to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity"
When was the last time you pulled out your credit card? Since the 1950s, Americans have increasingly used credit to accomplish their economic goals, whether purchasing goods and services, starting a business, or buying a home. But until the 1970s, women had far less access to credit than men. Before 1974, in fact, if you were a single woman, you almost always needed your father, brother, or other male relative to co-sign loans for you, even if you made more money than they did. If you were a married woman, you could not obtain credit cards in your own name—you could only get a card as Mrs. Your Husband’s Name. And then, no matter how carefully you paid the bills and managed the account, the credit history accrued only to him. As a result, if your husband died or you divorced, it was nearly impossible for you to obtain a loan. If a couple applied for a mortgage, the bank often ignored the woman’s income in deciding how much they could afford; the bank’s assumption was that if the wife became pregnant, she would leave the workforce and lose her income. Shockingly, to include the woman’s income in the loan application, some banks required couples to produce “baby letters,” in which the woman’s doctor attested that she’d had a hysterectomy or was on birth control and would not get pregnant. In the early 1970s, women’s organizations gathered thousands of letters from women around the country decrying their experiences with banks and began to ratchet up public pressure. They secured hearings in front of the new National Commission on Consumer Finance in May 1972. New York Democratic Representative Bella Abzug, an outspoken feminist, introduced legislation in the House, but it stalled partly because she was not on the banking committee. Then, a determined Congressional fellow named Emily Card convinced Senator William Brock to take up the call for federal legislation. As a result of her efforts, Congress passed the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) on October 28,1974, making it illegal for banks to discriminate in lending based on sex or marital status.
Ilana Kurshan, If All the Seas Were Ink: A Memoir
As a modern reader of the Talmud, I was fascinated by the rabbis’ assumptions about women’s attitudes toward marriage and children, and I wondered whether they still resonate with women today. After my divorce, I thought about whether it is still true, as the rabbis insist, that tav l’meitav tan du m’l’meitav armelu-that a woman would prefer to be married than to be alone, even if, as the rabbis go on to assert, her husband is “the size of an ant.” Does this principle hold in an age when, at least in many parts of the world, women can own property, live independently, and have children out of wedlock without undue social sanction? It soon became clear to me that by the Talmud’s standards, I am a man rather than a woman-if “man” is defined as an independent, self-sufficient adult, whereas “woman” is dependent generally; living in either her father’s or her husband’s home.
הָאִישׁ קוֹדֵם לָאִשָּׁה לְהַחֲיוֹת וּלְהָשִׁיב אֲבֵדָה. וְהָאִשָּׁה קוֹדֶמֶת לָאִישׁ לִכְסוּת, וּלְהוֹצִיאָהּ מִבֵּית הַשֶּׁבִי. בִּזְמַן שֶׁשְּׁנֵיהֶם עוֹמְדִים לְקַלְקָלָה, הָאִישׁ קוֹדֵם לָאִשָּׁה:
The man precedes the woman when there is uncertainty with regard to which of them to rescue or to return a lost item to first. And the woman precedes the man with regard to which of them to provide with a garment first, because her humiliation is great, or to release from captivity first, due to the concern that she will be raped. When they are both subject to degradation, i.e., there is also concern that the man will be raped in captivity, the release of the man precedes the release of the woman.
האיש קודם לאשה וכו': כבר ידעת שהמצות כולם חייבין בהן הזכרים והנקבות בקצתם כמו שנתבאר בקידושין והוא מקודש ממנה ולפיכך קודם להחיות
As is known, men are responsible to fulfill all the commandments and women are responsible for some of them, as explained previously in Kiddushin. He is more holy and therefore takes precedence in life and death matters.
