AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to over 30 million articles from top publications available through your library.

Further on women as prayer leaders and their role in communal prayer: an exchange, communal prayer and women. (response to Judith Hauptman, Judaism, vol. 42, p. 94, 1993)(includes related article)

Judaism

| September 22, 1993 | Broyde, Michael J. | COPYRIGHT 1993 American Jewish Congress. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)Copyright

I. Introduction

PROFESSOR JUDITH HAUPTMAN'S ARTIcle, "Women and Prayer: An Attempt to Dispel Some Fallacies" (JUDAISM 42:94-103 [1993]), addresses two fundamentally different issues. Hauptman's first section, which reviews the obligation of women to pray, is on point. Jewish law requires men and women to pray daily, and the overwhelming majority of authorities rule that this obligation encompasses the duty for all to say certain fixed prayers, including shemoneh esrei (the "Eighteen Benedictions") every day. Anyone who is involved in the Orthodox Jewish day school system knows that such is the policy of all Jewish schools and communities.(1) Even the Artscroll prayerbook (p. 979) states clearly that the preferred opinion is that women recite shemoneh esrei twice each day. The standard blackletter law work on this topic states "Women are obligated -- according to most authorities -- to recite shemoneh esrei both shaharit and minhah."(2)

However, the second section, where Hauptman discusses the possibility of women as communal prayer leaders, is mistaken on matters of basic Jewish law. It assumes that because women are generally obligated to pray, they can fulfill the role of shaliah zibbur/cantor in communal prayer. This is incorrect according to classical Jewish law, as it misses the crucial role of minyan/quorum which is required for communal prayer with a shaliah/zibbur/cantor serving as a leader.

II. Communal Prayer and Women

Communal prayer is a rabbinic obligation which is a time-based positive commandment. Women are not obligated in communal prayer under any circumstances according to Jewish law and, thus, do not count in the minyan/quorum required for that purpose; see Rabbi J. Karo, Beit Yosef, commenting in Tur, O.H. 55 and Shulhan Arukh O.H. 55, which state that "one cannot say kaddish with less than ten adult free males, and the same is true for kedusha and barkhu." Men are obligated to (at least) insure the presence of communal prayer with a minyan/quorum, and to themselves pray with a minyan/quorum whenever possible.(3)

While there is some discussion in Jewish law as to whether a woman can ever count in a minyan, it is clear that the overwhelming majority opinion -- with only one dissent in the early authorities (rishonim), and none in the later authorities (ahronim) -- rules that women do not count in a quorum/minyan, even for the tenth person and even in a time of need. Rabbis Karo and Isserless express this clearly when they state(4) that the practice is never to count a woman to the quorum for prayer. Even the single early authority (Rabbenu Simhah) who disagrees, appears to limit his permissive rule to a single woman.(5)

Indeed, one might ask why are women not exempt from prayer generally, as it is time-based. The Talmud(6) itself replies by stating that prayer -- even though it has certain characteristics of a time-based commandment -- is not considered one, since prayer is our beseeching God for mercy, which all should do. As noted above, Jewish law distinguishes between prayer, which all are obligated in, and communal prayer, from which women are exempt.

Related articles from newspapers, magazines, journals, and more
MUSLIMS UNITE TO PRAY; INTERNATIONAL COMMUNAL PRAYER MARKS ISLAM'S HOLIEST...
Newspaper article from: The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY) January 11, 2006 700+ words
...Ave., Syracuse, holds holiday services to accommodate the crowds, worshippers formed in straight lines, facing Mecca. Women, many of them with children, stood behind the rows of men. Many Muslims separate by gender to pray; the tradition is intended...
EID AL-ADHA LINKS WORLD'S MUSLIMS A TIME OF SACRIFICE IS ALSO A TIME OF...
Newspaper article from: Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, WA) Schubert, Ruth February 23, 2002 700+ words
...significant. One woman, a recent convert...time. Another woman's 15-year...He joined in communal prayer in Bellevue yesterday...yesterday's communal prayer was a first for...area reserved for women, groups spread...
Fence Post.(News)(Letter to the Editor)
Newspaper article from: Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL) September 2, 2001 700+ words
...things, like the many instances of Jesus' participation in communal prayer, the famous phrase "wherever two or more are gathered...prayers, and the people of America have nothing to fear from communal prayer by public bodies. Tom Rooney Rolling Meadows Writer needs...
Daily mass: the spiritual heartbeat of the community.(SENIOR LIFE)
Magazine article from: National Catholic Reporter Klarer, Rita May 29, 2009 700+ words
...is up, a group of about 35 men and women start their day with rituals they have...discovered that he missed the monastic communal prayer. He began his day praying privately...Over the years, the Mass became his communal prayer, on Sundays with the whole parish and...
Celibacy & the future of the priesthood: seminarians today.
Magazine article from: Commonweal Stanosz, Paul August 12, 2005 700+ words
...organized around sessions for communal prayer. In my study, seminarians often...priestliness" to the same degree that communal prayer did. Lay-ministry students...learn to relate positively to women, the homosocial character of...
Engendering Judaism: A New Ethics and Theology.
Magazine article from: The Women's Review of Books Plaskow, Judith January 1, 1998 700+ words
...that erase and diminish women, the problems involved in creating inclusive communal prayer, the need for a new...the legal exclusion of women from traditional communal prayer and the legal subordination of women in marriage and divorce...
Like Bread on the Seder Plate: Jewish Lesbians and the Transformation of...
Magazine article from: The Women's Review of Books Plaskow, Judith January 1, 1998 700+ words
...that erase and diminish women, the problems involved in creating inclusive communal prayer, the need for a new...the legal exclusion of women from traditional communal prayer and the legal subordination of women in marriage and divorce...
The Book of Blessings: New Jewish Prayers for Daily Life, the Sabbath, and the...
Magazine article from: The Women's Review of Books Plaskow, Judith January 1, 1998 700+ words
...that erase and diminish women, the problems involved in creating inclusive communal prayer, the need for a new...the legal exclusion of women from traditional communal prayer and the legal subordination of women in marriage and divorce...
For more facts and information, see all results
©2009 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
About us | FAQs | Contact us | Privacy policy | Terms and conditions
Other Gale sites: Encyclopedia.com | HighBeam Research | Acquire Content | Books & Authors | Goliath | MovieRetriever | Smart QandA