[Avodah] Women and tefillin

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 08:37:53PM -0700, garry wrote:
>> 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?

> Since we know that women's understanding and so forth are superior to  
> men's, it seems tenuous to to discourage them from a practice solely by  
> assuming that their kavana will be the same as men's, especially when  
> the assumption is based entirely on silence in respect to kavana on a  
> different matter.

But we do assume a similar lack of concentration when it comes to
davening. Why would you assume tefillin is different than Birkhas Avos.

BTW, I am aware that a more frequently given explanation is that of
(e.g.) the Arukh haShulchan 38:6, that women have a harder time maintaining
a guf naqi.

BTW, the thread
<http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/getindex.cgi?section=W#WOMEN%20TALIS%20AMP%20TEFILLIN>
(Jun-Aug 2003) is rich in sources.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Good decisions come from experience;
micha at aishdas.org        Experience comes from bad decisions.
http://www.aishdas.org                - Djoha, from a Sepharadi fable
Fax: (270) 514-1507