| Vered Noam, Beyond the Inner Mechitza “The traditional shul, with its ezrat nashim located on the balcony, says simply: women have no part in the religious act. They need to be as far away as possible from the focal points of kedushah. It is very important that their presence be hidden and denied by those who are engaged in Tefilah and Torah. One point that is not sufficiently stressed, in my opinion, is that the male space 'below' is an open communal one. The female space 'above' is narrow and circular, focusing its attendants not towards one another but rather towards the common focus of attention below. In other words, men are a tzibur, a community, among whom interaction takes place. Meantime, those above not only have no part in that which takes places below, they also have no connection among themselves, being merely a collection of individuals. Our shul openly declares that a woman has no community, not even a woman's community. Her avodat Hashem is solely an individual effort, nothing more. Her connection to any tzibur is only through her father or husband, members of the community in which she is a passive observer. This is an exact reflection of an ancient and long-lost social reality, a reality in which women had no foothold in the public arena or a partnership in something other than their private family... It goes without saying that this picture represents a growing dissonance, one almost impossible to contain, between the authentic world in which we live on the 'outside' and our religious space. The complete silencing and concealment of educated, creative, involved and leading women in the shul is so glaring that one need only briefly observe it from the outside to see just how absurd it all is. The norms of modesty which are observed in the shul are also completely foreign to our world. Your average religious male watches a movie every so often and will gladly attend a performance by Yehudit Ravitz. Does his sexual inclination really overwhelm him just by hearing a woman make the blessing of 'asher natan lanu Torat emet ve'hayei olam nata betocheinu'? Do a free man and woman who converse with mutual respect on the sidewalk suddenly become the proverbial fox and hen once they cross the shul's threshold?... The modern religious woman lives in two worlds. In one she has an area for intellectual development, a sense of belonging, recognition and expression. In the second, she is forced into the role of a woman from Roman Eretz Israel, Sassanid Persia or Medieval Ashkenaz. She is mute, receives only a partial Jewish education, deliberately filtered and naïve (the one-year programs in some Midrashot are far from correcting this state of affairs, see below) and her presence in the realms of kedushah is denied. In one world she earns all the power, encouragement, belonging and joy which a community provides. In the other she stands in splendid isolation... The responses to this article will no doubt include the 'slippery slope' argument. It is worth remembering that the dangers are no less great (in my opinion – far greater) in preferring the ostensibly safe option of stagnation. |
(א) ותקרבנה בנות צלפחד – כיון ששמעו בנות צלפחד שהארץ מתחלקת לשבטים ולא לנקבות, נתקבצו כולן זו על זו ליטול עצה. אמרו: לא כרחמי ב"ו רחמי המקום! ב"ו רחמיו על הזכרים יותר מן הנקבות, אבל מי שאמר והיה העולם אינו כן, אלא על הזכרים ועל הנקבות, רחמיו על הכל, שנאמר (תהלים קמה) טוב יהוה לכל ורחמיו על כל מעשיו:
(1) (Bamidbar 27:1) "And there drew near the daughters of Tzelofchad": When the daughters of Tzelofchad heard that the land was to be apportioned to the tribes and not to females, they gathered together to take counsel, saying: Not as the mercies of flesh and blood are the mercies of the L-rd. The mercies of flesh and blood are greater for males than for females. Not so the mercies of He who spoke and brought the world into being. His mercies are for males and females (equally). His mercies are for all! As it is written (Psalms 145:9) "The L-rd is good to all, and His mercies are upon all of His creations."
