CURRENT TALMUD PASSAGE
Learn with Rabbi Abrams!
If you like the website, you’ll love learning with Rabbi
Abrams in person even more! She can come to your synagogue or
group as a scholar-in-residence or you can learn with her long
distance via phone or skype. You can also have her teach single
lectures to your group. Click here for a list of just a few of the
talks available.
Posted July 2, 2010, by Rabbi Judy Abrams. Please refer to
Maqom's home page for information about previous passages.
BH
AMBIVALENCE ABOUT WOMEN WEARING TEFILLIN
IN THE YERUSHALMI
© Judith Z. Abrams, 2010
According to our sages, women, all the way back to biblical
times, have been observing Jewish rituals which, today, are reserved
for men:
Women and slaves are exempt from reciting
the Shema and donning tefillin. From whence do we know that women
are exempt? "And you shall teach them to your sons/children
(Deuteronomy 11:19)" but not to your daughters (Sifre D.,
#46). One who is obligated to study Torah is obligated to don
tefillin. Women, who are not obligated to study Torah, are not
obligated to wear tefillin.
This ruling was challenged: Michael
was the daughter of a Kushite (i.e., King Saul) and she wore
tefillin. And Jonah's wife used to go up to the Temple on the
pilgrimage festivals and the sages did not protest this.
Rabbi Chizkiya said in the name of Rabbi
Abbahu: Jonah's wife was turned back from the Temple when she
tried to go there on the festival. And Michal, the daughter of
a Kushite, the sages protested against her. (Y. Berachot 2:2)
There were no sages back then to make an objection!!!
Discussion Questions:
- This is a characteristic Yerushalmi passage in that it expresses
different opinions but doesn't force the learner to come to any
one conclusion. In other words, you can follow Michal's practice
of wearing tefillin and/or Jonah's wife's practice of going to
the Temple for festivals. Or you can buy into Rabbi Abbahu's
teaching that these women were prevented from performing these
practices. There is a historical problem with Rabbi Chizkiya's
teaching. Can you identify it?
- Women and slaves are exempt from the obligation of reciting
the Shema and wearing tefillin….but they are not prohibited
from doing so. Is there any logical formula by which we could
make women obligated to recite the Shema and wear tefillin?