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<div>
[tabby title="In Brief"]
<div class="brief">
<p class="intro-text">Women have always learned Torah, notwithstanding our exemption from the mitzvah to learn it. Current discussions about what parts of Torah women should learn, and how, are rooted in centuries of halachic debate.</p>
<i>Talmud Torah</i>, formal and informal, deepens faith, lays the groundwork for proper mitzvah observance, shapes our consciousness and brings us close to God.

The midrash reads the word "<i>beneichem</i>" in <i>Devarim</i> 11:19 as "your sons", to the exclusion of daughters, meaning that a parent has no Torah-level obligation to teach daughters Torah. The Talmud concludes that, since a female need not be taught Torah, she is not obligated to teach or learn it.

In the Mishnah, Ben Azzai says a father has a rabbinic-level obligation to teach his daughter. Rabbi Eliezer disagrees. He likens a father teaching his daughter to <i>tiflut</i> (lewdness, or nonsense).

Halachic authorities agree that Rabbi Eliezer never meant to exclude women from Torah study for the purpose of learning practical halachah. The debate was how we should learn halachah, through imitation or through text study.

Rambam rules like Rabbi Eliezer, that a father is not supposed to teach his daughter Torah, but Rambam limits the restriction to Oral Torah. That leaves room for women to learn written Torah. Rambam's choice of language may indicate that there is no clear prohibition even on women learning Oral Torah.

Rambam also maintains that women have the capacity to pursue Torah study properly, and must do so to reach the highest levels of serving God. Furthermore, his discouragement of a father teaching his daughter Torah may not apply to a woman learning on her own. Independent study is praiseworthy.

In the early twentieth century, Sara Schenirer founded the Bais Yaakov network of girls' schools as a response to women's disconnect with religious life. Schenirer received support for her movement from Hafetz Hayyim. He argued that historical shifts away from traditional communities and toward textual transmission of Jewish tradition mean that learning through imitation is no longer sufficient. Women must turn to texts to learn Torah. Secular education unaccompanied by engagement in Torah is a route to <i>tiflut</i>.

Following Rambam, there is a strong halachic consensus in favor of women learning written Torah. Additionally, most halachic authorities permit women to learn rabbinic texts that build faith and character as well as halachic summary texts.

There is still debate about women’s study of Oral Torah, though many important halachic authorities permit and even encourage it. The more study contributes to understanding of faith, Jewish ethics, and halachah, the more clearly it is permissible.

The more we learn, the more effectively we can affect and transform ourselves and our communities to come close to God.

</div>
[tabby title="In Depth"]
<h2><span id="Background: Learning Torah">Background: Learning Torah</span></h2>
<div class="hashkafa_question">

[expand title="Should we be doing this?" tag="h2"]
<div class="hashkafa_text">

This, what we do here on this site, learning Torah, directly from sources, including the Talmud and halachic codes.

For many women, this question does not register. Torah study holds little appeal or interest. For some, the very question is an insult. After all, men do not have to entertain questions about the propriety or importance of their Torah learning.

One reason for the ubiquity of questions about the appropriateness of source-based halachah study for women, is that our communities exhibit ambivalence towards women's learning.

Deep uncertainty about women's learning appears in many guises: The father who learns every Shabbat with his sons, but not with his daughters. The school that teaches Mishnah to boys and not to girls. The family friends who give the bar mitzvah religious books and the bat mitzvah jewelry. The parents who send their sons to learn in Israel, but keep their daughters close to home. The dating prospect who won't go out with a 'girl who learns.' The Rabbi who says certain seminaries are off limits because of their curricula. Communal initiatives for women to devote time to acts of loving-kindness (or to less lofty pursuits), but not to study. The couples who make great efforts so that the husband can learn daily, while the wife finds no time to learn Torah herself. The local <i>batei midrash</i> (houses of study) that women never enter and often do not seek to enter.

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> משלי פרק ג:יח</span></span>

עֵץ חַיִּים הִיא לַמַּחֲזִיקִים בָּהּ וְתֹמְכֶיהָ מְאֻשָּׁר

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Mishlei 3:18" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">It is a tree of life to those who grasp it and its supporters are happy:</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="hashkafa_text">

While it's clear that Torah is "a tree of life," it is less clear what role learning plays in a woman's "holding fast to it."

Can we grasp Torah without studying it? Do resistance, ambivalence, or indifference to women's Torah learning have halachic roots? Is the recent growth of frameworks for women's study rooted in halachah as well? In this article, we trace community ambivalence to Torah study to its halachic roots.

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[/expand]

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<div class="body">

The Talmud teaches that there are many facets to Torah.<a href="#n1"><sup><span id="_n1">1</span></sup></a> The word "Torah" itself has a wide range of meanings. Torah can refer to an all-encompassing Divine blueprint for creation, to the word of God, to the entirety of Jewish teachings and knowledge, or to any piece thereof. More narrowly, Torah can denote the five books of <i>humash</i> or a scroll containing them. Since the word "Torah" can mean so many different things, it follows that <i>talmud Torah</i>, literally 'Torah study', eludes simple definition.

Formal study, as in a class or in direct engagement with texts, is but one form of Torah study. In a broad sense, deliberate observation of a community's or an individual's pious practice can constitute a form of Torah study as well. Elevated thoughts about the nature of God and His creation can alert us to God's wisdom. Engagement with Torah is not limited to formal study.
<div class="notes">
<h2></h2>
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Since it is so central, Torah study appears in several Torah verses, each of which reveals some of its facets. For example, the command of <i>hakhel</i> enjoins us to assemble once every seven years to listen to the king read select portions of the Torah. Through <i>hakhel</i>, the community can develop awe of God and learn to keep the Torah:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> דברים לא:יב</span></span>

הַקְהֵל אֶת-הָעָם הָאֲנָשִׁים וְהַנָּשִׁים וְהַטַּף וְגֵרְךָ אֲשֶׁר בִּשְׁעָרֶיךָ לְמַעַן יִשְׁמְעוּ וּלְמַעַן יִלְמְדוּ וְיָרְאוּ אֶת-ה' אֱלֹהֵיכֶם וְשָׁמְרוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת אֶת-כָּל-דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Devarim 31:12" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">Assemble the people: the men, the women, and the children, and your stranger who is in your gates, that they should hear and that they should learn, and they will fear the Lord your God, and they will observe [them] to perform all the words of this teaching [Torah].</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

In <i>hakhel</i>, hearing and learning lay the foundation for awe of God. Study shapes the community and the individual, mitzvah observance and faith.

Beyond <i>hakhel</i> the Torah highlights the individual's responsibility to study in order to perform <i>mitzvot</i>:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> דברים ה:א</span></span>

ַיּויִקְרָא מֹשֶׁה אֶל-כָּל-יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת-הַחֻקִּים וְאֶת-הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי דֹּבֵר בְּאָזְנֵיכֶם הַיּוֹם וּלְמַדְתֶּם אֹתָם וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם לַעֲשֹׂתָם

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Devarim 5:1" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And Moshe called to all of Israel and said to them, 'Hear Israel the ordinances and the laws that I speak in your ears today, and learn them and observe [them] to perform them':</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

Moshe Rabbeinu charges all of Israel to hear, learn, keep and perform his teachings. Our identity as a people hinges on our collective commitment to Torah. A simple reading of this verse indicates that Torah study is a prerequisite to observance: "learn them and observe [them] to perform them." Observance depends on study.

