What Do Others Say?

Home What Do The Scriptures Say? What Do Others Say? Modern Applications Common Objections My Purpose & Perspective Contact

TZITZIT FOR WOMEN.COM

"Mikhal the daughter of King Saul used to wear tefillin, and the sages did not protest"
(Eruvin 96a).

What Do Others Say?

The following is a list of various alternative sources that provide opinions regarding women and tzitzit. Each must decide for herself whether the opinions are valid or not.

"Our Rabbis taught: All must observe the law of Tzizith, priests, Levites, and Israelites, proselytes, women and slaves." Talmud - Mas. Menachoth 43a

#1 From the following site: http://www.myjewishlearning.com/daily_life/Prayer/Ritual_Garb/Tallit.htm

According to the Halakhah [Jewish law], women are exempt from the obligation to carry out those precepts that depend for their performance on a given time. Since the precept of tzitzit is binding only during the day and not during the night it follows that this is a precept from which they are exempt. Thus women have no obligation to wear the tallit, and until recent years it was extremely unusual for women to wear it for prayer. Nowadays, even among some Orthodox women there has been a strong desire to wear the tallit for prayer, and many women now do so, often having a special colored or decorated tallit in the latest fashion. Orthodox Rabbis generally disapprove of women wearing the tallit, chiefly because it is untraditional for women to do so, but others see no objection to it. A Message from Rabbi Tilsen

#2 http://www.beki.org/womentefillin.html

Women & Tefillin

What did our sages have to say about women wearing tefillin?

The mitzva (commandment) of tefillin is mentioned four times in the Torah, including in the Shema: "And you shall bind them for a sign upon your arm and they shall be totafot between your eyes" (Deut. 6:8). Tefillin symbolize tying our physical and mental capacities to the service of God. We say when we wrap the tefillin on our hands: "I bind myself to you forever, I bind myself to you in Righteousness, in Justice, in Kindness and in Mercy; I bind myself to you forever, and in that way I come to Know You." When we wear tefillin we bind ourselves to ideals through which we can come to know God.

Despite the Torah's generic language, it was understood that women are exempt from this mitzva. The Mishna (the second-century CE law compendium) records: "Women, slaves and minors are exempt from the recitation of Shema and from tefillin, but are obligated for the Amida Prayer, mezuza, and Grace after meals" (Berakhot 3:3).

Although exempt, may women voluntarily perform this mitzva? The Talmud states, "Mikhal the daughter of King Saul used to wear tefillin, and the sages did not protest" (Eruvin 96a). During the period of the Rishonim (1000 to 1500 CE), some sages, including posqim such as Rashi and Rambam, say that women may perform mitzvot from which they are exempt but do so without reciting a berakha (blessing), since the berakha's phrase "who has commanded us" would not apply. Rambam writes: "Women, slaves, and minors are exempt from tzitzit from the Torah...Women and slaves who want to wrap themselves in tzitzit may do so without a berakha. And so too with other such mitzvot from which women are exempt: if they want to perform them without a berakha, one does not protest" (Hilkhot Tsitsit 3:9).

The largest group of sages of this period rule that women may perform such mitzvot and recite the berakha as do men. These sages include Rabbenu Tam (1100-1171) and Rabbi Zerahia haLevi (12th c. Provence) among many others. The Rashba (1235-1310 Spain) states in a teshuva (responsum): "I agree with those who say that if they desire they can do all such mitzvot and recite the blessings, on the basis of Mikhal bat Shaul who used to wear tefillin and they did not protest; indeed she did so with the approval of the sages (kirtzon hakhamim) and by the nature of the matter since she puts on tefillin she blesses" (Teshuva 123).

In addition to the endorsement of many great sages, there is some precedent for prominent women wearing tefillin. Besides Mikhal the daughter of King Saul, stories persist of Rashi's daughters wearing tefillin. Likewise, Fazonia, the first wife of Rabbi Haim ben Attar, wore tallit and tefillin, as did Rabbi Haim's second wife. The Maid of Ludomir (Hanna Rachel Werbermacher) in the 19th century also wore tefillin. These are prominent cases; little is know of less prominent women.

Although Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg (d. 1293 Germany) and his followers opposed women wearing tefillin, it is safe to say that the vast majority of sages in the past two thousand years allowed specifically or in principle the wearing of tefillin by women.

It is essential for each Conservative Jew to be aware that the approval of our Rabbis today for women to wear tefillin is based on a fulfillment of our tradition. While one may legitimately question whether it is advisable for women to wear tefillin (and I encourage men and women alike to wear them), and while a religious leader of a community has it within his or her legitimate rabbinic discretion to endorse or censure the practice, it is sheer ignorance to claim that women wearing tefillin has not been permitted by our sages or could not be consistent with Jewish law. At the same time, the ruling of one's own rabbi on this and most other issues is definitive for their own community.

