Should All Barbies Wear Tefillin?
I often get asked “Do you think women should wear tefillin?” Let’s contextualise. Do I think all women should wear tefillin? No. For starters, I certainly don’t think non-Jewish women should be required to wear tefillin. All Jewish women? No. Tefillin are traditionally a men’s thing; there are plenty of communities where gender roles are still rigidly defined and those communities are quite happy that way. Expecting these women to wear tefillin would be an alien cultural imposition. It would be like saying that Europeans should observe Thanksgiving – absolutely, ridiculously, acontextual. All Jewish women in communities where gender roles are not so rigidly defined? Likewise no. There are plenty of egalitarian communities where the language of “should” is inappropriate. Any community which does not define itself as bound by the halakhic system will view the wearing of tefillin as optional. Expecting women or men in these communities to wear tefillin is akin to saying that Americans sho
