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From Parsha to Halakha – Shemini: “To separate between the sanctified and mundane”

Adar 2 5784 | April 2024

In Parshat Shemini the kohanim (priests) learn that they are not only responsible for “approaching the sanctified,” but were also designated “to separate between the sanctified and the mundane, and between the ritually impure and pure; and to teach the Children of Israel all the statutes that the Eternal told them through Moshe.”[1]

The priests must know how to separate and differentiate one state from another, and teach these differences to others. Therefore, they must be cautious about drinking wine and alcohol. As opposed to Nadav and Avihu’s blatant disregard of boundaries, God emphasizes that kohanim are specifically tasked with understanding, teaching, and imposing these separations.

This begins a series of chapters where the Torah teaches both the kohanim and us to differentiate between ritually pure and impure foods and physical states so that we can approach sanctity.[2] We are able to differentiate between such matters because we were created in the image of God, who did not only create the world but separated between light and darkness, between the upper waters and the lower waters, and between day and night. Such separations are one of the basic elements of creation.

Havdala after Shabbat

Shabbat is the cessation, or perhaps culmination, of creation: “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because then He rested from all His work that God created to do.”[3] We are commanded to follow suit and sanctify Shabbat: “Remember the day of Shabbat to sanctify it.”[4]

The mishna in Berakhot discusses the order of the havdala blessings over the wine, fire, aromatics, and the actual havdala (differentiation/separation).[5] The source of the havdala blessing, as well as that over the candle, is not entirely clear. In the gemara in Pesachim havdala is mentioned in connection with kiddush on Shabbat, and it’s unclear whether Shabbat is sanctified by kiddush at night and during the day, or by kiddush at night when it begins and havdala when it ends.[6] This results in another dispute about the source of the mitzvah of havdala – is it an independent mitzvah or an aspect of the mitzvah to sanctify Shabbat?

This dispute bears directly on the question of a woman’s obligation to make havdala. Even though kiddush on Shabbat is a positive time-bound commandment, and women are generally exempt from these types of commandments, the gemara states that women are obligated to make kiddush on Shabbat, because the positive mitzvah has a corresponding prohibition.[7] Since all Jews, women included, are prohibited from performing work on Shabbat, women are also obligated to perform all the positive mitzvot of Shabbat.[8]

If havdala is another aspect of the mitzvah of kiddush, as Rambam explains, then women are also obligated.[9] But as Orchot Chaim brings in the name of Rabbi Shimon of Sens, if it is an independent mitzvah, then it is a positive time bound mitzvah and women may be exempt. Rema states that based on this opinion women do not make havdala for themselves; they should hear it from a man.[10]

Can a woman make her own havdala?

Even if women are exempt from havdala or their obligation is different than that of a man, it’s unclear why a woman should not make it for herself, just like women may blast the shofar on their own behalf, as well as that of other women – even though she does not have a Torah obligation. The general rule is that anyone who is obligated can discharge another’s obligation.[11] On the other hand, someone who is exempt can generally act on behalf of others with the same exemption.

Therefore, Rema’s ruling is curious, and most halakhic authorities either reinterpret or reject it outright. Bach explains that Rema rules women are exempt because havdala is a rabbinic mitzvah that only men are required to perform, which is why it’s preferable for men to make havdala; nevertheless, he explains there’s no prohibition against women making havdala for themselves and other women.[12]

The notion that Rema would rule that women should not make havdala for themselves is even stranger when one considers that Rema represents an Ashkenazic tradition that permits women to make the blessing, “who sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us…” when voluntarily fulfilling positive time bound commandments they are not “commanded” to perform.

Why would havdala be different?

Some explain that Rema allows women to make this blessing on voluntary mitzvah performance when they perform another act of a mitzvah, but not if the blessing itself is the mitzvah, as with havdala.[13] Still others try to find reasons why women are specifically not supposed to make havdala.[14]

I would like to offer another possibility, which I am not aware of others mentioning, but I think could explain this difficulty. A discussion similar to that of havdala appears with reading megillah; there is a minority opinion that women are obligated to hear megillah but not to read it, and therefore a woman reading cannot even discharge her own obligation.[15]

According to the opinion of Rabbi Shimon of Sens, the basis of Rema’s ruling, havdala is a rabbinic commandment, like megillah. The opinions teach that the rabbis did not include women in their enactment of these mitzvot. It’s possible that these opinions reserve these mitzvot for men  because of their similarity to the role of the kohanim “to separate” (havdala) and “to teach” (megillah). Israel is also called “a kingdom of kohanim,” and it’s possible that these opinions think this description applies specifically to the men of Israel. After all, the men of Israel have other similarities with kohanim, as an example rules about how they can trim their hair and the similarities between tzitzit and tefillin and the tzitz of the Kohen Gadol (High Priest).[16]

It’s possible that these opinions reflect a rabbinic approach that differentiates the realm of sanctity into those who give service and those who receive it. Even though a kohen does not have to slaughter the offering, from that point on every aspect of the altar service must be performed by the kohen – who is a man.

