Commentary: On Sifre and Sifra

In this excerpt from his Hebrew and Aramaic commentary on the early rabbinic midrash on the book of Numbers, known as Sifre, Hillel ben Eliakim uses the rabbinic debate about whether women are obligated to place fringes (tzitzit) on four-cornered garments (Numbers 15:37–38) as a springboard for a much more involved discussion about the scope of women’s obligations. He reviews a series of talmudic discussions and seeks to bring order to the disparate passages. He thus broadens this discussion to cover the many exceptions to the rule that women are exempt from positive, time-bound commandments. Citing the Babylonian Talmud extensively, Hillel also uses his commentary as a vehicle to review and abbreviate the Talmud for his readers.