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Question My question is in regard to women and positive time based commandments in orthodox judaism. where specificly in torah, mishna, talmud are women discouraged from laying tefillin or wearing tallit? if women are not included in such time based positive commandedments, then where are they prohibited from performing them? will orthodoxy ever revisit this issue? Thank you. Answer
In general women may fulfill any of the postive time-bound mitzvot, and Ashkenzic women may even recite the blessing. We see this, for example, by lighting Chanukah candles or waving the lulav and estrog.
With tzitzit and tefillin, however, this is discouraged for a few reasons:
Firstly, the Torah forbids women to wear garments that are made specifically for a man, as it is written, "A man's garment shall not be worn by a woman." (Deut. 22:5) The Talmudic Sage, Yonatan Ben Uziel, explains the verse as actually referring to Tefillin and Tzitzit.
The great Kabbalist the Arizal wrote that the mitzvah of Tzitzit is only and specifically for men. (see Kaf HaChayim 17:5)
Additionally, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein states that in many instances where women do wear Tzitzit they are doing so as a political statement of women's rights, as opposed to the desire to fulfill one of G-d's commandments. Since their motivation is fundamentally a complaint against G-d and His Torah, and not a truthful desire to serve G-d, their actions do not constitute a mitzvah.
To learn more, see Halichos Bas Yisrael by Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Fuchs (published by Targum Press).
Rabbi Shraga Simmons
Aish.com
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