The importance of Torah study, though, does not rest solely on having immediate practical application.<a href="#n2"><sup><span id="_n2">2</span></sup></a>Torah study is also an end in itself. The word choice of the first passage of <i>Shema</i> (Devarim 6:4-9), relates to Torah study's intrinsic significance. It tells us to repeat and speak about God's oneness, His dominion, and our love for Him at regular intervals and in a range of settings:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> דברים ו:ז</span></span>

וְשִׁנַּנְתָּם לְבָנֶיךָ וְדִבַּרְתָּ בָּם בְּשִׁבְתְּךָ בְּבֵיתֶךָ וּבְלֶכְתְּךָ בַדֶּרֶךְ וּבְשָׁכְבְּךָ וּבְקוּמֶךָ

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Devarim 6:7" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And you shall repeat them [<i>veshinantam</i>] to your children and you shall speak of them [<i>vedibarta bam</i>], in your sitting in your home and in your going on the road and in your lying down and in your arising:</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

Use of the verb <i>veshinantam</i>, "and you shall repeat them," suggests a sharpening of knowledge that goes beyond standard learning. According to the Sifri, midrash halachah on Devarim, <i>veshinantam</i> presents an imperative to know Torah with complete fluency.<a href="#n3"><sup><span id="_n3">3</span></sup></a> Less than complete fluency might be enough to fulfill Torah's instrumental purpose of enabling awe of God and proper mitzvah performance. The emphasis in this verse on an ongoing honing of Torah knowledge demonstrates that Torah study at a high level has inherent value, even after we know how to perform a given mitzvah.

The activity of <i>talmud Torah</i> includes teaching Torah as well as learning it. Our sages understand the phrase "<i>veshinantam levanecha</i>," "and you shall repeat them to your children," as applying to students.<a href="#n4"><sup><span id="_n4">4</span></sup></a> Although priority in teaching goes to one's own children,<a href="#n5"><sup><span id="_n5">5</span></sup></a> students are spiritual children. Teaching prepares students and children for a lifetime of faith and <i>mitzvot</i>. It extends the transmission of Torah begun at Sinai.<a href="#n6"><sup><span id="_n6">6</span></sup></a>

<i>Vedibarta bam</i> "and you shall speak of them", teaches us that <i>talmud Torah</i> has primacy over other matters. The individual should focus on Torah so that Torah pervades conversation and consciousness.<a href="#n7"><sup><span id="_n7">7</span></sup></a> Along these lines, God tells Joshua to keep Torah in mind day and night,

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> יהושע א:ח</span></span>

והגית בו יומם ולילה

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Yehoshua 1:8" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And you shall ponder it day and night.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

The Talmud extrapolates from this verse that Torah study should at minimum frame each day, beginning and end, so that Torah shapes lived experience.<a href="#n8"><sup><span id="_n8">8</span></sup></a>

At heart, in all its manifestations, <i>talmud Torah</i> is a way to serve God, akin to prayer.<a href="#n9"><sup><span id="_n9">9</span></sup></a> The Ba'al HaTanya eloquently describes the experience of serving God through study:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> תניא ליקוטי אמרים פרק ה</span></span>

כשאדם מבין ומשיג את ההלכה במשנה ובגמרא לאשורה, על בוריה, הרי שכלו תופש ומקיף אותה וגם שכלו מלובש באותה שעה. התורה נמצאת בשכלו, והוא נמצא בתורה...הרי זה משיג בשכלו ותופש רצונו וחכמתו של הקב"ה.

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Tanya Likutei Amarim, Ch. 5" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">When a person understands and attains a halachah in the Mishnah and in the Talmud to its correct [nature], to its fundamentals, his mind grasps and surrounds it and his mind, too, becomes clothed at that time. The Torah is found in his intellect, and he is found in the Torah…behold this one reaches [it] with his intellect and grasps the will and wisdom of the Holy One Blessed Be He.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

In Torah learning, an individual experiences God both by immersing the self in Divine will and wisdom and by internalizing it.

Ideally, our lives become an expression of Torah. One of the practices of mourning for a Torah scholar exemplifies this idea. In mourning for a burnt Torah scroll, we rend a garment. We rend a garment in mourning for a Torah scholar, just as we rend a garment in mourning for a burnt Torah scroll. He or she has lived Torah fully, and is therefore like a Torah scroll.<a href="#n10"><sup><span id="_n10">10</span></sup></a>

</div>
<b class="summaryTitle">SUMMARY: </b><span class="summary"><i>Talmud Torah</i> (learning Torah) encompasses formal and informal study. It serves many goals: to fulfill the formal mitzvah to learn and teach Torah, to deepen faith, to lay the groundwork for proper mitzvah observance, to study for its own sake, to shape our consciousness and, in so doing, to serve and come close to God. </span>
<h2><span id="The Mitzvah of Talmud Torah">The Mitzvah of <i>Talmud Torah</i></span></h2>
<div class="hashkafa_question">

[expand title="Why do you learn Torah?" tag="h2"]
<div class="hashkafa_text">

Women learn Torah in many different ways, for many different reasons. What are yours? How would you describe your connection to Torah and what you seek in learning it? How does your relationship to <i>talmud Torah</i> compare to your relationship to other <i>mitzvot</i>?LINK TO FORUM

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[/expand]

</div>
<div class="body">

One element of the broader concept of <i>talmud Torah</i> is the formal mitzvah to teach and learn Torah. Here are its basic parameters.

From childhood, one must be taught the skills to read and understand the simple meaning of <i>Torah shebichtav</i> (scripture).<a href="#n11"><sup><span id="_n11">11</span></sup></a> From there, the Rambam describes a progression in keeping the mitzvah, moving from mastery of <i>Torah shebichtav</i> (Written Torah), to mastery of <i>Torah shebe'al peh</i> (Oral Torah, i.e. rabbinic literature), to more developed and metaphysical Torah thinking.<a href="#n12"><sup><span id="_n12">12</span></sup></a> Since the Babylonian Talmud incorporates scriptural passages and Oral Torah about them, Talmud study plays a central role in fulfilling the mitzvah of <i>talmud Torah</i>.<a href="#n13"><sup><span id="_n13">13</span></sup></a> However, exclusive Talmud study to the neglect of basic halachic knowledge does not fulfill the obligation of <i>talmud Torah</i>.<a href="#n14"><sup><span id="_n14">14</span></sup></a>

At absolute minimum, one can fulfill the mitzvah in a few moments a day.<a href="#n15"><sup><span id="_n15">15</span></sup></a> Better, one can fulfill the command by learning some scripture, Mishnah, and Talmud each morning (and night), as is customary following the daily morning blessings on the Torah.LINK

While minimum fulfillment of the mitzvah of <i>talmud Torah</i> is well defined, maximal fulfillment is not. Optimally, <i>talmud Torah</i> should take up as much time and energy as a person can give it. Some authorities rule that failure to keep Torah in mind constantly, to transmit it, violates a Biblical command to remember the revelation at Sinai.<a href="#n16"><sup><span id="_n16">16</span></sup></a>

</div>
<b class="summaryTitle">SUMMARY: </b><span class="summary">The formal mitzvah to teach and learn Torah begins with initiating children into Written Torah and extends to building halachic knowledge and studying Talmud. At minimum, the mitzvah entails studying a few passages of Written and Oral Torah each day. At maximum, it is all-encompassing. </span>
<h2><span id="Women's Exemption">Women's Exemption</span></h2>
<div class="body">

We derive women's exemption from the formal mitzvah of <i>talmud Torah</i> from a Torah verse. This one comes from the second paragraph of <i>Shema</i>, <i>vehaya im shamo'a</i>, and is one of the many verses that assert an obligation of learning and teaching Torah:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> דברים יא:יט</span></span>

