Question: What are the religious obligations of Jewish women?
Answer: According to Jewish tradition, Jewish women should, at a minimum, fulfill the following three mitzvot (commandments):
1) nerot (lighting candles)
2) challah (separating a portion of dough)
3) niddah (immersion in a ritual bath or mikvah after the end of the menstrual period).
Nerot refers to lighting candles to mark the beginning of Shabbat or a holiday. Lighting candles is a rabbinical mitzvah, rather than a mitzvah from the Torah.
Challah, the second woman's mitzvah, refers to separating a portion of dough from bread before baking it. This commandment comes from Numbers 15:20, which says that when making bread a portion of dough should be set aside for the kohen (priest).
The third woman's mitzvah, Niddah, refers to immersion in a mikvah after the end of the menstrual period. The Torah prohibits sexual relations during a woman's menstrual period. After immersion in the mikvah, sexual activites can resume.
These three women's mitzvot are related to the home and family.