My Own Theory

In the spirit of that kind of explanation and with due respect to the warnings to use traditional sources for interpretation, I’d like to offer what I call the populist explanation, ie. one that that seems to emerge naturally in people’s minds when considering this subject without prompting by apologists. And I’ll note that I’m clearly labeling this explanation as such. The explanation is this: men have a masculine spirituality and women have a feminine spirituality. There’s nothing radical about that idea. Think of the qualities that we generally associate with each gender. Women tend to be more social. I know men who could sit at a table with people for two hours and not say a peep. I don’t know any women like that. I have gone on business trips with men and barely exchanged a word. In attempting to engage them, I have felt that I was causing them pain. With female colleagues it’s the opposite, not engaging them in conversation seems to cause them pain.  Women tend to be more preoccupied with relationships. They also tend to be more nurturing. Appropriately, women are uniquely assigned and/or focus on a slew of mitzvos that go along with these leanings -– mitzvos such of taking care of children, being helpmates, doing chesed, and lighting candles on Friday night to foster and symbolize peace in the home. Women are more concerned with their appearances and interested in their bodies. Women will sit and talk about clothing and myriad subjects connected with their bodies for hours. Men hardly ever do this. I’m not just talking about traditional women but women from all circles. Hence, they have the mitzvos of niddah and tznius. Women tend to enjoy cooking. I’m referring even to the women I knew in graduate school for economics, one of whom used to frequently cook fancy dinners for her classmates. Hence, they have the mitzvah of preparing meals for the family and taking Challah. Men like to go outdoors and they like to build things. Look at their mitzvos, many of which involve simply getting out of the house to attend minyan or to sit in a succah. Men like to build their succos -– not so most women. I have seen single moms hire men to build their succos for them.  Men are more inclined to logical thinking -– hence the mitzvah of Torah study, the bulk of which involves the study of law. Likewise tefillin, which sit on the head and the biceps, symbolize the channelling of mind and muscle for avodah. I’m not talking about IQ and SAT scores, but rather the way people go about their lives. One sees these traits even in children. These seem like mere cliches, but they have a lot of truth to them, even half a century into the feminist movement. Male spirituality is more super-charged, more aggressive, more high flying. For this reason, it can be harder to get off the ground, but when it goes it really soars. As I proposed earlier, the extra mitzvahs may function to contain and channel the spiritual energy. Female spirituality is more intuitive, more hidden, more automatic, and more stable. The mitzvos for women fit with that. We need both types of people. They need each other. Neither has to catch up to other. Rather, they operate in separate realms and we should do our best to keep it that way rather than mixing it all up by ranking them as if they are of the same type. They are different: “Male and female, He Created them.”

But all of that is just conjecture. Ultimately, the exemption of women from positive time-bound commandments is a Chok, a decree of the verses. God alone knows the true reasons.