Tefillin 101 – Week Four
A ‘Crash’ Course on Tefillin for the World Wide Wrap
Sunday, February 3, 2019
Prepared by Rabbi Ellen S. Wolintz-Fields,
Executive
Tefillin 101 – Week Four
A ‘Crash’ Course on Tefillin for the World Wide Wrap
Sunday, February 3, 2019
Prepared by Rabbi Ellen S. Wolintz-Fields,
Executive Director, Women’s League for Conservative Judaism
If you and/or your sisterhood would like to participate, Women’s League/sisterhood members can register here.
Tefillin 101, Week 4, will provide seven more interesting concepts about Women and Tefillin. For a groundbreaking article on Women and Tefillin – Anne Lapidus Lerner “‘Bind Them as a Sign…’ Not for Men Only.” Women’s League Outlook 64, no. 2 (Winter 1993): 13–14.
1 – Women and Tefillin – 1st century – 13th century
The earliest source found that discusses women wearing tefillin is the Tannaitic midrash on Exodus called the Mekhilta, which dates from the first century following the destruction of the Temple called the Tannaitic period. The Mekhlita states that Michal bat Kushi (Saul) wore tefillin, with no mention of the Rabbis protesting.
Tractate Tefillin written in the post-Mishnaic period, in approximately the second half of the second century, states that women are exempt from the commandment of tefillin, but does not give a reason for this exemption. The account of Michal bat Shaul wearing tefillin is related, without any mention of Rabbis, or even a mention of a possibility that the Rabbis would protest.
The earlier of the two Talmuds, the Talmud Yerushalmi, or the Palestinian Talmud, dating from the first half of the fifth century, in Berachot 2:3 and Eruvin 10:1, states that women are exempt from tefillin. A statement is made in both references in the Yerushalmi that Michal bat Kushi (Saul) did wear tefillin and R. HIzkiah in the name of R. Abbahu states that the Sages did object to Michal bat Kushi wearing tefillin.
The Babylonian Talmud, dating to the sixth century, in Eruvin 96a, states that the Sages did not object to Michal bat Saul wearing tefillin. In addition, Eruvin 96a, a later source than the Palestinian Talmud, does not even mention the statement by R. Hizkiah, in the name of R. Abahu, that the Sages did object to Michal wearing tefillin.
While studying the text in the Babylonian Talmud in Eruvin 96a, the objection reported by R. Hizkiah is only known by studying the Tosafot, edited in the 12th-13th centuries, who quote the Pesikta Rabbati, a midrash dating from not before the ninth century, written in Palestinian Aramaic. Pesikta Rabbati states that Michal bat Kushi (Saul) wore tefillin, and Rabbi Hizkiah, in the name of R. Abahu, states that the Sages did interfere with her practice of wearing tefillin. The Tosafot on Eruvin 96a (12th-13th century) quote Rabbenu Tam, who lived in the twelfth century, who said that, if women wear tefillin, they should say the blessing. If Michal bat Saul wore tefillin, she must have recited the blessings.
In summary, it is significant to note that the Palestinian Talmud, an earlier source than the Babylonian Talmud, mentions that the Sages objected to Michal bat Kushi wearing tefillin; but the Babylonian Talmud does not report any objection by the Sages. Perhaps, in Palestine, it was seen as more objectionable by the Rabbis if a woman wore tefillin, but, in Babylonia, women wearing tefillin was not seen as a problem and, therefore, the Babylonian Talmud did not mention the Rabbis protesting Michal bat Kushi wearing tefillin.
(It is often said that Rashi’s daughters wore tefillin. I have never found the original source.)
2 – Women and Tefillin – 13th century – 14th century
The Rashba, who wrote in the 13th-14th centuries, also ruled that, if women are going to wear tefillin, they should recite the blessing because, if Michal bat Saul wore tefillin, then she must have recited the blessings.
Later, in the 14th century, Orchot Chayim, written by Rabbi Aharon ha-Kohen, quotes the Ram, Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg (13th century), who said that women are exempt from the commandment of tefillin, but states that it is a difficulty for him because, in Eruvin 96a, the Sages did not object to Michal bat Saul putting on tefillin. Could they be saying – if the Rabbis of the Talmu