וְלִמַּדְתֶּם אֹתָם אֶת-בְּנֵיכֶם, לְדַבֵּר בָּם, בְּשִׁבְתְּךָ בְּבֵיתֶךָ וּבְלֶכְתְּךָ בַדֶּרֶךְ, וּבְשָׁכְבְּךָ וּבְקוּמֶךָ

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Devarim 11:19" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And you will teach them [to] your children [<i>beneichem</i>] to speak of them, in your sitting in your home and in your going on the way and in your lying down and in your arising:</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

We have translated the word "<i>beneichem</i>" here as "your children." Another legitimate translation of "<i>beneichem</i>" is "your sons." The Sifri, midrash halachah to Devarim, disambiguates the verse in line with the latter explanation:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> ספרי מו</span></span>

: ולמדתם אתם את בניכם ולאו בנותיכם

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Sifri 46" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">"And you will teach them [to] your sons [<i>beneichem</i>]"-- and not to your daughters.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

The obligation of teaching Torah is one of a set of obligations a parent has to a child. The Sifri reads "<i>beneichem</i>" as "your sons" and states that the obligation to teach Torah applies to teaching boys, not girls. The Talmud quotes this midrashic passage in the course of its discussion of the formal obligation of <i>talmud Torah</i>. The Talmud quotes the midrash above to establish that a parent is not obligated to teach a daughter. The Talmud then asks about a woman learning for herself, and reaches the conclusion that she too is exempt:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> מס' קידושין כט:</span></span>

ואיהי, מנלן דלא מיחייבה למילף נפשה? דכתיב ולימדתם, "ולמדתם". כל שאחרים מצווין ללמדו, מצווה ללמד את עצמו. וכל שאין אחרים מצווין ללמדו אין מצווה ללמד את עצמו

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" T. Kiddushin 29b" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And she, whence [do we know] that she is not obligated to learn herself? As it is written "and you will teach" [in deficient spelling, looking like] and you will learn. Anyone that others are commanded to teach him, is commanded to learn himself. And anyone that others are not commanded to teach him, is not commanded to learn himself.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

In our verse, the word as we vocalize it is "<i>velimadtem</i>", and you will teach. Since the spelling is deficient, it could also read differently as "<i>velamadtem</i>", and you will learn. The deficient spelling that allows for this additional vocalization teaches that learning and teaching go hand in hand. The Talmud asserts that, since the mitzvah of <i>talmud Torah</i> does not obligate a daughter to be taught, the mitzvah does not obligate women to learn ourselves or to teach our children.

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<div class="hashkafa_question">

[expand title="Is this compelling reason to exempt women from the mitzvah?" tag="h2"]
<div class="hashkafa_text">

Hebrew grammar treats a noun referring to a mixed-gender group as a masculine plural, so that the word "<i>beneichem</i>" can mean 'your sons' or your children'. Sometimes the Torah refers to all Jews as a group and sometimes it explicitly distinguishes women from men. In ambiguous cases such as the word "<i>beneichem</i>" in this verse, our sages often stipulate which meaning is correct. Whether or not females are included varies from verse to verse, and thus depends on both context and tradition.

Midrashic readings often provide textual derivations for a halachah. Those derivations, following carefully formulated traditional exegetical rules, can be the very source of the halachah. Sometimes, though, a midrash expounds texts in order to uphold previously known halachic traditions and connect the tradition to the text.

This particular midrash halachah may well be a midrash of the second type, upholding a previously known tradition from Moshe that women are exempt from the obligation of <i>talmud Torah</i>. In other words, the answer to 'why is there an exemption' does not necessarily boil down to the interpretation of "<i>beneichem</i>" as "your sons".

This possibility still leaves us to speculate why halachah would distinguish between men and women with regard to learning Torah.

One suggestion is that halachah assigns roles in public society to men. In that case, this gender distinction could ultimately derive from the mitzvah of <i>talmud Torah</i>'s role in forming a public society built on Torah, of which teacher- student transmission is a main building block.<a href="#n17"><sup><span id="_n17">17</span></sup></a> This type of speculation raises other questions about gender roles.

</div>
[/expand]

</div>
<b class="summaryTitle">SUMMARY: </b><span class="summary">The midrash reads "<i>beneichem</i>" in Devarim 11:19 as "your sons", to the exclusion of daughters, meaning that a parent has no obligation to teach daughters Torah. The Talmud quotes the midrash and concludes that, since a female need not be taught Torah, she is not obligated to teach or learn it. </span>
<h2><span id="Rabbinic Obligation or Prohibition">Rabbinic Obligation or Prohibition</span></h2>
<div class="body">

There is no dispute that women are exempt from the Torah's mitzvah of <i>talmud Torah</i>.<a href="#n18"><sup><span id="_n18">18</span></sup></a> However, the Mishnah in Sotah records two positions regarding the mitzvah of <i>talmud Torah</i> for women on a rabbinic level. The context of the discussion there is a claim in the Mishnah about a suspected <i>sotah</i> (lit., straying woman).

A <i>sotah</i> is a player in a halachic tragedy: a woman witnessed secluding herself with a man not her husband in violation of an official injunction issued at her husband's behest. The husband may pursue his claim all the way to the temple, where, in a shaming ordeal, God's own name is erased into a liquid that the woman drinks, in order to restore faith between the couple. If guilty, the woman and her paramour die a death administered by G-d. The Mishnah here explains that when a woman in this situation has other merits, those merits can suspend her Divine punishment for years.

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> משנה מסכת סוטה ג:ד</span></span>

מכאן אומר בן עזאי: חייב אדם ללמד את בתו תורה, שאם תשתה תדע שהזכות תולה לה. ר"א אומר כל המלמד בתו תורה לומדה תפלות ...

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Mishnah Sotah 3:4" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">From here ben Azzai says: A man is obligated to teach his daughter Torah, [so] that if she drinks [the <i>sotah</i> fluids] she will know that [it is] the merit that suspends [punishment] for her. Rabbi Eliezer says: Anyone who teaches his daughter Torah is teaching her <i>tiflut</i> [nonsense or lewdness].</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

In context, Ben Azzai holds that a woman's learning Torah is significant specifically in this situation when she is guilty. Through Torah learning, she (and possibly others) will not mistake a delay in punishment for a lapse in the execution of Divine judgment. More broadly, Ben Azzai suggests that if a woman's Torah learning has positive effects even in this extreme and tragic case, her learning would be an asset in any life situation. Thus, a father must teach his daughter Torah in general. Perhaps her learning Torah may even prevent her from becoming a <i>sotah</i> to start with. Whereas Ben Azzai does not challenge the Torah's exemption of a father from the mitzvah of teaching his daughter, he does extrapolate from the benefit in the <i>sotah</i> case. Ben Azzai posits a rabbinic level obligation for the father to teach his daughter.

Rabbi Eliezer strongly disagrees. A father's teaching his daughter Torah causes more trouble than it prevents. He likens it to <i>tiflut</i>, which means lewdness, or nonsense (as opposed to piety, <i>perishut</i>).

As the Talmud explains, with knowledge comes cunning, which might lead to <i>tiflut</i>:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> מס' סוטה כא:</span></span>

א"ר אבהו מאי טעמא דר"א דכתיב אני חכמה שכנתי ערמה כיון שנכנסה חכמה באדם נכנסה עמו ערמומית

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" T. Sotah 21b" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">Rabbi Abbahu said: What is Rabbi Eliezer's rationale? For it is written 'I, wisdom, dwell [in] craftiness'. When wisdom has entered a person, craftiness enters with it.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

Emphasizing <i>tiflut</i> as nonsense more than lewdness, Meiri, a medieval Provencal Talmudic commentator, compares the woman learning to a bell, something hollow that can produce a loud clang.<a href="#n19"><sup><span id="_n19">19</span></sup></a> A woman is presumably a beginner; beginner's knowledge tends to be shallow; a false sense of mastery can be misleading, or even dangerous.