(ב) וידעת היום והשבות אל לבבך וגו'" ולהנתן לעבודתו - כמו שאמר "ולעבדו בכל לבבכם" ואמר "ועבדתם את יהוה אלוהיכם" ואמר "ואותו תעבודו" - והיה המנהג המפורסם בעולם כולו שהיו אז רגילים בו והעבודה הכוללת אשר גדלו עליה - להקריב מיני בעלי חיים בהיכלות ההם אשר היו מעמידים בהם הצלמים ולהשתחוות להם ולקטר לפניהם והעבודים והפרושים היו אז האנשים הנתונים לעבודת ההיכלות ההם העשויים לכוכבים (כמו שבארנו) - לא גזרה חכמתו ית' ותחבולתו המבוארת בכל בריאותיו שיצונו להניח מיני העבודות ההם כולם ולעזבם ולבטלם כי אז היה זה מה שלא יעלה בלב לקבלו כפי טבע האדם שהוא נוטה תמיד למורגל; (...) ומפני זה השאיר ית' מיני העבודות ההם
(2) (...) The Israelites were commanded to devote themselves to His service; comp. "and to serve him with all your heart" (ibid. 11:13); "and you shall serve the Lord your God" (Exod. 23:25); "and ye shall serve him" (Deut. 13:5). But the custom which was in those days general among all men, and the general mode of worship in which the Israelites were brought up, consisted in sacrificing animals in those temples which contained certain images, to bow down to those images, and to burn incense before them; religious and ascetic persons were in those days the persons that were devoted to the service in the temples erected to the stars, as has been explained by us. It was in accordance with the wisdom and plan of God, as displayed in the whole Creation, that He did not command us to give up and to discontinue all these manners of service; for to obey such a commandment it would have been contrary to the nature of man, who generally cleaves to that to which he is used; (...) For this reason, God allowed these kinds of service to continue; (Trans. Frieda Katz)
(ט) אֵין לוֹקְחִים מִן הָרוֹעִים צֶמֶר וְחָלָב וּגְדָיִים, וְלֹא מִשּׁוֹמְרֵי פֵרוֹת עֵצִים וּפֵרוֹת. אֲבָל לוֹקְחִין מִן הַנָּשִׁים כְּלֵי צֶמֶר בִּיהוּדָה, וּכְלֵי פִשְׁתָּן בַּגָּלִיל, וַעֲגָלִים בַּשָּׁרוֹן.
(9)One may not purchase wool, milk, and kids from the shepherds who tend the flocks of others, due to the concern that they have stolen these items from the owners of the flocks. And similarly, one may not purchase wood and produce from produce watchmen.But one may purchase from women woolen goods in Judea, and linen goods in the Galilee, and calves in the Sharon, as women in these locations often work with those commodities and it can be assumed that they are selling the items with the owner’s consent.
(ג) לוקחין מן הנשים כלי צמר ביהודה ואין לוקחין פירות יינות שמנים וסלתות לא מן הנשים לא מן העבדים ולא מן הקטנים.
One may buy wool items from women in Yehudah but not fruit, wine, oil or baskets - neither from women, nor salves, nor minors.
ראב"ן בבא קמא
אבל לוקחין מן הנשים כלי פשתן בגליל שהיה דרכן לעשות כלי פשתן בגליל ולמכור אינן גונבות מבעליהן. והאידנא שהנשים אפוטרופות של בעליהן לוקחין מהן כל דבר, אבל אין לוקחין מן העבדים ולא מן התינוק שודאי גונבין ומוכרין...
Ravan Bava Kamma, 12th c
Nowadays women are legal guardians of their husbands so one may buy anything from them, but we don't buy from slaves or children since they clearly steal and sell...
(ג) נָשִׁים וַעֲבָדִים וּקְטַנִּים פְּטוּרִין מִקְּרִיאַת שְׁמַע וּמִן הַתְּפִלִּין, וְחַיָּבִין בִּתְפִלָּה וּבִמְזוּזָה, וּבְבִרְכַּת הַמָּזוֹן:
(3)Women, slaves and minors are exempt from the recitation of Shema and from phylacteries, but are obligated in prayer, mezuza and Grace after Meals.
(ז) כָּל מִצְוֹת הַבֵּן עַל הָאָב, אֲנָשִׁים חַיָּבִין וְנָשִׁים פְּטוּרוֹת. וְכָל מִצְוֹת הָאָב עַל הַבֵּן, אֶחָד אֲנָשִׁים וְאֶחָד נָשִׁים חַיָּבִין. וְכָל מִצְוַת עֲשֵׂה שֶׁהַזְּמָן גְּרָמָהּ, אֲנָשִׁים חַיָּבִין וְנָשִׁים פְּטוּרוֹת. וְכָל מִצְוַת עֲשֵׂה שֶׁלֹּא הַזְּמָן גְּרָמָהּ, אֶחָד אֲנָשִׁים וְאֶחָד נָשִׁים חַיָּבִין.
