tradition handed down that Michal, the daughter of King Saul wore tefillin (and the wife of Jonah the prophet made the pilgrimage on the festivals) despite her exemption. The conclusion of the Gemara is that both of these mitzvoth (tefillin and pilgrimage) are optional for women (along with the usual list of sukkah, shofar, lulav, shema, tzitzit). Nonetheless, it is not clear that women in fact performed any of these positive time bound mitzvoth in Talmudic times (outside of the few exceptions like Michal who are duly noted).
The Talmud in Eruvin 96b adds a position, apparently held by R. Meir and R. Yehuda, that tefillin are not time bound and thus, women are obligated. However, Tosfot on the Daf explain that women are not able to maintain a גוף × ×§×™ (clean body) and thus, should not take upon themselves this voluntary commandment. The גוף × ×§×™ is referring to control of flatulence while praying or wearing the tefillin. Although Mesechet Berachot is filled with stories of sages who went to the bathroom with their tefillin on (holding their arms out the window) because they were wearing them all day, at some point there was a shift to only wearing them during morning prayers, thus mandating גוף × ×§×™.
This then, becomes the dominant point of opposition. Although the Targum Yonatan introduces the idea of man’s apparel for tallit and tefillin, it is not accepted by the major codes. Neither the Rambam nor the Shulchan Aruch bring it as a halachic issue regarding women.
I will add a quote from the Aruch Hashulchan which clarifies the position on Tefillin for women that has been passed on from the Tosafot’s time until today (Note: the position on women wearing tzitzit or tallit is not the same as for tefillin. The concern there is יהורה or conceit but there is similarity in that it could or should be classified with lulav, shofar etc. but instead is excluded out of a moral-social concern)
Aruch Hashulchan Orah Hayyim 38:6
Tefillin is a Positive Precept dependent upon a set time, since one is exempt on Sabbath and Festivals. If women should choose to be stringent, we should protest their being so. Tefillin is unlike Sukkah and Lulav [mitzvoth from which women are exempt and yet may fulfil them and even recite the appropriate blessings] because Tefillin requires that the person be meticulously clean. Thus the Talmud (Sabbath 49a) states: Tefillin demands a body as clean as the one of Elisha the possessor of wings.†Men who are obligated to wear them perforce must take care to maintain their cleanliness during the reciting of the Shema and the Amidah; and this is why men do not wear Tefillin all day. Thus women who are exempt from the obligation, have no need to undertake so great a risk [of not being clean while wearing the Tefillin]. For women there is no difference between the occasions of reciting the Shema and the Amidah and the remainder of the day; they are obligated at no time. Therefore we do not allow women to wear Tefillin….
My personal feeling is although tefillin (and tzitizit) are in the same category as other positive time bound mitzvoth, women in fact, did not choose to observe these mitzvoth with rare exceptions so while shema was accepted by many women as well as shofar and sukkah and more recently, lulav, tefillin and tzitizit were not embraced by the community even voluntarily. When the Conservative and Reform movements began to be popular, they assertively accepted tefillin and tallit so that something that could have become permitted became even more prohibited for social-religious reasons.
As someone who has prayed in prayer groups with women wearing tallit and tefillin (specifically Women of the Wall and Pardes’s Rosh Hodesh davening), it was jarring at first because it is so unfamiliar to someone who has grown up Orthodox. However, I think that a growing group of women within Orthodoxy are beginning to desire more ritual participation and as such, I think it is time to allow something that can be halachically permitted to enter the public domain. Only time will tell whether more women will embrace this opportunity or it will quietly fizzle on its own. I can say that I knew many women who blessed lulav and etrog at home but no women went to shul with lulav and etrog. Today more and more women, of all ages, are buying their own set of lulav and etrog and are going to synagogue for the entire Sukkot holiday in order to proudly perform this mitzvah.
The whole attitude towards women’s exemption from positive time bound mitzvoth (of which more were included than excluded at the end of the day) is being re-thought regularly. The idea that women are more spiritual than men and thus need less mitzvoth is also being challenged by women (and men). While this is a time of much change, it is unclear whether the changes will be long-standing or will only reflect the needs of our particular generation.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2014 10:18AM by mlb.
