[Avodah] Women Davening with a Minyan

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:57:04 -0400, "Prof. RYL"  wrote:
> Now I am sure that women want their prayers to be heard. Therefore,
> it occurred to me,  "Why aren't women who are able to go to shul
> (women without children, women whose children are no longer at home)
> encouraged to go to shul to daven regularly (daily) with a minyan?"


>From the Igeres haGra (to his wife and mother, when he left on an attempt
to make aliyah):
> One must seal his lips as tight as two millstones. Idle words are like
> powerful weapons which can reach from one end of the world to the other.
> Now this is true concerning mere excessive speech. Where forbidden speech
> is concerned - e.g. lashon hara, mocking, swearing, vowing, fighting and
> cursing - especially in the synagogue, and on Shabbos and Yom Tov - for
> every utterance of this type it is impossible to imagine the pain and
>  suffering one will receive (Zohar)!
...
> Concerning solitude, the main thing is to remain at home. Even your visit
> to the synagogue should be very short. IN FACT, IT IS BETTER TO PRAY AT
> HOME, FOR IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO BE SPARED FROM JEALOUSY OR FROM HEARING
IDLE
> TALK OR LASHON HARA IN THE SYNAGOGUE [emphasis mine -micha]. And one
> receives punishment for this, as we find (Shabbos 33a), "Also one who
> hears and is silent...." This is even the more so on Shabbos and Yom Tov
> when they gather to talk - It is then better that you don't pray at all.
> Refrain also from going to the cemetery (especially women), as it leads
to
> all kinds of sorrow and sin. It is also advisable that your daughter not
go
> to the synagogue, because she'll see beautiful clothes there, become
jealous
> and talk about it at home. This will lead to lashon hara, etc. She should
> rather cling to Mussar and not become jealous of anything in this world,
> where everything is vanity and illusions, appearing and disappearing
> overnight (Yonah 4:10).

(So we know the Gra was poorer than most of Vilna's Jews, and couldn't
afford a dress for his daughter of the quality the other girls in shul
would have.)

Perhaps this set a norm that wasn't changed even in shuls where the ezras
nashim improved?

Tir'u baTov! 
-Micha

 -- 
Micha Berger             Man can aspire to spiritual-moral greatness
micha at aishdas.org        which is seldom fully achieved and easily lost
http://www.aishdas.org   again. Fullfillment lies not in a final goal,
Fax: (270) 514-1507      but in an eternal striving for perfection. -RSRH