Women's Mitzvos -- Why are they time sensitive?

Hashem_Yaazor

Tue, Dec 28 2010, 10:49 am

My husband and I were discussing this the other night:

Why are 2 out of the 3 women's mitzvos time sensitive?

Hadlakas neiros -- has to be done by a certain time.
Nidda -- (onos, counting days) making bedikos at the right time (our discussion was inspired by the thread on here about forgetting to make a hefsek on time...my question was if a woman cannot stop taking care of her kids to do a bedika -- not hefsek -- which takes priority? He said she should let her kids cry, but ideally should aim throughout the whole hour before shkiah to find a few minutes to do it...I told him that it seems that winter time it's much harder when shkiah creeps up on you.)

I wanted to hear thoughts on this. I had never really realized how much of our mitzvos really our time sensitive.

He said reactions probably will be caused if you come in with the premise we know why women are patur from mitzvos asei she'hazman grama, or if you don't come in with that premise. I know I am going to have to rethink what I have always thought about this concept.

Hashem_Yaazor

Tue, Dec 28 2010, 11:26 am

How does that differ from other mitzvos which have a time range, not a specific time, that we're not chayav in?

Davening maariv for example. Most poskim hold women are not chayav in that, yet there is a whole night to do it.

shalhevet

Sat, Jan 15 2011, 1:40 pm

I think the answer is more technical.

We are exempt from time-bound mitzvos.

However, these are parts of a larger picture - bedikos, tevilla etc are not the actual mitzva, but the preparations we need to do to keep it. Nidda is really a prohibition - not coming close to a nidda. The only positive one is counting 7 days (which only takes a moment and you can do it while hanging the laundry... LOL

) even for those who hold you actually have to say it. The bedika is to technically check the day is "clean".

Lighting candles is part of Shabbos, which women are obligated in because they are obligated in the negative part prohibiting melacha.

But, I have to admit, that I have often thought how, considering we are exempt from time-bound mitzvos, SO much of our lives revolves around being somewhere or ready for something at a certain time (Shabbos, YT, Pesach, Purim, mikva, etc.) maybe more than men (who have a window to do most mitzvos like davenning).

imamama

Sat, Jan 15 2011, 2:06 pm

I'm actually learning about this right now with my chavrusa!

I can't answer your bedika question, because I had the same one, and have yet to get a good answer. But the basic rule is women ARE obligated in many time-bound mitzvot. Any time-bound positive commandment that is intertwined with a negative commandment (like Shabbos--shamor v'zachor), women are obligated in. Any mitzvah having to do with a holiday in which women were part of the nes (Pesach, Purim, Chanukah) women are obligated in.

So asking why women need to do bedikot but are not obligated to put on tefillin, when the time-frame to accomplish both those things is the same (daylight hours), doesn't really bother me, because we ARE obligated in a lot of time-bound mitzvot.

My question is why can a woman do some mitzvot she's not obligated in (like shaking lulav) without people thinking twice, but if she, say, wanted to lay tefillin, people would look at her funny.

Seraph

Sat, Jan 15 2011, 2:14 pm

I actually learned that part of the reason women are exempt from the time bound mitzvos is because we're so totally immersed in the time bound mitzvos that are the "women's mitzvos", especially nidda. Because our mind is constantly on the time status, time of the month, whether or not we're nidda, etc... we are exempt from the rest of the time bound mitzvos.

imaima

Sat, Jan 15 2011, 2:21 pm

imamama wrote:

I guess, everything nidda related is preparation to a mitzvah. I once heard a dvar tora where the speaker said that sitting in a sukkah is the only mitzvah that involves that whole body of a person. I asked, what about mikveh and was told that going to mikveh etc. is not a mitzvah.

hadasa

Sat, Jan 15 2011, 4:36 pm

The issue with Tefillin is that it's so hard to fulfill properly re. bodily cleanliness and distracting thoughts, that generally one who is not obligated to wear them should not take the chance of desecrating them.

Raisin

Sat, Jan 15 2011, 4:42 pm

hadasa wrote:

Don't we say, "vetzivanu al hatevilah"? Sounds like a Mitzva to me.

good point. So why was imaima told mikvah is not a mitzva?

Do we get a mitzva for kashering a chicken? or do we get a mitzva for eating chicken that has been kashered? or both.

imamama

Sat, Jan 15 2011, 4:42 pm

Quote:

And why is a woman any less likely to be clean or not distracted than a man? Specifically because we are not obligated to do it every day, if you choose to do it at some point you can make sure it's a quiet moment and you are clean.

A very learned man once told me he believes that every woman should put on tefillin at least once in her life. Why not do every mitzvah we can? Just because we are not obligated doesn't mean we are not allowed.

hadasa

Sat, Jan 15 2011, 5:07 pm

imamama wrote:

Quote:

Women who have gone through childbirth may have less control of their bodily functions... But that's beside the point. The point is that men are obligated, so they have no choice but to take the risk. Women are not obligated, so they shouldn't risk it. (I'm actually attracted to the idea of a once-in-a-lifetime experience.... must be the hidden feminist in me... )

PinkFridge

Sat, Jan 15 2011, 7:12 pm

There's no guarantee we can get through davening at home, for many of us, with out interruptions from kids or going the Reader's Digest route. I for one have no cheshek to go to shul, nor do I have a cheshek to wear tefillin even uninterrupted at home. I know that it's an achrayus any 13 y.o. pipsqueak boy gets to take on (though to be sure there is a lot of hadracha at home and at school, from what I've seen) but I'm taking a pass.
Any woman who does decide to don tefillin once in her life, as per the person quoted earlier, should only do so after serious prep and with similar hadracha.

hadasa

Sat, Jan 15 2011, 7:47 pm

PinkFridge wrote:

Don't worry, I would never do anything so radical, I just said the idea sounded attractive to me.

marina

Sat, Jan 15 2011, 7:55 pm

I think it is a good question. The one that always bothered me was megillah on purim. Women are obligated to listen to it, it can only be said within a certain time frame, and... if the baby cries everyone has to start from the beginning.

Hashem_Yaazor

Sat, Jan 15 2011, 8:13 pm

marina wrote:

Funny you mention this specific example.
I was at a shiur last year where the lecturer discussed in passing how women are exempt from mitzvos aseih she'hazman grama usually because of their lives being so busy. He said "think about how many arrangements you have to make for a women's reading -- have your husband home or a babysitter so you can get to a later reading, which just delays your day...and then imagine if you had to do it everyday for davening shacharis with a minyan."