With regard to all positive, time-bound mitzvot, i.e., those which must be performed at specific times, men are obligated to perform them and women are exempt. And with regard to all positive mitzvot that are not time bound, both men and women are obligated to perform them.
וְחַיָּיבִין בִּתְפִלָּה. דְּרַחֲמֵי נִינְהוּ. מַהוּ דְתֵימָא: הוֹאִיל וּכְתִיב בַּהּ ״עֶרֶב וָבֹקֶר וְצָהֳרַיִם״, כְּמִצְוַת עֲשֵׂה שֶׁהַזְּמַן גְּרָמָא דָּמֵי — קָמַשְׁמַע לַן.
We also learned in the mishna that women, slaves, and children are obligated in prayer. The Gemara explains that, although the mitzva of prayer is only in effect at particular times, which would lead to the conclusion that women are exempt, nevertheless, since prayer is supplication for mercy and women also require divine mercy, they are obligated. However, lest you say: Since regarding prayer it is written: “Evening and morning and afternoon I pray and cry aloud and He hears my voice” (Psalms 55:18), perhaps prayer should be considered a time-bound, positive mitzva and women would be exempt, the mishna teaches us that, fundamentally, the mitzva of prayer is not time-bound and, therefore, everyone is obligated.
(א) מִצְוַת עֲשֵׂה לְהִתְפַּלֵּל בְּכָל יוֹם שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (שמות כג כה) ״וַעֲבַדְתֶּם אֵת ה׳ אֱלֹהֵיכֶם״. מִפִּי הַשְּׁמוּעָה לָמְדוּ שֶׁעֲבוֹדָה זוֹ הִיא תְּפִלָּה שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (דברים יא יג) ״וּלְעָבְדוֹ בְּכָל לְבַבְכֶם״ אָמְרוּ חֲכָמִים אֵי זוֹ הִיא עֲבוֹדָה שֶׁבַּלֵּב זוֹ תְּפִלָּה. וְאֵין מִנְיַן הַתְּפִלּוֹת מִן הַתּוֹרָה. וְאֵין מִשְׁנֶה הַתְּפִלָּה הַזֹּאת מִן הַתּוֹרָה. וְאֵין לַתְּפִלָּה זְמַן קָבוּעַ מִן הַתּוֹרָה:
(ב) וּלְפִיכָךְ נָשִׁים וַעֲבָדִים חַיָּבִין בִּתְפִלָּה לְפִי שֶׁהִיא מִצְוַת עֲשֵׂה שֶׁלֹּא הַזְּמַן גְּרָמָא אֶלָּא חִיּוּב מִצְוָה זוֹ כָּךְ הוּא שֶׁיְּהֵא אָדָם מִתְחַנֵּן וּמִתְפַּלֵּל בְּכָל יוֹם וּמַגִּיד שִׁבְחוֹ שֶׁל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא וְאַחַר כָּךְ שׁוֹאֵל צְרָכָיו שֶׁהוּא צָרִיךְ לָהֶם בְּבַקָּשָׁה וּבִתְחִנָּה וְאַחַר כָּךְ נוֹתֵן שֶׁבַח וְהוֹדָיָה לַה׳ עַל הַטּוֹבָה שֶׁהִשְׁפִּיעַ לוֹ כָּל אֶחָד לְפִי כֹּחוֹ:
(1) It is a positive Torah commandment to pray every day, as [Exodus 23:25] states: "You shall serve God, your Lord." Tradition teaches us that this service is prayer, as [Deuteronomy 11:13] states: "And serve Him with all your heart" and our Sages said: Which is the service of the heart? This is prayer. The number of prayers is not prescribed in the Torah, nor does it prescribe a specific formula for prayer. Also, according to Torah law, there are no fixed times for prayers.
