Surrounded by the Mitzvot: Gender and Daily Ritual in Tosefta Berakhot

t. Berakhot 6:9–10, 18, 24–25

70–300

9. One who performs any of the commandments must recite a benediction over them. One who makes a sukkah for himself says, “Praised [are You, O Lord . . . ] who has brought us to this occasion.” 

[One who] enters to dwell in it says, “Praised [are You, O Lord . . . ] who has sanctified us through His commandments and commanded us to dwell in the sukk…

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Tosefta Berakhot 6 portrays Jewish life as immersed in mitzvot—divine commandments and their blessings. Rabbi Meir teaches that each person fulfills “one hundred commandments” daily through prayers, rituals, and blessings. These acts form a web of sanctity around a man’s body: tefillin on the arm and head, tzitzit on garments, a mezuzah on the doorpost, and circumcision. Judaism emerges not as abstract belief but as embodied routine. Yet this routine reflects gendered norms: Rabbi Judah’s blessing thanking God for not making him a woman ties full ritual life to male identity. These texts reveal both the accessibility and the limits of rabbinic piety.