My wife's report on her conversation with one of my daughter's teachers re: her davening at home so she can eat breakfast afterwards reminded me: has anyone else noticed R' Yonah's statement in Iggeres haTshuvah (#79) that a women should be careful to daven "
erev va'voker v'tzaharayim", i.e. three times a day? I was under the impression that most contemporary poskim hold that women do not have to daven ma'ariv because
tefilas arvis reshus and they never accepted it as a chiyuv, but this R' Yonah would indicate otherwise.
I believe that many say that they don't have to daven if they are otherwise occupied, but it's not a complete exemption.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth:
ReplyDeleteThe paragraph "ata chonantanu" is recited not specifically at maariv, but rather in the first prayer after shabbat ends. A well-known contemporary rabbi was once asked by a woman whether, if she did not daven maariv, she should therefore say "ata chonantanu" at shacharit the next day. The rabbi answered that any woman knowledgeable to ask that question should be davening maariv...