I am taking what I expect to be a one post break from Shemoneh Esrei because I saw something related to kavvanah in tomorrow’s Arukh haShulchan Yomi.

In Orach Chaim 186:1, the Arukh haShulchan discusses whether in Birkhas haMazon women should say “וְעַל בְּרִיתְ֒ךָ שֶׁחָתַֽמְתָּ בִּבְשָׂרֵֽנוּ וְעַל תּוֹרָתְ֒ךָ שֶׁלִּמַּדְתָּֽנוּ – for Your covenant which You sealed in our flesh; for Your Torah which You taught us;” The question is that the Beris isn’t sealed with a milah on their flesh, nor are they obligated to learn Torah.* And indeed the Rambam would have them skip it.

In that se’if he endorses the opinion that while a man who doesn’t include both Beris and Torah must repeat this berakhah, a woman who omits it does not.

But what’s the legitimacy of women saying it at all?

Here’s the actual Tefillah Meaning:

The Jewish People are subject to two covenants with Hashem: Beris Avos, and Beris Sinai. That is what this line is referring to — the Beris seals in our flesh is Beris Avos, and the Torah is part of Beris Sinai. While women aren’t obligated in either Milah or Torah study, they are members of both covenants.

אֵלֶּה֩ דִבְרֵ֨י הַבְּרִ֜ית אֲֽשֶׁר־צִוָּ֧ה ה’ אֶת־מֹשֶׁ֗ה לִכְרֹ֛ת אֶת־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל בְּאֶ֣רֶץ מֹואָ֑ב מִלְּבַ֣ד הַבְּרִ֔ית אֲשֶׁר־כָּרַ֥ת אִתָּ֖ם בְּחֹרֵֽב׃

These are the terms of the covenant that Hashem commanded Moshe to ratify with Bnei Yisroel in the land of Moav, beside the covenant that he had made with them at Choreiv.

– Devarim 28:69

We entered two different covenants during the Exodus — one at Mount Sinai, when we started getting the Torah in terms of the ideas, and one in Arvos Moav, when Hashem finished dictating the Torah, Moshe Rabbeinu ended his teaching and prepared us to live as a nation before entering our land.

So I adapted the Arukh haShulchan’s thought (which he says was hinted at by the Perishah) to include the third covenant:

• וְעַל בְּרִיתְ֒ךָ שֶׁחָתַֽמְתָּ בִּבְשָׂרֵֽנוּ – for Your covenant which You sealed in our flesh – thank you for the covenant made with Avraham, the one symbolized by Milah. This covenant gave us the goals to live for, as Avraham is our paragon Chessed, of “just as He is Gracious and Compassionate, so to you should be gracious and compassionate.”
• וְעַל תּוֹרָתְ֒ךָ שֶׁלִּמַּדְתָּֽנוּ – for Your Torah which You taught us – thank You for the covenant You made at Sinai, when You gave us the contents of the Torah, which gives us the means to both pursue that ideal and to make ourselves the kind of people who can succeed.
• וְעַל חֻקֶּֽיךָ שֶׁהוֹדַעְתָּֽנוּ – and for the statutes of which You informed us – and thank You for the covenant made in Arvos Moav, turning us into an entire community who work together on Sinai’s path to Beris Avos’s goals.

(* Women are only obligated to study whatever Torah is necessary to be an observant Jew. This category that has been growing as secular study has, since secularly educated women started leaving observance due to a lack of comparable background in Torah to inspire them.)