#3 http://www.reclaimingjudaism.org/bmitzvah/Tallit.htm

Women wearing tzitzit is a revival of the Torah's guidance for all to put fringes on their garments that had lapsed by the time the Mishneh Torah was written. The Talmud in Menachot 43a reports that Reb Yehudah attached fringes to the aprons of women in his household and there it reads: "All must observe the law of tzitzit, Cohanim, Levites and Israelites, converts, women and slaves." This section also records one scholar, Reb Simeon, as declaring women not to be obligated to wear a tallit.

#4 http://www.religionfacts.com/judaism/things/tallit.htm

Historically, the tallit has mostly been permitted for use by women (Isaac ibn Ghiyyat (b. 1038), Rashi (1040-1105), Rabbenu Tam (ca 1100-1171), Zerachya ben Yitzhak Halevi of Lunel (ca 1125-1186), Rambam (1135-1204), R. Eliezer ben Yoel Halevi (ca 1140-ca 1225), Rashba (1235-1310), Aharon Halevi of Barcelona (b. ca 1235?), R. Yisrael Yaaqob Alghazi (1680-1761), R. Yomtob ben Yisrael Alghazi (1726-1802)), but with a gradual movement towards prohibition mainly initiated by the Medieval Ashkenazi Rabbi Meir von Rothenburg (the Maharam). Since the 1970s, in non-Orthodox denominations of Judaism it may be worn by women. Amongst Karaim, the mitzvah of tzitzit is viewed as equally binding for men and women, and both sexes therefore generally wear tallitot.

The reasons women have not generally worn the tallit and may not do so in Orthodox Judaism include the fact that four-cornered garments were originally considered men's garb, and the Bible prohibits women from wearing men's clothing (Deuteronomy 22:5) and it is a mitzvah that is performed at a specific time of the day (women are exempted from such mitzvot).

#5 http://elmsintheyard.blogspot.com/2005/11/tiger-tzitzit-tzitzit-ritual-fringes.html

Tzitzit,the ritual fringes attached to the corners of a four-cornered garment, are worn by religious Jews beginning at three years of age. (The sources of the commandment to wear tzitzit are Numbers 15:38 and Deuteronomy 22:12.) In the past, tzitzit were worn mostly by men, though we know of a number of women who wore them at various times during Jewish history. These women were usually the relatives of recognized religious leaders and sometimes functioned as religious leaders themselves. (One exception to this general rule was Hannah Rachel Werbermacher, the Maiden of Ludomir [c. 1815–1892], who wore tzitzit and tefillin [phylacteries] and functioned as a hassidic rebbe even though she was not related to a prominent religious leader.)

A major reason that so few Jewish women wore tzitzit until recently is that Jewish law exempts women from observing most commandments that must be performed at a specific time. Since the commandment to wear tzitzit falls into this category—they must be worn during the day—women are considered exempt from the duty to wear them. However, women may wear tzitzit if they wish, and now that high-level Jewish learning is open to women as it never was before, more and more religiously observant women are deciding to wear them as an expression of their commitment, and more and more young girls have begun to do so as well.

(I think it is fair to mention here that some streams within Orthodox Judaism still maintain that exemption equals prohibition where women are concerned, and oppose the idea of women wearing tzitzit or performing religious acts that for many generations were considered the exclusive province of men.)

Women who want to wear tzitzit have something else to consider. According to Jewish law, men may not wear clothing intended for women and vice versa (Deuteronomy 22:5). Therefore, some contemporary religious authorities state that if a woman or girl wishes to wear tzitzit, the garment to which they are attached should not resemble the style currently being used by men. (This, incidentally, was the suggestion made by Rabbi Yehuda Herzl Henkin to my women’s prayer group, Shirat Sara: that a woman who wishes to wear a tallit [prayer shawl] during our services should wear one that appears “distinct from the current style of men’s tallitot.”)

So where is all this background information leading? To this: when a friend of mine asked me to sew tzitzit for her small daughter some time ago, I happily obliged. Her daughter chose some material from a fabric store, I got out the sewing machine, and this is what resulted...

#6 A "Jewish Jewels" Teaching, Talit, By Neil and Jamie Lash, page 12.
"However, even during ancient times women wore talitot. The Talmud tells the story of Rabbi Judah the Prince who personally attached fringes (tzitzit) to his wife's apron!