Though he does not couch his objection in the halachic language of prohibition, Rabbi Eliezer does not seem to intend it lightly. As he appears in a range of rabbinic sources, Rabbi Eliezer is a fiery character, particularly zealous about his vision of proper transmission of Torah from teacher to student.

In Rabbi Eliezer's time, a Levi might form a relationship with a non-Levi, such that his family would personally receive all of the non-Levi's tithings over the course of the year. The matron of this story was such a "patron" of Rabbi Eliezer's family. The Jerusalem Talmud records the following story:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> תלמוד ירושלמי מסכת סוטה ג:ד</span></span>

מטרונה שאלה את ר' לעזר: מפני מה חט אחת במעשה העגל, והן מתים בה שלש מיתות? אמ' לה: אין חכמתה שלאשה אלא בפילכה. דכת' (שמות לה) "וכל אשה חכמת לב בידיה טוו." אמ' לו הורקנוס בנו: בשביל שלא להשיבה דבר אחד מן התורה, איבדת ממני שלש מאות כור מעשר בכל שנה. אמ' ליה: ישרפו דברי תורה ואל ימסרו לנשים.

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Talmud Yerushalmi Sotah 3:4" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">A matron asked Rabbi Eliezer: Why is there one sin in the story of the [golden] calf, but they die for it three [types] of death? He said to her: A woman's wisdom is only in her spindle, as it is written, "And every woman wise of heart wove [for the <i>mishkan</i>] with her hands," (Shemot 35). His son Hurkanus said to him: For the sake of not answering her one matter from the Torah, you have lost for me 300 measures [roughly 360 liters] of the [Levite] tithe per annum. He [Rabbi Eliezer] said to him [his son]: [Better that] matters of Torah be burnt and they not be transmitted to women.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

Rabbi Eliezer defies his son's matron's request. Even at considerable personal cost, Rabbi Eliezer will not teach Torah to a woman. Women's wisdom belongs outside the world of Torah learning, whether directed to the home realm, as spinning typically was, or towards communal Jewish material culture, as was the original spinning for the <i>mishkan</i>, the desert tabernacle.

On the continuation of the story, Rabbi Eliezer answers the matron's question for his students. He does not challenge her knowledge of scripture or her question's acuity. Rather, he flatly refuses to explain complex Torah matters to women.

Although halachah often does not follow Rabbi Eliezer's rulings, his statement that a father should not teach his daughter Torah is widely followed, presumably because, later in the same Mishnah, Rabbi Yehoshua seconds Rabbi Eliezer's opinion.<a href="#n20"><sup><span id="_n20">20</span></sup></a>

</div>
<div class="hashkafa_question">

[expand title="Why was Rabbi Eliezer so wary of women's <i>talmud Torah</i>?" tag="h2"]
<div class="hashkafa_text">

A first possible approach to this question is historical. There is a temptation to suggest that the inferior social and educational status of women in his day shaped Rabbi Eliezer's perspective on women learning Torah. However, Rabbi Eliezer's wife, Imma Shalom, appears in the Talmud as a thoughtful and powerful personality of great lineage. In the story, the matron's social status is high; Rabbi Eliezer's own son depends on her largesse. Furthermore, Rabbi Eliezer recognizes that the matron's questions are good questions. Indeed, they are worthy of answers, when his male students ask them. Even were it simple to historicize Talmudic statements, these biographical points would confound efforts to do so here.

A second approach to understanding Rabbi Eliezer's perspective is essentialist, highlighting perceived essential distinctions between men and women. It is clear from his reference to women's wisdom at the spindle that Rabbi Eliezer sees women's fields of wisdom as distinct from men's.

Elsewhere, the Talmud presents a debate about nature versus nurture and cognitive maturity (for making vows). One position claims that male cognitive development proceeds faster than females', because a boy's educational opportunity advances him.<a href="#n21"><sup><span id="_n21">21</span></sup></a> A second view, associated with Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, claims that females develop cognitively faster than males, for essentialist reasons:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> מס' נדה מה:</span></span>

בינה יתירה באשה יותר מבאיש

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" T. Niddah 45b" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">There is more discernment [<i>binah</i>] in a woman than in a man.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="hashkafa_text">

Halachah rules in accordance with the position that females' vows count at an age earlier than males'. Many rabbis have seized on and developed the essentialist idea brought to justify that ruling. For example, the Maharal of Prague contrasts a woman's <i>binah</i>, which he translates as raw intelligence, with a man's more abstract intelligence.<a href="#n22"><sup><span id="_n22">22</span></sup></a> Rav Kook references <i>binah</i> too, in arguing that women have less need for formal study than men.<a href="#n23"><sup><span id="_n23">23</span></sup></a>

Rav Baruch haLevi Epstein, author of the Torah Temimah suggests that the Talmudic dictum, "<i>nashim da'atan kalah 'alehen</i>," "women, their minds [<i>da'atan</i>] are easily susceptible [to influence from outside pressures],"<a href="#n24"><sup><span id="_n24">24</span></sup></a> implies that women have a cognitive disadvantage compared to men. Rav Epstein attempts to reconcile a woman's <i>da'at</i> deficit with her surplus <i>binah</i> by suggesting that <i>binah</i> and <i>da'at</i> represent different types of thinking. So, for example, on his view <i>Torah shebe'al peh</i> is essentially less suited to a woman's <i>binah</i> than is <i>Torah shebichtav</i>.<a href="#n25"><sup><span id="_n25">25</span></sup></a>

Translating these essentialist ideas into a more current idiom, one could argue that men and women, on the whole, have different cognitive styles. Our sages may relate to these in their different formulations of men's and women's relationship to study.<a href="#n26"><sup><span id="_n26">26</span></sup></a>

A third approach to understanding Rabbi Eliezer sees his perspective as rooted in his oft-repeated, rigid view on the proper transmission of Torah from teacher to student.<a href="#n27"><sup><span id="_n27">27</span></sup></a> Statements to this effect appear in a few passages. Rabbi Eliezer was opposed to divergence from the teacher-student model in which he himself learned and taught. Female presence among the students would be another example of unacceptable divergence from the tradition he fought to conserve.

</div>
[/expand]

</div>
<b class="summaryTitle">SUMMARY: </b><span class="summary">The Talmud records two positions regarding the mitzvah of <i>talmud Torah</i> for women on a rabbinic level. Ben Azzai says a father has a rabbinic level obligation to teach his daughter. Rabbi Eliezer strongly disagrees, likening a father teaching his daughter to <i>tiflut</i> (lewdness, or nonsense). This ruling of Rabbi Eliezer is widely followed. </span>
<h2><span id="Women's Obligation">Women's Obligation</span></h2>
<div class="body">

If women are not to learn Torah, how can we know how to perform the <i>mitzvot</i> that apply to us?

