What a Woman should Daven

What are women required to daven everyday?

Answer:

The Talmud rules that women are obligated to daven each day. The degree to which women are obligated to daven, however, is a subject debated by poskim.

There are halachic authorities who exempt women from formal davening altogether, as long as they recite a simple supplication in the morning (Magen Avraham 106:1, citing Rambam). Other poskim, however, maintain that women are rabbinically obligated to daven twice a day (Shacharis and Minchah), just like men (Ramban).

Most poskim agree with the second view (see Mishnah Berurah 106:4), yet it has not been the common custom over the generations for women to daven twice a day (the Chafetz Chaim’s son reported that when the children were young, his mother rarely davened). Today, many single girls, and older women, are careful to daven regularly, and even busy mothers attempt to daven as often as they can.

Depending on how much time she has, a woman should certainly recite a simple supplication, which is the very least a woman must do according to all the poskim. Any supplication that opens with praise of G-d (shevach) and ends with thanksgiving for His benevolence (hoda’ah), such as Birkas ha-Torah, is sufficient. More ideal is to daven the Shemoneh Esrei prayer of Shacharis, and preferably even of Minchah. This is the minimum requirement according to many authorities, as mentioned above.

Beyond this, it is worthy to recite the following prayers, in the following order of importance, depending on the amount of time available: the Shema (first pasuk alone, and baruch shem); Birchos ha-Shachar (including Birchos ha-Torah); the blessing of Emes Veyatziv until Ga’al Yisrael (followed immediately by Shemoneh Esrei); Pesukei de-Zimrah (okay to recite only Baruch She’amar, Ashrei, Yishtabach); the entire Shema, the blessings of Yotzer Ohr and Ahavah rabbah. According to some Sephardic authorities, these last blessings should not be recited by women.

See, at length, Machazeh Eliyahu (Rav Pesach Eliyahu Falk of Gateshead), who writes at length on the obligation of women to daven.