Women Benching Gomel
January 27, 2009 This morning’s question came from Paris. The questioner observed that women throughout the Jewish world have the custom of “benching gomel” after giving birth and asked what the rule is for women to bench gomel after an airplane flight. Ostensibly, there should be no difference between the cases, so why don’t we see women bench gomel after a flight?
Before turning to the teshuva from Kollel Eretz Hemdah, Rabbi Kermaier noted that the issue of women benching gomel has been discussed for centuries. He added that a woman benched gomel at FAS just this past Shabbat, upon the naming of her newborn daughter. He noted, furthermore, that Sephardic poskim tend to be more supportive than their Ashkenazic counterparts of women benching gomel, though he does not view the discussion as a Sephardic-Ashkenazic dichotomy of the kind that exists when the Shulchan Aruch rules one way and the Rema another. The teshuva begins by observing that there is no fundamental halachic distinction between men and women for purposes of the obligation to bench gomel. Some, such as the Magen Avraham, have argued that benching gomel is not an obligation. If one accepts that view, it is easier to understand why women don’t bench gomel in the same circumstances that men do: when women adopted the custom to bench gomel, they did so only under limited circumstances. The majority of poskim, however, view benching gomel as an obligation rather than an optional activity. If so, the original question persists. The teshuva continues that in most communities women bench gomel only after childbirth. It seems that this is based on the notion, quoted from the Aruch Hashulchan, that the customary time to bench gomel is during Torah reading, so it appeared to women that they were not obligated to do so. Thus, only in the aftermath of childbirth, where it is often the custom for women to bench gomel at the brit milah or zeved habat and not necessarily in the synagogue, did they maintain the practice of benching gomel. Footnote 3 provides a further explication of the dispute. The Knesset Hagedolah was troubled by women’s not benching gomel and ruled that they should do so, from the women’s section, in the presence of a minyan. (In addition to a PDF file of today’s teshuva, attached is a PDF of the two relevant pages from the Knesset Hagedolah, as downloaded from this site.) The Birchei Yosef and Kaf Hachaim agreed, as did Rav Ovadiah Yosef in Yechave Da’at. The latter ruled that women should bench gomel in shul, when there is a minyan, but a woman who has given birth may bench gomel at home, when ten men are present, during the party following the child’s birth. The Kaf Hachaim and Ovadiah Yosef disagree with one aspect of the Knesset Hagedolah’s position. Whereas the Knesset Hagedolah would permit a woman to bench gomel in the presence of one or two men, or ten women, the Kaf Hachaim and Ovadiah Yosef require ten men. The reasoning of the Knesset Hagedolah is that a minyan is required for the recitation of a davar shebikedusha, such as Borchu, but benching gomel is not such a recitation. Rather, the idea is to bench gomel in a group context, in which case the presence of ten women would be as effective as that of ten men. Footnote 3 continues by observing that, notwithstanding this halachic authority in favor of women benching gomel, to the best of our knowledge, Sephardic women do not bench gomel other than after childbirth. For Ashkenazic women, the Mishna Berura says that the general practice is for them not to bench gomel, but he also cites the contrary position of the Knesset Hagedolah. Similarly, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach said that the custom in Jerusalem was to assemble ten relatives in the home of the woman who has given birth so that she may bench gomel, but women do not bench gomel in other circumstances, such as after being healed from an illness. Rabbi Kermaier concluded with the observation that there is longstanding halachic support and logic in favor of women benching gomel. He took the view that for women seeking ways to participate in religious life, benching gomel is an authentic way to express that wish, and he would encourage it.
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