The Talmud records that in the time of King Hezekiah every boy, girl, man, and woman was expert in the laws of impurity and purity.<a href="#n28"><sup><span id="_n28">28</span></sup></a> This assertion would seem to contradict Rabbi Eliezer's opposition to women's learning Torah. Similarly, as mentioned above, the Torah clearly obligates women to attend the Torah reading of <i>hakhel</i>. That obligation would also appear to contradict Rabbi Eliezer's position. In the case of <i>hakhel</i>, the Talmud provides a possible explanation for the seeming contradiction:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> מס' חגיגה דף ג.</span></span>

"הקהל את העם האנשים והנשים והטף [...לְמַעַן יִשְׁמְעוּ וּלְמַעַן יִלְמְדוּ, וְיָרְאוּ אֶת-ה' אֱלֹהֵיכֶם, וְשָׁמְרוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת, אֶת-כָּל-דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת]." אם אנשים באים ל'למוד', נשים באות ל'שמוע', טף-- למה באין? כדי ליתן שכר למביאיהן.

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" T. Chagigah 3a" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">"Assemble the people: the men, the women, and the children…[that they should hear and that they should learn, and they will fear the Lord your God, and they will observe [them] to perform all the words of this Torah]." If 'the men' come to 'learn', 'women' come to 'listen', 'children'—why do they come? In order to give reward to those who bring them.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah breaks down the verse regarding <i>hakhel</i> into units that he then lines up with each other. He lines up the phrase "in order that they will learn" with "the men", and "in order that they will hear" with "the women". Although the Biblical Hebrew verb "to listen" can also have the sense of 'to understand', it is not on the same level as "to learn". In <i>hakhel</i>, men learn, while women merely listen. Tosafot explain the difference between listening and learning in light of the end of the <i>hakhel</i> verse, which highlights mitzvah performance:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> תוספות מס' סוטה כא:</span></span>

ונראה דפי' דמצוה לשמוע הנשים כדי שידעו לקיים מצוה...

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Tosafot T. Sotah 21b" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And it appears that its explanation [is] that [it is] a mitzvah for the women to hear in order that they [can] know [how] to fulfill [the Divine] command….</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

The obligation of women in <i>hakhel</i>, then, is to understand the Torah in order to fulfill <i>mitzvot</i>, not to learn Torah as a field for theoretical study. The Talmud Yerushalmi infers from Rabbi Elazar's deliberate assignation of listening (not learning) to women, that Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah rejects the view that a father must teach his daughter Torah.<a href="#n29"><sup><span id="_n29">29</span></sup></a> Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah may join Rabbi Eliezer in objecting to women's study for its own sake, advocating women's study only for practical purposes.

Perhaps Rabbi Eliezer's objection to women's study would still allow for women's exposure to Torah in order to observe <i>mitzvot</i>. That understanding of Rabbi Eliezer would resolve the apparent contradiction between his position and the commandment of <i>hakhel</i>.

The early thirteenth century pietistic work Sefer Hasidim makes exactly this argument:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> ספר חסידים סימן שיג</span></span>

חייב אדם ללמוד לבנותיו המצות, כגון פסקי הלכות. ומה שאמרו, שהמלמד לאשה תורה כאלו מלמדה תיפלות, זהו עומק תלמוד וטעמי המצות וסודי התורה. אותן אין מלמדין לאשה ולקטן. אבל הלכות מצות ילמד לה, שאם לא תדע הלכות שבת, איך תשמור שבת? וכן כל מצות כדי לעשות להזהר במצות.

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Sefer Hasidim 313" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">A man is obligated to teach his daughters the <i>mitzvot</i>, such as halachic rulings. And that which they said, that he who teaches a woman Torah is as though he teaches her <i>tiflut</i>, that [refers specifically to] depth of Talmud and reasons for commandments and secrets of the Torah. Those we don't teach to a woman and to a minor. But the laws of <i>mitzvot</i> he should teach her, for if she will not know the laws of Shabbat, how will she keep Shabbat? And similarly all <i>mitzvot</i>, in order to perform [them and] to be careful of the <i>mitzvot</i>.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

According to Sefer Hasidim, there is an obligation for a father to teach his daughter halachah, so that she can keep it. Sefer Hasidim argues that, from the outset, Rabbi Eliezer had in mind only to rule out the depths of Talmud study, philosophical speculation about <i>mitzvot</i>, and kabbalah. Those areas of study are off limits to women; halachah-oriented learning is not.

</div>
<b class="summaryTitle">SUMMARY: </b><span class="summary">Rabbi Eliezer's objection to women learning seems to contradict the Biblical command of <i>hakhel</i> and also leave little room for women to learn the laws that apply to us. A main purpose of <i>hakhel</i> is to hear the Torah in order to learn how to keep <i>mitzvot</i>. Sefer Hasidim suggests as a resolution to the apparent contradiction that Rabbi Eliezer never meant to rule out Torah study for practical purposes, only more theoretical study.</span>
<h2><span id="Text Study Vs. Imitation">Text Study Vs. Imitation</span></h2>
<div class="body">

Though Rabbi Eliezer might concede that women must learn Torah at least to the extent necessary for fulfilling halachah, how we should accomplish that goal remains unclear. Even if we must learn the <i>halachot</i> that pertain to us, perhaps we may not study them through texts. Torah study is not exclusively textual. As discussed in our introduction LINK, there are two classic modes for transmitting Judaism, text study and mimesis, learning through imitation.

Maharil, great halachic authority of late-fourteenth to early-fifteenth century Ashkenaz, argued that women do and should learn halachah chiefly through mimesis:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> שו"ת מהרי"ל סימן קצט</span></span>

ואי משום דידעו לקיים המצות, אפשר שילמדו ע"פ הקבלה השרשים והכללות. וכשיסתפקו ישאלו למורה. כאשר אנו רואין בדורינו שבקיאות הרבה בדיני מליחה והדחה וניקור והלכות נדה וכיוצא בזה, והכל ע"פ הקבלה מבחוץ,

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Responsa Maharil Siman 199" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And if [you suggest formal study] that they should know to perform <i>mitzvot</i>, it's possible that they learn the key points and the rules by means of received tradition. And when they'll have a doubt they'll ask a teacher [of halachah]. As we see in our generation, that they are rather expert in the laws of salting and rinsing [meat after slaughter] and removing the sciatic nerve and the laws of niddah and the like, and everything is in accordance with the received tradition from their environment.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

To put his comments in context, it is important to note that Maharil was wary in general of disseminating halachic works to the unlearned masses. He actively opposed the composition of halachic summary books in the vernacular.<a href="#n30"><sup><span id="_n30">30</span></sup></a> He defended his opposition to mass textual study by arguing that women traditionally develop real halachic expertise through imitation. While he conceded that a mimetic tradition is fallible, he thought rabbinic intervention, and not text study, should correct any errors:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> שו"ת מהרי"ל החדשות צג</span></span>

הנח להו לבנות ישראל, אם אינן נביאות הן, בנות נביאות הן. ומנעוריהן בקיאין הן על פי אימותן והורתן. ושורש רוב החומרות דרבנן, דמקילי הרבה בנות ע"ה ונשותיהן. על כן מוטל על כל חכם ות"ח להודיעם ולהפרישם מאיסור ולהדריכן בדרך ישרה, ולכל הפחות בני ביתו והם יודיעו לחברותיהם...

