Q&A: Nullification of the Reason for Women's Exemption from Time-Bound Positive Commandments
Nullification of the Reason for Women's Exemption from Time-Bound Positive Commandments
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I haven’t found anywhere that you address this explicitly—can it be argued that women are obligated (or that at least there is some doubt about this) in time-bound positive commandments nowadays because the reason for the exemption has fallen away—assuming the exemption stemmed from the social order customary in ancient times? (It could be that the Jewish law differs for different societies—for example, perhaps in Haredi societies the reason for the exemption has not fallen away.)
Thank you.
Answer
If you assume that the exemption stemmed from certain circumstances that once existed and no longer do, then in principle there is room for annulment (subject to the limits of the authority of the Great religious court; see Maimonides, beginning of chapter 2 of the Laws of Rebels). But the question is whether that assumption itself is actually correct. I do not know.