Why are some women wearing a tallit?

Many people are asking "Tallit for women! Why?" within the Progressive movement and the Conservative movement today. In one sense this is a straightforward question about women's tallit; in another sense it is extremely complex.

People ask "why?" for many different reasons: simply because they are curious; because they are bewildered; because they are astonished; because they are bemused; because they are angry ... This article attempts in some small way to respond to all these "why's" - and the individual men and women asking them - by presenting the personal accounts of some of the different women who are now wearing a tallit.

The question "what does tradition have to say?" is both more and less complicated than the question "why?" Less complicated, because it addresses the issue of the halachah governing the performance of Jewish ritual; more complicated, because for the ‘Progressive and Conservative' Jews, the received halachah is not the only guideline for working out our contemporary Jewish practice.

By documenting the ‘sources', this article ‘answers' the questions of what ‘tradition' has to say about women's Tallit. But how do Progressive and Conservative Jews respond to that tradition? Clearly, by taking the step of wearing a tallit for morning prayer on a regular basis, women are directly confronting the issue of the performance of mitzvot on the part of Progressive Jews.

Women and the mitzva of wearing Tallit

By tradition there are 613 mitzvot in the Torah, and these have been enumerated and elucidated by the rabbis of the Mishnah, Talmud and Codes. The 613 have been divided into mitzvot aseh (positive commandments) - commandments which say "You shall ..." - and mitzvot lo aseh (negative commandments) - commandments which say "You shall not ..." Originally it was believed that all Jews were obligated to carry out all of the commandments.

However, by the time of the Mishnah, a tradition was developing which sought to limit the obligations of women regarding the mitzvot. In the Talmud, tractate Kiddushin (29a) we read:

"All positive mitzvot which are timebound (that is, which need to be performed within certain time boundaries, whether of a day, a week or a season), men are obligated with regard to them but women are exempt. However, all positive commandments which are not timebound, both men and women are obligated to fulfil them. All negative mitzvot, whether or not timebound, both men and women are obligated to fulfil them."

This is then debated by the rabbis (Kiddushin 34a):

"Our rabbis taught: which are the mitzvot which are positive and limited by time? Sukkah and lulav (dwelling in a sukkah and shaking the lulav), hearing the shofar, and (wearing) tzitzit and tefillin ... But is this a kelal (general principle)? (Eating) matzah, rejoicing (on the festivals) and assembling (for the Shalosh Regalim) are positive, timebound mitzvot and women are obligated in them. Furthermore, study of Torah, procreation and the redemption of the first-born are not positive, timebound mitzvot but women are exempt from them ..."

The rabbis were clearly aware of the contradictions in their case although they eventually arrived at a means of maintaining their general principle (that is, that women are exempt from all timebound, positive mitzvot). Despite the exceptions to this rule, it is obvious that the position of women in ritual was initially a fluid one.

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