Women and Birkat haGomel



Unpublished Responsum



Kislev 5758



As you have read, the achronim discuss at length your question of

whether a woman can recite birkat hagomel in the presence of other

women. I will write what appears to me.



In Berachot 54b concerning birkat hagomel: "Abaye said, one must give

thanks before ten [men], as it is written (Psalm 107:32) 'They will

praise Him in an assemblage of people (k'hal am)' "

Although "ten" is in the masculine, men are not mentioned

explicitly. Gilyon haShas, however, cited Ketuvot 7b which discusses the

requirement to recite the marriage blessings in the presence of

ten. R. Nachman explained that its source is Ruth 4:20, "He assembled

ten men (asarah anashim) from the city's elders," while R. Abahu

derived it from Psalm 68:17, "Bless G-d in mak'heilot

(assemblages), haShem from the makor (source) of Israel."



R. Nachman's verse explicitly mentions men, while concerning R.

Abahu's verse, Rashi explained:



For a blessing on the makor, a kahal is needed; this refers to (Bamidbar

20:8) "Gather the congregation (hak'heil et ha'eidah)."

Hak'heil involves at least an eidah, and an eidah is ten, as we learn

from the eidah of the spies, (Bamidbar 14:27) "How long for this evil

eidah" excluding Caleb and Joshua.



This still does not explicitly mention men, but Ritva wrote:



Certainly, they have to be adult males, since it is written "ten

men" or from what is written "bimak'heilot," and kahal means

a minimum of ten adult males. Rambam z"l also wrote that adult

freemen are required.



In the same vein, Aruch haShulchan wrote in Orach Chayim 219:6:



Women are accustomed not to bless [birkat hagomel]. There is no reason

for this, only that because the custom [of men] is to bless [it] at the

time of the Torah reading, they imagine that women are not obligated in

this blessing. It is therefore proper that they should say this

blessing. Or perhaps because k'hal am is written and women are not

considered a kahal-- while to say the blessing before men is not the

modest way-- therefore they refrained from [doing] so.



Via bimak'heilot, then, we can learn from the word kahal in "They

will praise Him in an assemblage (k'hal) of people" that birkat

hagomel requires ten men and not women.



This needs to be examined, however. Does kahal signify only men? In

Kiddushin 73a and elsewhere the Sages said , "A kahal of proselytes

is not called a kahal," but nowhere is it explicit that a kahal of

women is not considered a kahal. In Devarim 23:3 " a mamzer may not

enter k'hal haShem" prohibits both a male mamzer from marrying a

legitimate female from k'hal haShem and a female mamzeret from

marrying a legitimate male from k'hal haShem.



You might counter that a kahal of men alone or a kahal of both men and

women is considered a kahal, but a kahal of women alone is not. If one

could imagine that only legitimate females remained alive but not

legitimate males, would they then be permitted to marry mamzerim because

women alone are not a kahal?



What can be argued more convincingly is that k'hal haShem is not the

same as simply kahal or k'hal am. But it can likewise be argued that

mak'hehilot is not the same as kahal. Rashi wrote that

"hak'heil involves at least an eidah"; his exposition is

specifically of the verb form hakheil which starts with a heh and means

"to assemble a kahal," and is the root of mak'heilot. In my

opinion this is Ritva's intention as well, and the above citation

from Ritva should be corrected to read, "hakheil means a minimum of

ten adult males," as Tosfot Rid quoted Bahag, [This is itself

questionable from Devarim 31:12, "Assemble the people (hak'hel et

ha'am), men, women and children"] It does not prove that both

kahal and hak'hel signify ten men.



Another difficulty is that while R. Abahu expounded bimak'heilot as

the source for requiring ten men for birkat chatanim, R. Nachman did

not. What was R. Nachman's basis for interpreting k'hal am

regarding birkat hagomel as requiring men only? There is no reason to

suppose that he disagreed with Abaye and did not require the presence of

ten for birkat hagomel at all.



In my opinion, the Scriptural basis for R. Nachman is clear from the one

other place in Tanach where k'hal am is mentioned, in Judges 20:2,

"They mustered an assemblage of the people of G-d (k'hal am

haElokim), four hundred thousand infantrymen with swords drawn." This

explicitly identifies k'hal am as being men.



