Q&A: Women's Participation in Kedushah and Prayer
Women's Participation in Kedushah and Prayer
Question
I’d like to share something I witnessed last week and would be glad to hear your opinion about it:
I took part in an event attended by quite a number of Torah scholars and their wives. At the end of the event, the afternoon prayer service was held on one side of the hall, while on the other side the women were sitting and talking. When we reached Kedushah, not a single one of the women stood up, and although the hall was not large and it is reasonable to assume they heard, they did not stand for Kedushah, which was very noticeable.
Is this because of the gap between men and women regarding prayer in a quorum? Something connected to education toward prayer? Or perhaps simply a charitable explanation that they did not hear it (though, as someone who was there, that does not seem likely)?
Answer
Before you ask about Kedushah, why not ask about the prayer itself? On one side people are praying, and on the other side the women are sitting and chatting. Why shouldn’t they join the prayer? Apparently a “shared space” is defined not only on the physical plane (see “do not form factions” regarding two religious courts in “one city” nowadays). Beyond that, it is certainly possible that they did not hear it—that is, they did not pay attention to what their ears were hearing through the conversation.
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Questioner (another one):
When the ethos on which girls and women are educated is that they are exempt and exempt and exempt, this should not be surprising. I like to count with my students the time-bound positive commandments out of the total number of obligatory commandments from which there is no exemption… and from that to emphasize the obligation and the educational problem in overemphasizing the exemption.
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Rabbi:
Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear. I have no criticism of them. I actually support their behavior. If they are exempt, then what is the problem with not joining the prayer? I only argued that if they are already sitting off to the side, then they have established a space for themselves and are occupied with something else, so they are not really hearing the Kedushah and are not joining in it. If I were exempt, I too would sit off to the side. The afternoon prayer service—and prayer in general—doesn’t really “do it for me.” It is an obligation, like any other obligation.