MARK WASHOFSKY
28. Sefer Hayashar, Heleq Hahidushim, ed. Schlesinger, ch. 537, pp. 319-320. See also Tosafot, Berakhot 14a, s.v. yamin; Tosafot, Ta'anit 28b, s.v. amar; R. Asher, Berakhot 2.5 ; Hidushei Ha-Ritba, Berakhot 14a.
29. See Rambam , Yad, Tzitzit 3.9; Hagahot Maimoniot, ad loc.,#40, in the name of Rashi ; Shibolei Haleget, ed. Buber , ch. 295, in the name of R. Isaiah of Trani.
30. Tur, Orah Hayim 17. But compare Orah Hayim 589, where he allows women to recite the benediction over the shofar and says that it is not a berakhah levatalah.
31. The exemption of the blind is quoted in the name of R. Yehudah in B. Baba Kama 87a. That the blind recite benedictions over voluntary acts is derived from B. Kiddushin 31a, where the blind Rav Yosef expresses joy over the fact that he performs mitzvot without being commanded to do so. R. Tam:"If he cannot recite berakhot, why is he so happy? Do we not learn that‘If one wishes to be a hasid, he should fulfill the requirements of berakhot?"(B. Baba Kama 30a). See the following Tosafot passages: B. Berakhot 14a, s.v. amar; B. Eruvin 96a, s.v. dilma; B. Rosh Hashanah 33a, s.v. ha; and R. Asher, Qiddushin 1.48-49.
32. The refutations: 1) blind males are obligated under rabbinic law to observe the commandments, while women are not so obligated; 2) both R. Yohanan and Resh Laqish(B. Berakhot 33a) read Ex. 20.7, as a Toraitic prohibition of the berakhah levatalah.
33. B. Qiddushin 31a(gadol ham’tzuveh v'oseh, etc.). R. Nissim Gerondi to Alfasi , Rosh Hashanah , fol., 9b; Mishnah Berurah, 17, note 4.
34. Tosafot, B. Berakhot 14a, s.v. amar.
35. See Magen Avraham, Orah Hayim 489, note 1, on women and the counting of the Omer. The question of the voluntary acceptance of obligations, forms a major part of the halakhic analysis of R. Joel Roth in S. Greenberg, ed., The Ordination of Women as Rabbis , New York , 1988, pp 127-187.
37. Sometimes, the mere existence of a minhag is seen as sufficient justification; see R. Asher, loc. cit.:"As we read in the Yerushalmi(Pe’ah 7.5):‘If the halakhah