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" New Responsa Maharil 93" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">Leave it to them to the daughters of Israel, [for] if they are not prophetesses, they are daughters of prohetesses. And from their youths they are expert in accordance with their mothers and their teachings. And the root of most rabbinic stringencies is that many daughters and wives of the unlearned are lenient. Therefore, it is [incumbent] upon every sage and student of the sages to make them aware of and to separate them from prohibition and to guide them in the straight path, at the least the members of his household. And they will let it be known to their fellow women…</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

Other halachic authorities disagreed, advocating formal study as the optimal means for women to perfect knowledge of practical <i>mitzvot</i>. For example, a student of Rav Yitzhak of Corbeil, a major Tosafist who preceded Maharil by roughly a hundred years, cited him as follows:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> ספר מצוות קטן הקדמה</span></span>

....וגם כתב עוד לנשים המצות הנוהגות להם, עשה ולאו, ותועיל להן הקריאה והדקדוק בהן כאשר יועיל עסק התלמוד לאנשים

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Sefer Mitzvot Katan (SeMa"K), Introduction" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">…and he also wrote further to women [that] the <i>mitzvot</i> that they practice for them, positive and negative, and reading and learning them precisely will prove effective, just as the occupation with Talmud is effective for men.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

The claim is that women's mitzvah performance has as much to gain from text study as does men's. Interestingly, Maharil himself cites this ruling as partial grounds for women to make the blessings on Torah each morning (an issue we'll revisit below).<a href="#n31"><sup><span id="_n31">31</span></sup></a> Although Maharil disagreed with this position, he recognized its halachic plausibility.

In his glosses to the Shulhan Aruch, Rema rules that women are obligated to learn the laws applying to us:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> שו"ע יורה דעה סימן רמו</span></span>

הגה ומ"מ חייבת האשה ללמוד דינים השייכים לאשה

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Rema Yoreh Deah 246" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">Gloss And in any case the woman is obligated to learn laws that apply to a woman.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

Rema does not resolve the debate. He gives no indication of how we should approach learning these laws, through mimesis alone or also through text study.

</div>
<div class="hashkafa_question">

[expand title="How Should We Learn?" tag="h2"]
<div class="hashkafa_text">

While we're not obligated in the formal mitzvah of <i>talmud Torah</i>, we are obligated to learn the <i>halachot</i> that apply to us. Rabbi Eliezer's opposition to our study of Torah does not preclude our learning <i>halachot</i>. The question has long been: how?

Mimetic learning is well suited to preserving custom and detail. It can also lend itself to misunderstanding or to exaggeration over time, in the direction of leniency or of stringency.

The debate regarding the most effective corrective for the shortcomings of imitative learning, rabbinic intervention alone or a combination of rabbinic intervention and formal study, is of long-standing. Unsolicited rabbinic intervention is unlikely to be heeded or to be comprehensive. Formal study may have deeper reach, but can also lead to mistaken conclusions, unless there is ongoing rabbinic guidance.

In your experience, what have been the effects of Torah study on your halachic practice? LINK FORUM

</div>
[/expand]

</div>
<b class="summaryTitle">SUMMARY: </b><span class="summary">How women should learn halachah remains unclear. Maharil argues that women do and should learn halachah exclusively through imitation. Rabbinic intervention should suffice to correct errors. On the other hand, Ri Corbeil advocates text study as the optimal means for women to perfect knowledge of practical <i>mitzvot</i>. Rema rules that we must learn the laws that apply to us. He does not resolve the debate about how to learn them. </span>
<h2><span id="Rambam's Ruling">Rambam's Ruling</span></h2>
<div class="body">

Rambam codifies Rabbi Eliezer's position. This codification clarifies the scope and application of Rabbi Eliezer's position. As a rule, the Rambam's halachic formulations are models of precision and concision. The presentation here seems repetitive and more complicated than usual, which suggests that this halachah is particularly complex and nuanced:<a href="#n32"><sup><span id="_n32">32</span></sup></a>

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> משנה תורה הלכות תלמוד תורה א:יג</span></span>

אשה שלמדה תורה יש לה שכר, אבל אינו כשכר האיש מפני שלא נצטוית וכל העושה דבר שאינו מצווה עליו לעשותו אין שכרו כשכר המצווה שעשה אלא פחות ממנו. ואע"פ שיש לה שכר, צוו חכמים שלא ילמד אדם את בתו תורה מפני שרוב הנשים אין דעתם מכוונת להתלמד. אלא הן מוציאות דברי תורה לדברי הבאי לפי עניות דעתן. אמרו חכמים כל המלמד את בתו תורה כאילו למדה תפלות. במה דברים אמורים בתורה שבעל פה, אבל תורה שבכתב לא ילמד אותה לכתחלה ואם למדה אינו כמלמדה תפלות:

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Mishneh Torah Laws of talmud Torah 1:13" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">A woman who learned Torah has a reward, but it is not like the man's reward, because she is not commanded, and anyone who does something which he is not a commanded upon him to do it, his reward is not like the reward of one who is commanded and does, but less than it. And even though she has a reward, the sages commanded that a man not teach his daughter Torah because most women, their minds are not oriented to study. Rather, they bring Torah to matters of nonsense in accordance with the poverty of their intellects. The sages said, 'Anyone who teaches his daughter Torah is as though he has taught her nonsense. About what were [these] things said? For Oral Torah. But Written Torah, he should not set out to teach her but if he taught her it is not like he taught her nonsense:</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

Notably, Rambam begins with a statement underscoring the significance of a woman's learning Torah. Though Rambam adopts Rabbi Eliezer's objection to women's learning, paraphrasing it, explaining it, and finally quoting it, he chooses not to begin with it. In general, someone who performs a mitzvah voluntarily does not receive the same reward as one who performs a mitzvah out of obligation. The voluntary mitzvah performer does receive some reward, and his or her act has halachic meaning. So too, a woman's Torah study bears halachic value. Rambam's first statement on women's learning is that our learning matters.

In general, Rambam views learning and teaching Torah as two components of a single mitzvah. Here, the distinction between them stands out. Whereas a woman who studies receives reward, a father is not supposed to teach his daughter written or Oral Torah. (We return to the question of self-study below.)

In his discussion of the mitzvah of <i>talmud Torah</i>, Rambam distinguishes between Written Torah and Oral Torah. Now, Rambam applies that distinction to Rabbi Eliezer's statement, redefining its scope. According to Rambam, Rabbi Eliezer's objection to women's learning and concerns about <i>tiflut</i> do not apply to Written Torah.<a href="#n33"><sup><span id="_n33">33</span></sup></a>

Although Rambam limits the application of Rabbi Eliezer's statement to Oral Torah, he still concludes his codification with a recommendation that a father not teach his daughter Written Torah. That aspect of his ruling may have nothing to do with Rabbi Eliezer. Instead, it may be an interpretation of Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah's understanding that women should "hear" or "understand" Written Torah at <i>hakhel</i>, but not learn it.<a href="#n34"><sup><span id="_n34">34</span></sup></a> Rav David haLevy Segal, known as Taz makes this suggestion:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> ט"ז יורה דעה סימן רמו ס"ק ד</span></span>

נראה לי דהתם לא דרש המלך כי אם פשוטי הדברים וזה באמת מותר אף לדידן לכתחלה כמו שהוא המנהג בכל יום. מה שאין כן בלימוד פירוש דברי תורה דרך התחכמות והבנה, אסרו לכתחלה

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Taz Yoreh Deah 246:4" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">It seems to me that there [in <i>hakhel</i>] the king only explained the simple meaning of the matters and this is truly permissible even for us from the outset, as is the custom every day. Which is not the case in learning the explanation of matters of Torah by means of wise thinking and understanding, [which] they prohibited ab initio.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

Taz understands Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah as opposing a woman's learning Written Torah in depth, but as permitting a woman's learning Written Torah more superficially. Taz ascribes that view to the Rambam. Rabbi Eliezer would not object to women's study of Written Torah as lewdness. Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya and Rambam, following him, would prefer that a woman not learn Written Torah in depth. Everyone would permit a woman to learn Written Torah more superficially.