(2) Therefore, women and slaves are obligated to pray, since it is not a time-oriented commandment. Rather, this commandment obligates each person to offer supplication and prayer every day and utter praises of the Holy One, blessed be He; then petition for all his needs with requests and supplications; and finally, give praise and thanks to God for the goodness that He has bestowed upon him; each one according to his own ability.
הכי גרסינן תפלה דרחמי נינהו – ולא גרס פשיטא דהא לאו דאורייתא היא:
The text should read: "because they are for mercy"; not "That is obvious!" because [prayer] is not biblical.
נשים ועבדים אע"פ שפטורים מק"ש חייבים בתפלה מפני שהיא מ"ע שלא הזמן גרמא וקטנים שהגיעו לחינוך חייבים לחנכם:
Women and slaves, even though they are exempt from the Recitation of the Shema, are obligated in [the Amidah] prayer, because it is a positive mitzvah that is not limited by time. And children that have reached [the age] for education, we are obligated to educate them.
מצות עשה. כ"כ הרמב"ם דס"ל דתפלה מ"ע דאורייתא היא דכתיב ולעבדו בכל לבבכם וכו' אך מדאורייתא די בפעם אחד ביום ובכל נוסח שירצה ולכן נהגו רוב נשים שאין מתפללות בתמידות משום דאומרי' מיד בבוקר סמוך לנטילה איזה בקשה ומדאורייתא די בזה ואפשר שגם חכמים לא חייבום יותר והרמב"ן סובר תפלה דרבנן וכן דעת רוב הפוסקים ועיין בתוס' דברכות דף כ' ריש ע"ב ובסמ"ק כ' שמצו' להתפלל בעת צרה:
“A positive commandment” – So wrote the Rambam, who thinks that tefillah is a positive biblical commandment, as it is written, “and to serve God with all of your heart…” But biblically, it is sufficient to recite one prayer a day, in any formulation that one wishes. Therefore, most women have the practice of not praying regularly, because immediately after washing their hands in the morning they say some request, and this is biblically sufficient, and it is possible that the sages did not extend their obligation any further. But the Ramban thinks that tefillah is rabbinic, and this is the opinion of most decisors.
אבל דעת הרמב"ן... חייבו אותן בתפילת שחרית ומנחה כמו אנשים הואיל ותפלה היא בקשת רחמים. וכן עיקר כי כן דעת רוב הפוסקים... ע"כ יש להזהיר לנשים שיתפללו י"ח...
... but Ramban's view... [is that the sages] obligated them in Shacharit and Mincha just like men since prayer is a request for mercy. This is the essence of the matter, since it is the view of most authorities... Therefore one must impress upon women that they pray the Amidah...
בני ציון קו:א
ולי נראה ללמד זכות על רוב הנשים שאין מתפללות בתמידות דרוב הנשים מוטל עליהן להתעסק בכל צרכי הבית ובטיפול ילדים והכנת צרכיהם,שמטריד הלב ומבלבל הכונה,ובמצב זה אין להתפלל כמו שכתב הרמב"ם בפ"ד מצא דעתו משובשת ולבו טרוד אסור לו להתפלל עד שתתישב דעתו...ואע"ג שעכשיו אין אנו נזהרי'בזה מפני שאין אנו מכונים כ"כ בתפלה,לגבי טרדות הנשי'שאני...אבל אלו הנשי'שנמצאות במצב שיכולות להתפלל ודאי צריכות להתפלל כל הג'תפלות,כי מדינא נשים חייבות בכל התפלה אליבא דכו"ע .
