[Avodah] Women and tefillin

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 07:48:33PM -0700, garry wrote:
>>> For men, the minimum is during Shema, and we stretch that to the rest
>>> of Shacharis. For women, the minimum is zero.

> except, perhaps, for women who say Shema. If they say it, the same  
> minimum would seem to apply, for the same reason.  Of course you could  
> argue Shema is another zman grama mitzvah with a strong reason for women  
> not to fulfill it (because then they'd have to put on tefillin and so  
> on....)

The arugment I was making was that since women aren't mechuyavos in
tefillin, it isn't mechezei keshiqra for them to say Shema without
tefillin on. Thus, they don't have the impetus men do to wear tefillin
for Shema (and the surrounding tefillos).

> Also, the ancient ruling that we lack the kevana to wear tefillin except  
> when absolutely necessary was made regarding men.  Is there any  
> authority that modern women are similarly disqualified?  I don't think  
> this can be assumed, especially because women are on a higher  madrega  
> than we are.

The need for kavanah I would think is inherent in the qedushah of the
tefillin. So I can't see why the gender of the person wearing it would
matter.

If you mean (as the last sentence implies) that one can't assume women
would have a similar problem with kavanah, that distinction isn't made
WRT Ashrei and Birkhas Avos. When they discuss no longer following
chazal's pesaq about repeating Ashrei if "Poseiach es 'Yadekha'..." is
said without kavanah, because we aren't likely to do much better the
second time anyway, does anyone say that women /are/ likely?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
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