In any case, there is no doubt that according to Halachah the ten whose

presence is required for birkat hagomel are men.. This is the meaning of

Midrash Tehillim: "R. Yehuda said, one must give thanks in [the

presence of] ten, in public (b'tzibur)," that is to say, the ten

are males thirteen years and older who constitute a tzibur for prayer.



*



There are three customs among women regarding birkat hagomel. Some do

not recite the blessing at all. The achronim questioned this, and Magen

Avraham in 219 wrote that the women rely on the opinion that these

blessings are voluntary, i.e., Ravad's opinion that all the blessings

of praise listed in the last chapter of Berachot are voluntary; see

Machatzit haShekel and Pri Megadim, Eishel Avraham..



In my opinion it is more likely that only birkat hagomel is voluntary

for women, and that this is according to the other rishonim as well.

Psalm 107, the source for birkat hagomel, does not mention women. The

rationale to exempt women from birkat hagomel is that the blessing must

be made before ten men. It was not considered modest for a woman to go

and find them because of "kal kevudah bat melech pnimah," and

since she normally did not have access to ten men within her household,

the Sages exempted her of the obligation to say the blessing

altogether. Even according to the view that bidi'eved ten men are not

required for birkat hagomel, they are at least they are required

lechat'chilah, and the Sages did not want to obligate women in a way

that would make bidi'eved into lechat'chilah. This somewhat

resembles Resp. Avnei Neizer, Orach Chayim, no. 39, which I cited in

Bnei Banim, vol. 2, no. 16.



The key argument seems to me that there is no mention in the rishonim of

women reciting birkat hagomel. The first to raise the question was

Knesset haGedolah in 5418 (1658) and the other achronim followed. I

wonder why it was obvious to them that women are obligated in birkat

hagomel, something not stated in the Talmud and rishonim. If women were

obligated it would have been a frequent occurrence, and someone would

have had to clarify the issue of women reciting it before men.  And

although other blessings of praise are also recorded without reference

to women and nevertheless women are obligated to recite them, in the

case of those blessings there is no rationale for exempting women, as

opposed to birkat hagomel.



The second custom, common among women today, is to recite birkat hagomel

only following childbirth, when the woman gathers ten men or recites it

from the women's gallery the synagogue or even momentarily enters the

men's section see Resp. Yechaveh Da'at, vol. 4, no.15. This is

certainly difficult to understand. Why recite it after childbirth and

not after other dangers that according to Halachah equally necessitate

birkat hagomel, such as severe illness or air or sea travel?



However, if birkat hagomel for women is intrinsically voluntary, there

is room for this custom. Perhaps because pregnancy and the change in

appearance of a woman resulting from childbirth are such visible

phenomena, it was considered especially important to give public thanks.



In addition, it seems to me that when women recite birkat hagomel they

are also fulfilling R. Abahu's midrash "Bless G-d in

mak'heilot, haShem from the makor of Israel." The Gemara in

Ketuvot 7 b explained that makor refers to matters of procreation. The

most salient manifestation of a man's involvement in procreation is

his taking a wife, and therefore the Sages instituted birkat

chatanim. For women, on the other hand, the most salient manifestation

of procreation is childbirth, and therefore when women recite birkat

hagomel after childbirth they fulfill not only Psalm 107:22, "They

will praise Him in k'hal am," but also Psalm 68:17, "Bless

G-d from the makor of Israel."



For support for this proposal, note that in Psalm 68 the preceding verse

refers to both men and women, while there is no explicit mention of

women in Psalm 107. Psalm 68 also entails a more binding obligation to

praise G-d than does 107, in that the first employs the imperative

barchu while the second uses only the future/past descriptive

veyismechu - yoru -  veyeromemuhu. This fits in with the Halachah

that ten men are indispensable for birkat chatanim and if they were not

present the blessings have to be repeated in full, see Otzar Haposkim

62:4:18:3, while if birkat hagomel was recited without ten men present

it is repeated without shem and malchut.