Benei Tziyyon OH 106:1
And it seems to me that the way to justify the practice of those women who do not pray with regularity, is that most women are encumbered with dealing with the needs of the house and the care of children and preparation of their needs, which distracts the heart and disorients proper intention, and in such a state one should not pray, as the Rambam wrote in Chapter Four: “If one’s mind is disoriented and one’s heart distracted, it is forbidden to pray until the mind gets settled”...And even though nowadays we are not concerned with this , since we do not have such kavvanah in our tefillah [anyway], regarding this distraction of women [i.e. the raising of children] it is different... But those women who find themselves in a situation where they can pray certainly need to pray all three prayers, because on the basis of the law they are obligated in all of the prayers according to all authorities.
הרב יואל בן נון ,מתוך גרנות ג
רוב הנשים של ימינו בנות חורין הן...ואינן דומות לעבדים בשום פנים, שהרי אין רשות אחרים עליהן. לפיכך,כל מי שמצטט פסקי חכמים ,שהתבססו על כך ש "אישה דומה לעבד" בכל מקום, איננו מבין שהוא מעבירהלכה ממציאות אחת למציאות אחרת, בלי יסוד. "נשים שלנו", לא רק שכולן חשובות, כדברי הרמ"א ,אלא שהן "בנות חורין" ...פשוט לא מדובר באותו סוג של נשים.
R. Yoel Bin Nun, in Granot 3
Most women in our day are independent/liberated [benot horin]...and they bear no resemblance to slaves, because there is no higher power over them. Therefore, anyone who cites the ruling of the Sages, which are based on the notion that “a woman is similar to a slave” in all arenas, fails to understand that he is transferring a halakhah from one reality to another without any basis whatsoever. “Our women” are not only all important—as the Rema already said—but they are independent/liberated...it is obvious that we are not speaking about the same category of nashim (women).
The old women...consider themselves to be the spiritual guardians of their extended families... In the culture of Kurdish Jews...it is the daughters who bear the burden of the diurnal and emotional support of aged and sick parents. Daughters may accompany sick parents to the health clinic or hospital in order to serve as interpreters for the medical establishment. Daughters generally phone or visit their widowed mothers everyday, enquiring about medication, shopping and other physical needs. In cases where the mother has died leaving an elderly father alone, daughters will bring him food and clean his house and do his laundry. The spiritual role of caring for dead ancestors may be seen as an extension of the female day-to-day task of caring for aging parents...domestic religion has to do with the lives, suffering, and deaths of particular, usually well-loved individuals... ...I see continuity rather than fracture between domestic and non- or less-domestic religion...
"Obligation...refers to what binds us to others and the world..."
"Maternity, particularly in the contemporary West, compels acute attention to the fact of being planted in and responsive to a world. Maternity presents a primal experience of being subject to rather than master over.
Tied by knots of obligation and service to another person and to her world, the adult caregiver knows what it is to be tethered, materially and bodily..."
"Maternal obligation, in both its practical and existential dimensions, offers contemporary Western people's most substantive experience with the meaning of obligation. Raising a child demands an episodic and complex subjection of self that confronts notions of individual freedom..."
"In the rich repository of traditional Jewish legal and narrative texts, to be a Jewish self means to have entered a social world already encumbered with tasks, duties, and relationships. The mitzvot that devolve on the Jew constitute the outward expression of this more fundamental orientation."
Summary of the appendix on the "mitzvah" of public prayer:
Praying with the community is an important social responsibility in which members of the community should make every effort to engage. It is also a personal desideratum, insofar as it improves the acceptability of one's individual prayer. If one focuses on the latter of these two elements, then women, being obligated to pray, also share an obligation to pray communally (and thus, the view of R. Ariel). If we focus on the former element - the responsibility to help make a minyan - then the proper location for the full examination of this question is the exploration of the question of women's inclusion in the minyan in contemporary contexts. Even for those who argue, however, that women do not count and that they therefore lack the social responsibility or the personal obligation to pray in a minyan, there is no basis to claim that this in any way affects women's fitness to serve as Sha"tz. Such a claim requires making three points in concert, each of which is far from self-evident in the sources:
1) There is an individual obligation to pray with a minyan. This notion is challenged by many rishonim.
