[Avodah] Women and Tefillin

[Richard Wolberg]

The gemara reports that Michal, wife of Dovid Hamelech, wore tefillin. 
Sources: Eruvin 96a-b and 10:1 Yerushalmi, Berachos 2:3.
Tosafos, Rosh Hashanah 33a, s.v. haRebbi.
What is also fascinating is an explanation made out of the discomfort
the m'forshim had regarding women wearing tefillin. The Kaf HaChayim 
(OC 38:9) quotes a suggestion by the Yafe l'lev. He writes that Michal
"knew" that she possessed a reincarnated "male soul." He continues
that this also explains her being a barren woman. 

[What I find fascinating is the idea of Reincarnation being endorsed by
some Sages while being denounced by others). I recall a shiur in where 
the Rebbe believed in Reincarnation and said that you can only come 
back as a Jew. When I was a teenager I learned with a Rabbi Katz z"l 
in Hartford, Ct. He said that if you don't wash prior to making the motzi,
you will come back as a dog (transmigration of the souls). That's pretty
scary, unless, of course, you come back as Lassie]. Personally, I feel
that gilgul hanefesh is plausible. (Interestingly, the Greek philosophical 
term for transmigration of the soul is "Metempsychosis." What I find 
intriguing is the implementation of the word 'Psychosis' which is a 
pathological psychiatric condition involving a loss of contact with reality).

There is also documentation that Hannah Rachel Verbermacher, 
"Lumirer Moyd," [19th c. Polish Chassidic leader] wore tefillin. 

Rabbi Avigdor Tzarfati, one of the ba'alei Tosafot, in his Sefer Perushim 
Upesakim al haTorah leRabbeinu Avigdor Tzarfati, states that some of
the righteous women in his time put tefillin on with a b'racha.

Of course, women can't pick and choose. If they decide to m'kayem the
mitzvos she-ha-z'man g'rama, they must fulfill all of them (perhaps with
some necessary exceptions).