Additionally this may explain the approach that teaching Torah is another job of the kohen and, thus, also an exclusively male role.[17] There are other mitzvot that halakhic authorities consider to be divided between speakers or teachers and listeners; in these roles men are the ones who teach and separate, women only listen.[18]

Regarding both megillah and havdala most halakhic authorities do not relegate women to a passive role. It’s clear that women also play an important role in these disciplines. Both the Written and Oral Torahs contain multiple examples of women who are responsible for separating between sanctity and mundanity – when they light Shabbat candles and separate terumot and ma’asrot – and separating between ritual purity and impurity – such as the ritual impurity of food they prepare and the laws of niddah.

Interestingly, according to Tosafot, women are the source of the rule that every individual Jew can be relied upon to determine what is permissible and prohibited, “one witness is reliable in prohibitions.” Tosafot explain that this rule is based in the laws of niddah, where the Torah states that a woman determines for herself when she is ritually pure or impure – “she counts for herself.”[19]

[1] Vayikra 10:1-10

[2] According to Rambam, the distinction between ritual impurity and purity is necessary to transition from the physical to the sanctified.

[3] Bereishit 2:3

[4] Shemot 20:8

[5] Mishna Berakhot 8:5-6

[6] TB Pesachim 106a

[7] The mitzvah “Remember (zakhor) the day of Shabbat to sanctify it” (Shemot 20:8) is a positive time- bound commandment, and women are generally exempt from these mitzvot. One exception is that women are obligated if the positive time-bound commandment has a corresponding prohibition, in this case “Observe the day of Shabbat (rest) to to sanctify it.” (Devarim 5:12) Similarly, eating matzah on the Seder night is a positive time bound mitzvah, but since there’s a corresponding prohibition against eating chametz, women are considered obligated.

[8] TB Shavuot 20b

[9] Rambam Sefer Hamitzvot 155; Hilkhot Berakhot 20:2; Hilkhot Shabbat 29:1; Sefer HaChinuch Mitzvah 31.

[10] Orchot Chaim Vol. I, Hilkhot Havdala 18; Beit Yosef OC 296; Rema OC 296:8.

[11] Mishna Rosh HaShana 3:8

[12] Bach OC 229:1

[13] Magen Avraham 296:11; Mishna Berura ibid 35.

[14] Magen Avraham (ibid and OC 426) also brings the possibility that women don’t say Birkat Levana because they caused the moon to be diminished, and connects this to the reason they don’t say havdala. Mishna Berura adds that women don’t make havdala because of the custom that they don’t drink the havdala wine (ibid).

[15] See Rashi on TB Shabbat 23a; Rambam Hilkhot Megillah and Chanukah 1:1 for example, as opposed to Behag Hilkhot Megillah 19; Bach on Megillah 4a.

[16] Mishna Kiddushin 1:7; compared Vayikra 19:27-28 to 21:1-5.

[17] TB Kiddushin 29b; Shavuot 18b: “Rabbi Chiyya bar Abba said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: Anyone who makes havdala on wine after Shabbat will have male children, as it says: ‘To separate between the sanctified and the mundane,’ and there it says, ‘to separate between the ritually impure and pure’ adjacent to ‘a women who has [a baby boy]…’”

See Kovetz Shiurim Beitza 12, cited in the Tosafist Rashba cited at the end of Igeret HaRamah.

[18] Compare with TB Chagiga 3b: “What do we derive from this? ‘Gather the people, the men, women, and children,’ if the men come to learn the women come to hear.”

[19] TB Gittin 2b “ed echad ne’eman b’issurin”

Rabbanit Dr. Adina Sternberg

was in the first cohort of the Matan Kitvuni Fellowship program and her book is in the publication process. She has a B.A. in Bible from Hebrew University and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Talmud from Bar Ilan University. Adina studied in Midreshet Lindenbaum, Migdal Oz, Havruta and the Advanced Talmud Institute in Matan. She currently teaches Bible and Talmud at Matan, and at Efrata and Orot colleges. Adina lives in Adam (Geva Binyamin) with her family.