Birkat Hamazon - Zimmun

Zimmun

According to Halakha when a minimum of three men eat bread as part of a meal together they are obligated to form a mezuman (a "prepared gathering") with the addition of a few extra opening words whereby one man "invites" the others to join him in birkat hamazon. (This invitation is called a zimmun). When those present at the meal form a minyan (a quorum of ten adult Jewish men) there are further additions to the invitation. A Zimmun of 10 is called a Zimmun B'Shem.

Although the Talmud states that women are obligated to say birkat hamazon and that accordingly, three women can constitute a zimmun and lead it (Berachot 45b), later authorities, such as Maimonides and the Mishnah Berurah, held that women were exempt from leading a zimmun on grounds that women were not generally sufficiently educated to know how. A number of Modern Orthodox authorities have held that because of improvements in women's religious education women can now do so, and some say that they are now obligated to. Accordingly, women forming a zimmun and leading birkat hamazon has become increasingly common in Modern Orthodox circles. Such authorities disagree, however, on the appropriateness of women leading a zimmun in the presence of men (or of three men). A minority of Modern Orthodox authorities, citing earlier authorities including Meiri, Sefer HaMeorot and the Shiltei HaGibborim, also hold that 10 women can (or should) constitute a minyan for purposes of saying Zimmun B'Shem for birkat hamazon. Unlike in Conservative or Reform Judaism, even Orthodox authorities who hold that women can form a zimmun maintain that one cannot be formed from a combination of men and women.