Bais HaVaad on the Parsha, Parshas Vayishlach

Prayer Priorities

December 12, 2024

Excerpted and adapted from a shiur by HaRav Chaim Weg 

Rescue me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Eisav…

Bereishis 32:12

The Gemara (Brachos 26b) derives from “Vayifga bamakom” (Bereishis 28:11) that Yaakov instituted the daily tfilah of Ma’ariv. In this pasuk, Yaakov engages in tfilah be’eis tzarah (prayer in a time of distress) and asks Hashem to save him. These two forms of tfilah parallel the Rambam’s description of two mitzvos de’Oreisa of tfilah:

• Daily tfilah, which the Rambam derives from the pasuk of “Va’avadtem es Hashem Elokeichem” (Shmos 23:25)
• Crying out to Hashem in times of distress (mitzvah 59)

The Ramban (hasagah 5) argues with the Rambam and considers daily tfilah a mitzvah deRabanan, though he seems to agree that tfilah in times of distress is de’Oreisa.

The Shulchan Aruch (O.C. 106:2) rules that women are obligated in the mitzvah of tfilah (i.e., Shmoneh Esrei) because it is not a time-bound mitzvah. According to the Magein Avraham, this ruling follows the Rambam that daily tfilah is a mitzvah de’Oreisa but no specific time is Biblically mandated. The Magein Avraham therefore holds that women must only say a short tfilah with a bakashah (request) daily but are exempt from the mitzvah deRabanan of the full Shmoneh Esrei.

The Ramban would hold that Chazal instituted Shmoneh Esrei as a time-bound mitzvah (Shacharis in the morning, Mincha in the afternoon, and Ma’ariv at night), but women are obligated—despite usually being exempt from time-bound mitzvos asei—because they too require Hashem’s mercy (see Brachos 20b). The Mishnah Brurah in fact rules, based on the Ramban, that women are obligated to recite the full Shmoneh Esrei at Shacharis and Mincha. Nevertheless, the Chafetz Chaim is reported by his son (Sichos HeChafetz Chaim 1:27) to have told his wife she was exempt from Shacharis and Mincha while she was busy fulfilling the mitzvah of raising her young children.