[Avodah] She-lo Asani Isha

[Esther and Aryeh Frimer]

In continuation of my previous post to Chana Luntz, my brother (R. Prof.) Dov Frimer writes:

Aryeh, we already anticipated this in our WPG article around footnote 26-  or more accurately the Rav did. See RHS, Eretz Hatzvi pp 96, at length, where the Rav explains that an eved has only miktzat keddushat yisrael - and therefore has certain partial OBLIGATIONS - while a woman has complete kiddushat yisrael with partial EXEMPTIONS. While the bottom line may be similar with regards to the performance of mitzvoth aseh shz״g, the starting points are at exactly opposite poles. (It is like the question whether the day and a half shitah for YT Sheni in Israel is one day with chumros or two days with kolos.) The Rav gives an interesting nafkah minah:  women can make a berakha on MAShZG according to Rabbenu Tam; Avadim cannot even according to RT. See ad loc. RHS's rather lengthy footnotes. 

--------------------------------
Dr. Aryeh A. Frimer
Chemistry Dept., Bar-Ilan University
Ramat Gan 52900, ISRAEL
E-mail (office): Aryeh.Frimer at biu.ac.il or FrimeA at biu.ac.il
E-mail (home): FrimerA at zahav.net.il
----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Esther and Aryeh Frimer 
  To: Chana Luntz 
  Cc: avodah at lists.aishdas.org 
  Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 11:03 PM
  Subject: Re: She-lo Asani Isha


  DEar Chana,
      See the sources below who say explicitly what I cited, namely that an eved does not have the same level of kedushat Yisrael as a woman.
      R. Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel, Resp. Mishpetei Uziel, old ed.: III, H.M. sec. 3; new ed.: IV, Inyanim Kelaliyyim, sec.4. 
      R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, cited in: R. Zvi Schachter, Erets haTsvi, sec. 12, no. 12, pp. 96-97; in R. Menachem Genack, Gan Shoshanim, sec. 4, p. 10; and in Reshimot Shiurim, Shavuot-Nedarim II, R. Zvi Joseph Reichman, ed. [New York, 5756], Shavuot 30a, p. 7, end of note 12, p. 8, s.v “Shoneh ha-ishah,” and pp. 9-10, s.v. “Mistaber eifo,” and note 14.
      For similar but somewhat different formulations, see R. Elhanan Bunim Wasserman, Kovets Shiurim, Kiddushin, secs. 142-144; R. Menashe Klein, Mishne Halakhot, Mahadura Tinyana, III, sec. 83; R. Isaac Tuvia Weiss, cited in Birkhot haMitsvah keTikunan, p. 476. 

      As clarified by R. Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel and R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, the mitsvot were issued to the nation of Israel as a whole, men and women alike. Accordingly, both men and women possess an equal degree of “kedushat Yisrael,” Jewish sanctity. But despite sharing the general obligations of Kelal Yisrael (corporate Israel), women were granted a particular and individual exemption from the performance of time-determined commandments. 
      An eved is not a full member in corporate Israel and has therefore only received partial mitsvot. 
      For further discussion, See: “Women's Prayer Services: Theory and Practice. Part 1 - Theory,” Aryeh A. Frimer and Dov I. Frimer, Tradition, 32:2, pp. 5-118 (Winter 1998). PDF File available online at: http://www.jofa.org/pdf/Batch%201/0021.pdf; HTML file available at: http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/english/tfila/frimmer1.htm#start; Word file available at: http://mj.bu.edu/rsrc/MailJewish/MjReaderContributions/WmnSrvRev15-1.doc. - text at note 26 ff

          kol Tuv
              Aryeh
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