Do women have to blow the shophar?

Question

Do women have to hear the blowing of a shophar? Can they recite a blessing over hearing the shophar?

Answer

Dear …!

Women are not obligated to hear the shophar, because blowing the shophar is a time-dependent positive commandment. But the custom is that women do hear the shophar.

What follows from this is that if a person who is blowing the shophar for women has already fulfilled his own obligation to hear it, he should not recite a blessing. But as far as the women who hear him are concerned, there are different customs. Ashkenazi women and some Sephardi women can recite a blessing over a time-dependent mitzvah, even though they are not obligated to fulfill it. In other Sephardic communities the custom is that women cannot recite a blessing over a mitzvah, which they are not obligated to fulfill.

 

Source

Shulchan Oruch, section Orach Chaim, ch. 589, §6

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