[Avodah] Do Women Need To Hear Eicha?

[Chana Luntz]

RYL writes:

>  From http://revach.net/article.php?id=606
> 
> Rav Moshe Shternbuch: Do Women Need To Hear Eicha?
> 
> Reading Eicha is a major part of the aveilus of Tisha B'Av.  Rav
> Moshe Shternbuch says (2:250) that since women are Chayav in all the
> halachos of aveilus of Tisha B'Av, they are also required to hear
> Eicha. If they can not go to Shul they can say it sitting on the
> floor in the privacy of their own home.

This has been bothering me all the way through Tisha B'Av.

Firstly, as far as I was aware, recitation of Eicha is a minhag, not a
rabbinical enactment (unlike Megilla).  We don't make a bracha on its
recitation, for example.  In which case, surely whether or not women hear
Eicha is dependent on the local minhag, and my estimate of the local minhag
is that most married women with children do not hear it, although mileage
may vary.  I have never heard of a woman reciting it to fulfil "her
obligation" at home.

Secondly, even if we say that recitation is a rabbinical mitzvah, why should
a woman be chayav in it?  I thought the general consensus was with Tosphos
that even for rabbinic mitzvos, women are patur from mitzvos aseh shehazman
grama?  Megilla is a special exception amongst other special exceptions, but
why should Eicha be?  The fact that women may be obligated in the rabbinic
lo ta'asehs involved in Tisha B'Av, like with any other lo ta'asehs, doesn't
seem to me to automatically include the asehs. So I just don't understand
the above "since women are chayav in all the halachos of aveilus of Tisha
B'Av".   Why is this so, ie why and from where is it derived that this is
this yet another exception to the standard rule. In the case of Megilla, the
specific inclusion of women in the mitzvah is explicit in the gemora.  From
where do we see an explicit inclusion of women in the positive obligations
of tisha b'av, as opposed to the negative ones (like no eating, no drinking
etc etc)?

Regards

Chana
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