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)

Publication: Judaism: A Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life and Thought

Publication Date: 22-SEP-93

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COPYRIGHT 1993 American Jewish Congress

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.

Undoubtedly, the rationale for exempting women from any obligation to communal prayer is related to the general exemption given to women for time-based positive commandments. As Hauptman correctly notes, Jewish law rules that people who are not equally obligated cannot fulfill the obligation for others. Thus, it is clear that women are not obligated in communal prayer, do not count in the quorum for communal prayer, and cannot lead communal prayer.(7) This rule, and its implications, was not mentioned by Hauptman. Any discussion of women as prayer leaders, without a discussion of minyan/quorum and who counts in it, is incomplete. Indeed, it is clear that there are a number of people (besides women) who are fully obligated in daily prayer generally but yet do not count towards the quorum.(8)

The discussion of the person whose beard does not grow in, referred to by Hauptman as perhaps precedent for women as communal prayer leaders, is an erroneous analogy, as that person is fully obligated in communal prayer and counts in the quorum, unlike women. The concept of "community honor" (kavod hazibbur) employed to discourage the unbearded person from leading services plays no role in the reason...

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