For the source text click/tap here: Sukkah 28
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Our Daf deals with the traditional exemption of women from the obligation of sukkah.
בַּסֻּכֹּת תֵּשְׁבוּ, שִׁבְעַת יָמִים; כָּל-הָאֶזְרָח, בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל, יֵשְׁבוּ, בַּסֻּכֹּת.
The exclusion of women is derived from the letter “heh” , the word “the,” that precedes the word הָאֶזְרָח “homeborn” in Leviticus 23:42.
Had the word just been אֶזְרָח “homeborn”, women would have been included (so the sugya says), but the extra "heh" comes to exclude them.
The problem with “the homeborn” excluding women from being obligated for the sukkah is that the same word is used in the context of Yom Kippur in Leviticus 16:29, וְכָל-מְלָאכָה לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ--הָאֶזְרָח, וְהַגֵּר הַגָּר בְּתוֹכְכֶם. and the rabbis use the word to include women in the Yom Kippur obligation.
So which is it—does “the homeborn” include women (as in the case of Yom Kippur) or does it exclude women (as in the case of Sukkah)?
In general, men and women are equally obligated in positive non-time-bound commandments. These include loving our fellow person, returning a lost object, giving tzedaka, affixing a mezuza, and many other essential elements of Jewish observance.
Overall, the mishna has divided mitzvot into four major categories (positive time-bound, positive non-time-bound, negative time-bound, and negative non-time-bound). Women are generally obligated in three out of four.
In fact, out of the 613 Torah-level mitzvot, there seem to be only eight instances where women are exempted specifically from positive time-bound mitzvot: reciting Shema, donning tzitzit, laying tefillin on the head and on the hand, hearing shofar, taking lulav, dwelling in the sukka, and counting the omer. This is not a long list!
Why does the exemption from this single category loom large? and why so controversial?
We explore... from the traditional arguments and apologetics to orthodox feminist and academic readings in order to attempt to respect the perosnal autonomy of moderns yet bow to our halachic traditions.