[1] Psalms 119:18.
[2] Chana was the mother of the prophet/judge Samuel. Her story is told in the first two chapters of the book of Samuel. She was childless for many years and the bible describes her pilgrimage to the Temple where she poured out her anguished prayer inaudibly, with only her lips moving, and vowing to dedicate any son born to her to the Temple where he would dedicate his life to the service of God. She gives birth to Samuel and the Bible recounts her glorious prayer of thanksgiving.
[3] Kama hilchita gavrivata ika le-mishma mei-hanei kra’ei de-Chana, Masechet Brochot 31a.
[4] Yalkut Shemoni, I Shmuel.
[5] Ramban, Sefer HaMitzvot, Positive Commandment #5: Shulchan Aruch 98:3.
[6] R. Tzadok HaCohen, Tzidkat HaTzadik, Essay 211.
[7] Masechet Shabbat 10a.
[8] Zohar II 197a.
[9]R. Natan Steinholtz, Likutei Halachot, Orach Chaim, Rosh Chodesh, 5.
[10] Pirkei Avot 1:17, Ki lo ha-midrash hu ha-ikar ele ha-ma’ase.
[11] Talmud Yerushalmi, Rosh Hashanah 18a.
[12] Susan Handelman, ‘Women and the Study of Torah in the Thought of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’ in Micah Halpern and Chana Safrai (ed.), Jewish Legal Writings By Women (Urim Publications and Lambada Publishing Inc., 1998), 143-178.
[13] Masechet Megila 29a.
[14] Masechet Brachot 8a.
Studying Prayerfully
This essay was published in Bread and Fire: Jewish Women Find God in the Everyday, Rivkah Slonim (editor), (Urim Publications, Jerusalem), p. 75-79, and can be purchased at amazon.com and urimpublications.com
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