The third custom is for women to recite birkat hagomel after all

dangers, just as men do. This was Knesset haGedolah's opinion and it

was endorsed by Birkei Yosef and Kaf haChayim, and many achronim wrote

that this is the preferable custom. However, few women do so, because of

the difficulty in gathering ten men each time.



Here your question comes in, whether women can recite birkat hagomel

with shem and malchut before other women. There is a disagreement as to

whether birkat hagomel recited without the presence of ten men is

valid. According to Raeh, Tur, and sefer Ohel Moed, birkat hagomel

without ten men present is valid bedi'eved, and it is likely that the

circumstances of women who find it difficult or immodest to assemble ten

men can be considered bedi'eved. However, according to R. Yonah,

R. Yerucham, and Meiri, birkat hagomel without ten men present is

invalid even bedi'eved. Since the rishonim disagree, the blessing

should not be recited, following the principle safek berachot kehakeil.



Accordingly, no proof can be brought from Knesset haGedolah who wrote

that a woman should recite birkat hagomel "before a man, or before

other women," for he held that bedi'eved the blessing is valid

without ten men. But since we rule that the issue is a safek, the

blessing should not be recited, as Kaf haChayim wrote in paragraph 3.



That notwithstanding, see Sdei Chemed, Aseifat Dinim, Ma'arecht

Berachot 2:12 in the name of Petach haDvir, who cited several arguments

why birkat hagomel should be recited even in the case of a safek, and

rejected them on the grounds that they are all under dispute and,

therefore, shev v'al ta'aseh adif. However, in 1:18:3 he brought

an additional argument that when a blessing is itself the mitzvah, such

as the blessing on the new moon, and the person is clearly obligated to

recite it and the safek is only whether in his particular circumstances

the blessing is valid - in such a case he recites the blessing. Sdei

Chemed did not cite anyone who disagreed with this, and birkat hagomel

is also such a case. Accordingly, Knesset haGedolah's ruling is

correct in spite of the disagreement among the rishonim. Since in his

view women are clearly obligated in birkat hagomel and the disagreement

is only about the validity of the blessing made without the presence of

ten men, women may recite it nonetheless.



You may further object that this applies only according to Knesset

haGedolah, who holds that women are definitely obligated in birkat

hagomel. But Mishnah Beruruah and other achronim cite his opinion only

as a possibility and not as conclusive Halachah, not to mention what I

have suggested about women's birkat hagomel being wholly voluntary.

Therefore, women would still be at risk of making a blessing in vain if

they recite birkat hagomel without the presence of ten men.



This is not so, however. Ten men are required only when there is an

obligation to say birkat hagomel, but not when it is voluntary. See the

Gemara in Berachot:



R. Yehuda took ill and was recuperating. R. Chanan Bagta'ah and other

rabbis came to visit him. They said to him, "Blessed be [He] who

returned you to us and not to dust." He replied, "You have freed

me from [the obligation] to give thanks."



The Gemara proceeded to ask how R. Yehuda was able to fulfill his

obligation to give thanks through a blessing made without the presence

of ten men. It did not ask how R. Chanan and the others were permitted

to recite the blessing without ten in the first place. R. Yonah

explained, "it appears that they can say it even without [the

presence of] ten, even though the person who was sick does not fulfill

his obligation thereby." See Bnei Banim, vol. 2, no. 15, where I

argued that the prohibition of altering the language of birkat hagomel

similarly applies only to one obligated to recite it, and not to one

reciting it voluntarily.



This same R. Yonah is the bearer of the view that birkat hagomel

requires ten men even bedi'eved. The results are the same no matter

from what direction one approaches the question: according to Tur, ten

men are only required lechat'chilah, while according to R. Yonah who

requires ten even bedi'eved, this applies only to those obligated to

recite birkat hagomel but not to women who recite it voluntarily. And if

birkat hagomel is obligatory for women, it is likely that safek berachot

lehakeil does not apply when the blessing is itself the mitzvah.



Therefore, women who wish to recite birkat hagomel in the presence of

other women after illness or air travel etc. have sufficient grounds to

do so, in my opinion. However, following childbirth they should continue

to recite it in the synagogue in places where this is the custom.