2) There is a gender gap to that individual obligation. This is counterintuitive given women's equal obligation in tefillah and is unsupported by any evidence in the rishonim. It is most intelligible as a corollary of women's exclusion from minyan, which would then relegate this discussion to a subunit of the conversation around gender and the quorum required for public prayer. Even given this, many Aharonim explicitly describe the obligations around public prayer as being gender blind.
3) The assumed gender gap plays a role in one's ability to serve as Sha"tz - a point that makes little sense, given that an individual obligation in public prayer seems to be about attending public prayer, not leading it, and which seems to have no reflection in any source prior to the contemporary period.
(לא)"לְמַעַן תִּהְיֶה תּוֹרַת יהוה בְּפִיךָ", לָמָּה נֶאֱמַר? לְפִי שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר "וְהָיָה לְךָ לְאוֹת", שׁוֹמֵעַ אֲנִי, אַף הַנָּשִׁים בְּמַשְׁמָע! וְהַדִּין נוֹתֵן: הוֹאִיל וּמְזוּזָה מִצְוַת 'עֲשֵׂה', וּתְפִלִּין מִצְוַת 'עֲשֵׂה', אִם לָמַדְתָּ עַל מְזוּזָה, שֶׁהִיא נוֹהֶגֶת בַּנָּשִׁים כְּבָאֲנָשִׁים, יָכֹל אַף תְּפִלִּין יִנְהֲגוּ בַנָּשִׁים כְּבָאֲנָשִׁים? תִּלְמֹד לוֹמַר "לְמַעַן תִּהְיֶה תּוֹרַת יהוה בְּפִיךָ". לֹא אָמַרְתִּי אֶלָּא בְמִי שֶׁהוּא בְתַלְמוּד תּוֹרָה. מִכָּן אָמָרוּ: (ברכות ג,ג) "הַכֹּל חַיָּבִין בַּתְּפִלִּין, חוּץ מִנָּשִׁים וַעֲבָדִים".
(לב) מִיכָל בַּת כּוּשִׁי הָיְתָה מַנַּחַת תְּפִלִּין. אִשְׁתּוֹ שֶׁלְּיוֹנָה הָיְתָה עוֹלָה לָרְגָלִים. טְבִי עַבְדּוֹ שֶׁלְּרַבָּן גַּמְלִיאֵל הָיָה מַנִּיחַ תְּפִלִּין.
(31) "so that the Torah of the L–rd be in your mouth": What is the intent of this? From "And it shall be to you as a sign," I would assume that women, too, are included (in the mitzvah of tefillin). And this would follow, viz.: Since both mezuzah and tefillin are positive commandments, then if we have learned that (the mitzvah of) mezuzah obtains with women as well as with men, the same is true of (the mitzvah of) tefillin. It is, therefore, written (in respect to tefillin) "so that the mitzvah of tefillin be in your mouth." (the mitzvah of tefillin obtains) only with one who is commanded to study Torah. From here they derived: All are commanded to put on tefillin except women and bondsmen.
(32) Michal the daughter of Kush would wear tefillin. Jonah's wife would go up (to Jerusalem) for the festival. Tavi, R. Gamliel's bondsman would wear tefillin.
אָמַר עוּלָּא: כָּל הַקּוֹרֵא קְרִיאַת שְׁמַע בְּלֹא תְּפִילִּין, כְּאִילּוּ מֵעִיד עֵדוּת שֶׁקֶר בְּעַצְמוֹ.
With regard to the recitation of Shema without phylacteries, Ulla said: Anyone who recites Shema without phylacteries, it is as if he has borne false testimony against himself, as in Shema, he mentions his obligation to don phylacteries and in this case fails to don them himself (Talmidei Rabbeinu Yona).