- Halacha
- Birkat Hagomel
- Torah and Jewish Thought
- Women's Mitzva Observance
992
Question
My wife just returned from Israel and I was told it not required or even advisable for her to say HaGomel (but it is obviously for me) and that it just isn’t done. The partial answer I was given was because the prayer is done in front of the Torah, she isn’t obligated (to time bound mitzvot) and I can’t say it on her behalf because no names are mentioned. I am troubled here and I am not trying to be a liberal-custom breaker, but rather why is it "not done" that she can express thanks to HaShem for protecting her life over a dangerous region as much as man in this special case?
I read your earlier answer regarding a woman saying it before ten men behind a Mechitzah. So why do some find that it shouldn’t be done at all?
Answer
There is a disagreement amongst the Poskim on this point. Some say that Husbands say HaGomel for their wives. However it is preferable that the woman says the Bracha herself. Rabbi Ya'akov Ariel Psak in the Hebrew Responsa says the same.
Rabbi Ro'i Margalit

Recovering from Psychiatric Illness
Rabbi Elchanan Lewis | 10 Tammuz 5765

Brachat HaGomel
Various Rabbis | Adar I 19, 5768

bracha: hagomel during trip to India
Rabbi Ari Shvat | Av 29, 5771

saying bircat hagomel for a young child
Rabbi Elchanan Lewis | Sivan 1, 5769

Older Kohen marriage to a Divorced Jewess.
Rabbi Ari Shvat | Sivan 15, 5785

Mourners
Rabbi Yoel Lieberman | Sivan 15, 5785

Convert who later comes to believe in pantheism
Rabbi Ari Shvat | Iyyar 29, 5785
