I know we discussed this in The Torah Blog before but what can I tell you? It’s what the people want to know about!
“I am told that in Boston there is a group of young Orthodox students, all girls, who are highly concerned about their role in Judaism, and have decided to pray every morning while donning the tefillin. I have no objection to that, and would encourage them. There was a time that (according to Rema) such behavior was frowned upon as yuhara, or arrogance, but that was because it was an act of exhibitionism by an individual. However, the case is far different when a whole community of women has decided to accept such a mitzvah. More power to them! I wish that every man would join a minyan to lay tefillin.”
Thus said Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm in 1972, a comment that has gathered a lot of attention recently. Did he mean it? And if so, how does it affect the current debate? His son-in-law, Rabbi Mark Dratch, clarifies the issue in Rabbi Lamm on Women and Tefillin!