Women's Issues: Women and Prayer: The Requirement of Women to Pray:
What is the basis for women being required to pray?
There aren't any explicit instances of women praying in the Torah, but in the Prophets (1 Samuel Ch.1) we find a detailed
account of Hannah's prayer for a child and her prayer of thanks; many of the laws of prayer are derived (in the Talmud:
Berachos 31) from this account.
Maimonides derives the commandment of prayer from Deut.11:13, "... and to serve Him with all your heart" -- the service of
the heart is prayer (Talmud Taanis 2a). Since this commandment is observed at non-fixed times, it applies to men and
women equally (Mishnah Berachos 3:3). The daily prayers are a Rabbinical ordinance; many women pray daily even though
the daily prayers are said at specific times.
Ask a follow-up question
