Counting Women: A Brief Chat with a Robot
…where the chat started:
“Classical sources generally limit the minyan, the quorum required for certain communal religious obligations, to men. The foundational source is the Talmud in Megillah 23b and Sanhedrin 74b, where the requirement for a minyan of ten for davar she-biqdusha (matters of sanctity) is derived. This derives from Leviticus 22:32, linking sanctifying God’s name (qiddush hashem) to the assembly of \”children of Israel,\” traditionally interpreted as male Israelites.”
…where the chat wound up:
“Yes, that’s correct. The distinction between the rabbim for qiddush hashem barabim (public sanctification of God’s name) and the quorum for devarim shebiqdusha (matters of sanctity) in terms of including women is largely an interpretive development that arose post-Talmudically.
The Talmud itself does not explicitly distinguish between men and women for qiddush hashem barabim. Rambam, among other later authorities, includes women in the count for qiddush hashem under the principle of universal obligation in situations of public martyrdom or communal sanctification of God’s name, without any Talmudic text directly mandating a gender distinction for this context.
In contrast, the exclusion of women from the minyan for devarim shebiqdusha—such as public prayer and Torah reading—was later codified based on Talmudic passages interpreted through traditional gender roles, though these interpretations were derived from the example of male participation in the biblical narratives rather than from an explicit Talmudic prohibition against including women. Thus, the gender-based exclusion for devarim shebiqdusha evolved as a post-Talmudic consensus.”
Read how I changed the robot’s mind:
https://chatgpt.com/share/672258f3-32c8-8007-9f24-f34eac4c8ece