Women and Minyanim: An Halachic Discussion

Prayer is a central element of religious experience. Through prayer we connect directly to Hashem, thank Him, praise Him and pour out our souls. In Judaism, prayer is also an opportunity to come together as a community, and this can be seen in the role of the minyan, the quorum of ten men or more who come together to pray three times a day and at special occasions. 

Women do not count toward a minyan and even in the Orthodox world, the lack of participation in minyan has touched a sensitive spot. In this article, we will examine the halachic reasons that women are not included in minyanim and note some of the implications of this, being sensitive to various perspectives on the matter. 

What Is a Minyan?

A minyan is a quorum of ten men over the age of bar mitzvah, in the presence of which certain prayers and rituals, such as kaddish, Torah reading and barachu, can be recited. The basis for the necessity of a minyan in prayer comes from the verse in Tehillim that states “God stands in a Godly congregation (eida)”¹; ”The prayer of an eida, we are told, invites the shechina, and we also believe that communal prayer is more likely to be accepted². How the Sages derived we needed ten men seems to based on various sources in the Torah, that denote ten as being the minimum number to make up some sort of community, for example, when Avraham davens that the cities of Sodom and Gemorah be saved, he stops asking after even ten righteous men cannot be found³. The ten spies in the book of Bamidbar (excluding Calev and Yehoshua) are referred to as an eida⁴.

Why Women Don’t Count

While today there are movements even in the Orthodox world to seek ways to include women more actively in community and communal prayer, the halacha has always maintained that counting for a minyan is not a mitzvah that women can fulfil. 

There are a number of reasons that our Chachamim reached this conclusion⁵. They range in philosophy from our understanding of the earliest sources of minyanim, to practical halachic obligation, to societal roles. Here we will briefly look at some examples of each train of thought. 

Straight to the Source

The rabbanim in the Talmud concluded that a minyan for prayer and ritual should match those of the prototype – minyanim in the Torah. For example, the eida of the spies consisted of ten free (ie, not slaves) men. The Shulchan Aruch explains; “There is no assembly “eida” of fewer than ten, for it is said, “until when will this wicked assembly persist?” Subtract from them [the twelve spies] Yehoshua and Calev, and ten remain. This assembly must all be of free adult males who have grown two hairs [as a sign of maturation], just as the “assembly” that was spoken of there. But women and bondsmen and minors do not join.”⁶

While women may not count towards a minyan, their presence in a minyan does hold great spiritual and social value. The midrash related cases of women being granted reward for participating in communal prayers, and women, as do men, benefit from the increased Divine Presence and acceptance of prayer that comes with davening in a minyan. Laurie Novick says beautifully that “God is found in the synagogue regardless of who is there.”

The Raavan also bases his understanding on a similar idea- he mentions the 10 sons of Yaakov who went down to Egypt to buy food as one of the first ‘minyanim’.⁷ 

Obligation in Prayer and Communal Prayer

Women are not obligated in communal prayer, or in certain aspects of prayer such as the recitation of Shema, and therefore cannot fulfill the obligation of men, and so cannot count for the minyan⁸. Another idea is that women do not count for a minyan as traditionally any communal function of Jewish society was generally carried out by men. The source for this again goes to the Torah, where we are commanded in taking the public census, to count the male heads of each family.⁹

Cultural and Societal Roles

Another aspect of women’s exemption may derive from the fact that women are generally tasked with the role of home builder. Rav Melamed emphasizes this point in the reasons for women’s exemption from minyan. This role would make it very impractical for a woman to make it to minyan three times a day¹⁰.

What Does Count

While women may not count towards a minyan, their presence in a minyan does hold great spiritual and social value. The midrash related cases of women being granted reward for participating in communal prayers¹¹, and women, as do men, benefit from the increased Divine Presence and acceptance of prayer that comes with davening in a minyan. Laurie Novick says beautifully that “God is found in the synagogue regardless of who is there.”¹² Rav Melamed writes that a woman who is not responsible for children should make every effort to daven in a minyan, at least on Shabbat and Chagim¹³. 

Perspective

Many women will not be bothered that they don’t count for a minyan- they may even see the benefits of not having to wake up early for shul, or one small area of life where they are absolved of responsibility. Many other women, however, might be deeply offended that they ‘don’t count’. Perhaps before we examine the influence of perspective on how one might relate to this matter, the following point should be made: the fact that women do not count for a minyan means nothing about the spiritual value of women. Indeed, Rav Moshe Feinstein was known to attest that women are considered equally spiritual to men.¹⁴ Further, in all the halachic literature on this matter, we don’t see any indication that their not counting for a minyan has anything to do with spirituality. 

With this, there is no question that women not counting for a minyan poses a gender imbalance in this specific context; when a woman chooses to pray in a communal setting, she is dependent on men to make the minyan she wishes to pray with¹⁵. Sometimes we need to acknowledge what seems to be an unfair situation, and alongside it, we need to acknowledge that this is indeed the Halacha. This is an aspect of Torah life. In approaching this challenge, women can choose a perspective with which to view it that can help us best do our avodat Hashem. One example is that of Alexander Dunietz, quoted above- seeing where we actually can, even with our dependency, make a difference for other women within the setting of minyan. Another approach, is to focus on the unique role of women as Rav Melamed does- the responsibility for children takes greater precedence to praying in a minyan. Rabbi Breitowitz offers another interpretation for the exclusion of women, which may hold meaning for women grappling with this: he suggests that women are excluded as the minyan is a tikkun for the sin of spies. The bnot Yisrael were not involved in this sin and therefore do not need this obligation to serve Hashem and cannot mend a mistake they did not make. 

A level of perspective is also needed in the general community that should promote sensitivity toward women who do wish to daven in a minyan. Communities and their leaders can and should make an effort to include women in communal davening within the bounds of Halacha. 

A concluding thought: At the end of the day, whether we pray personally, without a minyan or communally, with one, the prayers of all of Am Yisrael are what count. How blessed are we to have this channel with Hashem, wherever and whenever, and with whomever. 

1. Tehilim 82:1 ↩︎
2. Berachot 8a ↩︎
3. Bereishit, 18; 23-32 ↩︎
4. Bamidbar 14;27 ↩︎
5.  For a more detailed halachic discussion see: https://www.etzion.org.il/en/halakha/studies-halakha/women-and-mitzvot/women-prayer-14-minyan and Rav Aryeh Frimer’s article: https://traditiononline.org/women-and-minyan/  ↩︎
6. Shulchan Aruch OC 55:1 ↩︎
7. Ra’avan Berachot 185  ↩︎
8. Beit Ha-bechira of Me’iri, Megilla 5a, Levush OC 55:4 ↩︎
9. Bamidbar 1:2-3 ↩︎
10. Pninei Halacha, Women’s Prayer, Chapter 20 ↩︎
11. Yalkut Shimoni, Ekev 871  ↩︎
12. https://www.deracheha.org/minyan/
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13. Pnenei Halacha, Women’s Prayer, Chapter 20  ↩︎
14. Responsa Iggerot Moshe, OC IV:49  ↩︎
15. https://www.etzion.org.il/en/halakha/studies-halakha/women-and-mitzvot/women-prayer-14-minyan
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