The Roles of a Bat Yisrael

1:24Now, why are they not part of a minyan? Because women are not obligated to pray in a minyan. Men are obligated to pray three times a day, while women are obligated to pray once a day. They can choose whichever one they want. Why only one? Number one, as we said, women are naturally spiritual. They have less responsibility when it comes to that part of spirituality. The reason is that a woman in the Torah is called several names, one of them being Bayit. Bayit means house. Not because everyone's American and they're 500 pounds, but rather because a woman is responsible for the house. They're responsible for building homes. Kosher home, a holy home, to have righteous kids like this that come to a lecture at 11 o'clock at night. That's what you're responsible for. You're responsible for having your kids interested in Torah. You're responsible for making sure that when the husband comes home from a long day of work and a few hours of studying Torah, he has something to look forward to. You're responsible for the holiness of the home. But that also means that you have a full-time job.

2:44It's even more difficult than a construction company. It's even more difficult than the husband's job. Why? Because your job never ends. His job ends at some point. He wakes up at whatever time he wakes up. He goes to Beit Knesset, hopefully. He goes to work. He works from 9 to 5. Maybe if he has his own business, he finishes at 8 o'clock. He comes home at 8 o'clock. Hopefully, he learns Torah. If he doesn't learn, he's probably watching a basketball game or some other nonsense. He goes to sleep. And that's it. He's finished. Manual labor is over; a woman, on the other hand, especially in the early years when they have kids, her job never ends. It's never over. She has to feed the kid non-stop, change them, and also, most babies don't have a normal schedule. They wake up at one o'clock in the morning, at two o'clock in the morning, at 2:15, at 2:30, at 2:45, at 2:46, at 2:47, at 3:02—they don't stop waking up. And in most cases, the husband is still snoring. Not all the time—sometimes the husband contributes, like I tried to, once in a blue moon—but the point is that the wife is really responsible for this. Then, when the kid grows up, most husbands don't even know what grade their kids are in, because they're busy in their own world, trying to manage the stress of the working world.

4:10Kid tells me, "Hey, look, I have homework, Abba." He says, "Oh, go to Ima. Do me a favor with the homework." Most fathers are not involved; they don't know how to deal with that stuff. They're too busy or too tired. So, this is the responsibility of the mom. It's a non-stop job. How are you going to pray three times a day? How could Hashem put an obligation on you to pray three times a day and wear tefillin, and then go learn Torah for a few hours a day, and do all of these things on top of a 24-hour-a-day job? That's not a fair Torah. So Hashem says, no, she's not obligated to do these things. Why is this important? Because if there's a mitzvah that you're doing out of will but not obligation, it changes the level of the mitzvah. Meaning, if I'm obligated. To pray every day means that I can be a chazan and pray on your behalf. Because since I'm obligated for myself, I can also help fulfill your obligation.

5:11When you have a cantor, a chazan, and he says a blessing and you say amen, when you say amen, it's the same or even more as if you did the blessing. Why? Because just like the one that hears and responds, it is the same as the one that said it, or even more so according to some opinions. Nonetheless, the reason why you say amen to my blessing is because I'm also obligated to do the blessing. So since I'm obligated to take myself out of the responsibility, of the obligation of doing it, then I can also do it for you. But if I'm not obligated in this mitzvah, then I can't do it for you. Because I can't do the blessing unless I'm obligated. is because I'm also obligated to recite the blessing. Since I'm obligated to fulfill the responsibility of this obligation, I can also perform it on your behalf. However, if I am not obligated in this mitzvah, then I cannot recite it for you because I cannot perform the blessing unless I have the obligation. So, if I'm not obligated and I'm just doing it for someone else, that means at one point I'm actually violating one of the Ten Commandments by using Hashem's name in vain. This is because I'm saying His name without taking on the obligation myself. A woman is not obligated to pray three times a day. Therefore, she cannot be the chazan. Additionally, she cannot be part of a minyan because she is not obligated to be part of one. She is also not obligated to be a chazan or to pray at all.

6:31other than the one time that you can pick it any time that you want. Tefillin? Tefillin, they're not obligated to do. In past generations, some righteous women did it. For example, the wife of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness, Beruriah. Beruriah wanted to be and became one of the sages in the Torah that she dedicated her life to learning. to learning Torah. And she actually became even smarter than many of the sages, the male sages. And she laid tefillin. But Bruriah was an exceptional case. There are some other women in history that have done it also, but according to all major opinions in today's generation, the Gedolei HaDor, you're not really going to find Someone like Beruria in our generation, and usually the women that are laying tefillin in our generation, are doing it for vanity reasons. They're not doing it for Hashem. They're doing it for feminist reasons. They're doing it for the wrong reasons, in so many words. This is why you have hideous, horrendous, wicked groups like Women of the Wall that go to the Western Wall.

7:59in miniskirts and tank tops, wearing tefillin. You don't even know how to dress and you want to wear tefillin? You want an extra punishment? So, not only do you not know how to be modest, not only do you not know how to act like a human being, but on top of it, you want to put Hashem's name on top to show everyone? That's to provoke, right? Right. It's to provoke people. So, that's the reality of it. If a woman is already at such a high level, that's a pashut. Pashut. Chazak u'Baruch. Yes, yes. That's pashut. Chazak u'Baruch. If a woman is already excelling, like she's amazing at all of the mitzvot that she's responsible for; she's amazing at shalom bayit, amazing at modesty, amazing at prayer, and amazing at helping her husband in any way that she can with his Torah learning, his sanity, or anything that's necessary. She's already doing every mitzvah that she has and still somehow has spare time? And she wants to go put tefillin? By all means, she's allowed. But find me one woman like this.

9:13Until you know how to do your job at the best possible level, you're not allowed to take another job. Right, anywhere, in anything. If you go and you work for, I don't know, you work for UPS. They tell you, listen, we have two job openings. One is a manager, and one is, I don't know, a vice president. Okay, I'll take both of them. Let me take both of them. Pick one, because we like you and are giving you one of the jobs. They both pay the same, but you can't have both jobs. Why not? Because first, you have to finish one job. Then we'll start talking about another job. Let's see what you do with one job first. You can't have two jobs. So, that's what happens when someone creates their own laws. When someone is not really genuine, and they say that a pashut (simple person), like these Women of the Wall, like the Reform, like the Conservative, like all of these people that are just creating laws out of thin air with no foundation in Torah,

10:15That's why the Rambam has a specific saying for them, calling them "megaleh panim baTorah shelo k'halachah," which means one who interprets the Torah not according to halachah, because they are literally taking the Torah and treating it like a newspaper, where they can just edit whatever they want.