Women and the 248 words in Shema

Question

The Shulchan Aruch (OC 61:3) brings from the Zohar that there are 245 words in the three paragraphs of the Shema that we say. Since there are 248 limbs in a person's body, the SA and the Rema provide various ways to "add" recitation of three words in order to reach 248. This is to "heal" all of the 248 limbs (see Mishnah Berurah ad. loc. s.k. 6).

I just discovered that there are 252 (or 253?) limbs in a woman's body. As such, is there no point in women following this halacha? For example, according to the Rema that one should add קל מלך נאמן before saying Shema, could women omit that? Should they? I'm looking for halachic and maybe even Kabbalistic sources which discuss this. I'm assuming that the fact that women are exempt from saying Shema doesn't necessarily imply that if they do end up saying it that they can ignore this halacha. But I could be wrong.

Answer 1

In his book Shorashe Minhag Ashkenaz (vol. 2 pg. 58), R. Hamburger brings that the Minhat Elazar was asked this question and he replied (ME vol. 2 §28) that since the idea is Zoharic it follows that the reasoning is too and suggests that the limbs to which the amount of words correspond pertain to the spiritual realm and therefore even a woman, whose physical limbs aren’t equal to a male, can still recite the supplementary Shema words.

R. Yitzchak Weiss of Vrbové also dealt with this query (Siach Yitzchak vol. 1 §29) but offers a more literal approach: The female shares the same essential 248 limbs as the male -indeed the female’s additional limbs do not generate impurity in an enclosed area- and therefore it’s “perhaps good for her to recite the words too” just as we find other examples of females doing/saying things that corresponds to the 248 limbs. (One notable example is the ‘Mi She’berach’ for an ill woman in which the accepted text remains “for all her 248 limbs”.)

Answer 2

I think the answer is far simpler than you assumed.

1. The Zohar does not say we recite Shmah because it has 245 words. The Gemmorah in Berochos discusses how much of Shmah should we read at all, only the first line, one-two or three paragraphs. Therefore reading Shmah is obligatory for both women and men with no connection to the number of words.

2. Shmah can be read in any language, and besides the first Passuk, it can be read even by omitting words, so again 245 is not obligatory.

3. The 3 additional words are not there anyway. So Shmah was not "designed" to reflect the body organs, it was the Achronim's idea.

4. The 248 limbs are not real, they are metaphorical. I've already asked a couple of question on that counting, the Mishnah in Ohalot only counts the bones, no muscles, no brains, eyes, and soft tissues etc. Therefore the claim that women have 252 bones is also simply wrong. Read the Gemorah where it arrives at the conclusion that women have more bones than men and you'll see the hoax.

See: different-counts-of-the-613-248-organs-bones-or-soft-tissues,
See: women-less-mitzvot-more-body-parts,
See: how-is-the-male-skeleton-different-from-female