</div>
<div class="hashkafa_question">

[expand title="What does it mean to learn, just not in depth?" tag="h2"]
<div class="hashkafa_text">

Taz explains what Rambam's hesitation might be regarding women learning Written Torah: depth. More challenging is defining depth. The idea seems to be that women should have Torah literacy, but that we should not dedicate ourselves to deep conceptual thinking about Torah. Just as the focus for women learning halachah might be practical knowledge, the focus in learning Torah might be information. Perhaps learning Written Torah in greater depth inevitably overlaps with learning Oral Torah. Or perhaps there are more demands of one entering into deep study.<a href="#n35"><sup><span id="_n35">35</span></sup></a>

Note, however, that neither Taz nor Rambam denies that women have the capacity to learn Written Torah on a high level, nor do they suggest that it will bring about any negative result.

</div>
[/expand]

</div>
<div class="body">

Rambam introduces Rabbi Eliezer's position with the term <i>"tzivu hachamim"</i>, "sages commanded". Although some commentators take it differently, this term does not usually appear in the Rambam in the context of a clear prohibition, but rather to introduce an ethical exhortation or preferred practice.<a href="#n36"><sup><span id="_n36">36</span></sup></a> There can be more halachic flexibility regarding discouragement than regarding explicit prohibition.

Rambam also provides a rationale for the gender distinction in learning Torah, "most women, their minds are not oriented to learn." Here one can read the Rambam as opening up the possibility that a woman could have a mind oriented to study. Indeed, elsewhere the Rambam rules that fundamental commandments such as belief in God and love and awe of God are incumbent on women, and that their proper fulfillment results from study:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> משנה תורה הלכות יסודי התורה ד:יג</span></span>

...שבחמש מצות האלו הם שחכמים הראשונים קוראין אותו פרדס כמו שאמרו ארבעה נכנסו לפרדס....ואני אומר שאין ראוי לטייל בפרדס אלא מי שנתמלא כריסו לחם ובשר. ולחם ובשר הוא לידע האסור והמותר וכיוצא בהם משאר המצות....ואפשר שידעם הכל קטן וגדול איש ואשה בעל לב רחב ובעל לב קצר:

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Mishneh Torah, Laws of the Fundamentals of the Torah, 4:13 " tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">…That in these five <i>mitzvot</i> [belief in God, rejecting other Gods, recognizing His unity, loving God and having awe of God] these are that which the early sages call Pardes, as they said "Four entered the Pardes"…And I say that the only one fit to walk in the Pardes is one whose belly is full with bread and meat. And bread and meat is to know the prohibited and the permitted and the like from among the other <i>mitzvot</i>….and everyone can know them, a minor and an adult, a man and a woman, a person with a wide heart and a person short of heart.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

Optimal fulfillment of the basic <i>mitzvot</i> that underpin our faith demands learning of all branches of Torah, independent of the mitzvah to learn Torah. Women are fully obligated in those basic <i>mitzvot</i>. The reward for voluntary performance is not the only reason for a woman to learn Torah. Only women and men who learn have the opportunity to achieve optimal faith and mitzvah observance, a fuller service of HaShem.<a href="#n37"><sup><span id="_n37">37</span></sup></a> Even if most women are not oriented to such study, it is a possibility for all of us who set our minds to it.

It is possible to read Rambam as simultaneously honoring Rabbi Eliezer's position and interpreting it narrowly, leaving some theoretical room for women to learn Torah.

The Shulhan Aruch's ruling on women learning Torah follows the Rambam, quoting him almost word for word.<a href="#n38"><sup><span id="_n38">38</span></sup></a>

</div>
<b class="summaryTitle">SUMMARY: </b><span class="summary">Rambam begins with a statement underscoring the significance of a woman's learning Torah. He then codifies Rabbi Eliezer's position, that a father is not supposed to teach his daughter Torah, limiting its application to Oral Torah. Rambam still recommends that a father not teach his daughter Written Torah, possibly only when that study is conceptual or analytic. Rambam's language introducing Rabbi Eliezer's view may indicate that it is not a clear prohibition. Rambam holds that women have the capacity to pursue Torah study properly. We must do so to reach the highest levels of serving God. </span>
<h2><span id="Independent Study">Independent Study</span></h2>
<div class="body">

Paraphrasing Rabbi Eliezer, Rambam discourages a father from teaching his daughter Torah. Regarding a woman who has learned, Rambam only writes that she has reward. That could imply that Rambam has no reservations about a woman's undertaking independent study of Torah, as opposed to studying with her father. Maharil reads Rambam in this vein:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> שו"ת מהרי"ל החדשות סימן מה</span></span>

ודווקא המלמד לבתו אבל היא שלמדה בעצמה יש לה שכר... שהיא מכוונת לטוב'.

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" New Responsa Maharil 45" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And specifically [Rambam referred to] he who teaches his daughter, but she that learned on her own has reward for she intends for good.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

To Maharil, Rambam concedes that any woman learning Torah by herself would find reward, because of her positive intentions. This halachic approach can explain historical incidences of particularly learned women, such as Beruriah, who entered into halachic discussions with the sages of Rabbi Eliezer's era.<a href="#n39"><sup><span id="_n39">39</span></sup></a> They learned on their own.

Roughly two hundred years later, Rav Yehoshua Falk, a sixteenth century Polish rabbi known by the name of his commentary to the Tur, Perishah, argues along similar lines:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> פרישה רמו:טו </span></span>

אבל אם למדה לעצמה אנו רואין שיצאה מהרוב ולכך כתב לעיל שיש לה שכר ורצונו לומר אם למדה תורה על מכונה שאינה מוציאה לדברי הבאי. אבל האב אינו רשאי ללמדה דדילמא תוציא דבריה לדברי הבאי כי הוא אינו יודע מה שבלבה...

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Perishah 246:15" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">But if she learned for herself, we see that she departed from the majority and therefore he [the Rambam] wrote that she has a reward and he meant to say if she learned Torah correctly that she is not taking Torah to lewdness. But the father is not permitted to teach her for perhaps she will take its [Torah's] words to lewdness, for he does not know what is in her heart.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

Perishah stitches together Rambam's claim that most women aren't attuned to study with the father-daughter context of Rambam's discouragement of women's learning. A father may have unique blind-spots regarding his daughter; he might mistakenly assume that she is an exception to the less intellectual majority of women. Rambam's discouragement of women's learning does not apply to women learning on our own, because self-motivated women learners are clearly distinct from the non-learning -oriented masses that make Torah into nonsense.<a href="#n40"><sup><span id="_n40">40</span></sup></a>

Some halachic decisors dispute Maharil's and Perishah's conclusion in its entirety, claiming that Rambam only assigns a woman reward for self-study after the fact, but does not encourage it in any circumstance.<a href="#n41"><sup><span id="_n41">41</span></sup></a> However, Rav Eliezer Waldenberg, a major twentieth century halachic decisor known as Tzitz Eliezer, writes that the simple reading of Rambam and Shulhan Aruch is that women receive reward for independent study of Oral Torah as well as for Written Torah.<a href="#n42"><sup><span id="_n42">42</span></sup></a>

</div>
<div class="hashkafa_question">

[expand title="What of the Well-Educated Woman?" tag="h2"]
<div class="hashkafa_text">

With education widely available, has the majority tendency of women shifted,<a href="#n43"><sup><span id="_n43">43</span></sup></a> or does widespread education simply counteract some essential female tendencies in practice, without fundamentally changing them?

If a woman learns Torah in the context of a mandatory class in school, can we give her Perishah's presumption of seriousness?

Unfortunately, questions of how the institutionalization of girls' education, secular and religious, affects our assessment of the majority of women remain unresolved in halachic literature.

Still, Perishah's comment has hashkafic meaning for us as well as halachic meaning. It can be difficult for a modern, educated woman to relate to Rabbi Eliezer's objection to women's study. Through Perishah's reading of it, we need not take Rabbi Eliezer's position as a limit on our horizons. Neither should we dismiss Rabbi Eliezer out of hand, as long as the above questions are unresolved. Instead, we can take Rabbi Eliezer's statement as a challenge. Rabbi Eliezer's concern was that in our hands, or minds, Torah would turn to <i>tiflut</i>. If we are to learn Torah, we are charged with the responsibility not to turn to <i>tiflut</i>.

Perishah had confidence that a woman studying Torah with real desire to serve God would not be subject to Rabbi Eliezer's objection. Rabbi Eliezer can become our companion in the <i>bet midrash</i>, prodding us to keep our learning on course. When we choose to learn Torah seriously as a form of listening to the word of God, when our learning builds our faith and enhances our observance, we address Rabbi Eliezer's concerns in a powerful way.

</div>
[/expand]

</div>
<b class="summaryTitle">SUMMARY: </b><span class="summary">Rambam, following Rabbi Eliezer, discourages a father from teaching his daughter Torah. Maharil and Rav Yehoshua Falk explain that Rambam's discouragement of women's learning does not apply to women learning on our own. Rav Falk adds that self-motivated women learners are clearly distinct from the non-learning-oriented masses that worried Rabbi Eliezer. Women's independent Torah study is laudable. </span>
<h2><span id="Turning Point: Bais Yaakov">Turning Point: Bais Yaakov</span></h2>
<div class="body">

Historically, many Jewish women had no access to formal education and were illiterate. Here and there, girls had opportunities to join their brothers in formal schooling and there were notably learned Jewish women, but these were exceptions to the rule.

In the nineteenth century, Germany's neo-Orthodox community pioneered Jewish girls' education as a community standard. Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch, luminary of that community, explained:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> פירוש רש"ר הירש לתורה דברים יג:ו </span></span>

"ולמדתם"...אותה הבנה של ספרות היהדות ואותה ידיעה של המצוות, הדרושה כדי לקיים את "ויראו את-ה' אלהיכם ושמרו לעשות את-כל-דברי התורה הזאת" (להלן לא, יב)—אותה יש להקנות לבנותינו לא פחות מאשר לבנינו...וכן נהגו בישראל מאז ומתמיד, ועדות לכך היא ספרות שלמה באידיש שנכתבה בעיקר לצורך הנשים כדי לאפשר להן את הבנת המקרא והתפילות ולהקנות להן ידיעה עממית של ההלכה ושל תורת המוסר של החכמים.

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" R S R Hirsch Torah Commentary Devarim 6:13 " tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">…This same understanding of Jewish literature and this knowledge of the <i>mitzvot</i>, which is demanded in order to fulfill "and fear the Lord your God and observe to perform all the words of this Torah" (below 31, 12)—this should be transferred to our daughters no less than to our sons…and so they have practiced among [the people] Israel always, and testament to that is the complete literature in Yiddish that was written primarily for the need of women in order to enable them [to have] comprehension of the Bible and of the prayers and to transfer to them common knowledge of halachah and of ethical teachings of our sages.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

Like Taz and Sefer Hasidim before him, Rav Hirsch did not advocate women's learning Torah as a conceptual field of study. But he did support women's learning to whatever extent necessary to ensure mitzvah observance and faith.

It is a woman, acting from her own keen sensitivity to Jewish women's needs, who initiates the next stride in women's learning of Torah. Toward the end of World War One, Sarah Schenirer, a seamstress and budding educator, was troubled by the extent of young women's engagement in secular studies, with no religious counterpart, and disaffection with religious life. As she writes:

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title="Sarah Schenirer, Em BeYisrael, Part I p. 39-40" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">It is not in the power of secular studies to quench the flame of the Jewish soul, that only learning of Torah has the capacity to satisfy. Secular studies are to the soul as gold to the body. Can gold satisfy physical hunger? Never!... A Jewish soul will not be satisfied from secular studies. Only sacred studies will satisfy her hunger, for only her Creator can know with what she is nourished. I highly doubt that there is any student as happy at times to that extent that I am happy when I read our sacred texts.<a href="#n44"><sup><span id="_n44">44</span></sup></a></p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

Inspired by the Neo-Orthodox girls' education that she had seen at work in Vienna, she founded a mass movement and school system in Poland, the forerunner of today's Bais Yaakov network of girls' schools.

Schenirer sought and received rabbinic support for her movement, which eventually was adopted by the Agudat Yisrael. Key early supporters included the Belzer Rebbe, the Gerer Rebbe and, crucially, one of the foremost halachic decisors of her time and author of the Mishnah Berurah, Rav Yisrael Meir Kagan, popularly known by the name of his work on the laws of speech, Hafetz Hayyim. He writes:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> לקוטי הלכות חפץ חיים סוטה כא</span></span>

המלמד את בתו תורה...נראה דכל זה דוקא בזמנים שלפנינו שקבלת האבות היתה חזקה מאוד אצל כל אחד ואחד להתנהג בדרך שדרכו בו אבותיו וכמאמר הכתוב, "שאל אביך ויגדך." בזה היינו יכולים לומר שלא תלמוד הבת תורה ותסמוך בהנהגה על אבותיה הישרים. כעת בעוונותינו הרבים קבלת האבות נתרופפה מאוד מאוד וגם מצוי שאינו במקום אבות כלל. בפרט אותן שמרגילין עצמן ללמוד כתב ולשון העמים בוודאי מצוה רבה ללמד אותן חומש וגם נביאים וכתובים ומוסרי חז"ל כגון מסכת אבות וספר מנורת המאור כדי שתאומת אצלן ענין אמונתינו הקדושה. אם לא עלול שיסורו לגמרי מדרך ה' ויעברו על כל יסודי הדת ח"ו.

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Likkutei Halachot Sotah 21" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">One who teaches his daughter Torah…It seems that all this is specific to times preceding us when the received ancestral tradition was very strong for each and every individual to act in the way that his forefathers acted, like the saying of the verse: 'ask your father and he will tell you.' Thus we were able to say that a daughter should not learn Torah and she should rely in her conduct on her righteous forfathers. Now in our great iniquities, the received ancestral tradition has become very, very weakened and it's also common that one is not in the place of his forefathers[' residence] at all. Especially those [women] who accustom themselves to study writing and language of the nations [i.e. secular learning], certainly it is a great mitzvah to teach them <i>humash</i> and also Prophets and Writings and the ethics of our sages of blessed memory such as [Mishnah] tractate Avot and the book Menorat haMeor, in order that the matter or our holy faith be authenticated to them. If not, they are bound to deviate completely from the path of HaShem, and to transgress all the fundamentals of the religion, God forbid.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

Hafetz Hayyim brings us back to the debate between Maharil and Rav Yitzhak of Corbeil.LINK While both agree that women are obligated to learn <i>halachot</i> that apply to us, they disagree about how that should be accomplished. Maharil holds that necessary information can be transmitted mimetically, while Rav Yitzhak holds that textual learning should play a role in the transmission of halachah to women.

Rav Kagan argues that historical developments of his day in the aftermath of the upheavals caused by World War One demanded a new, more textual, approach to women's education. The shift away from traditional home-centered communities and toward textual transmission of Jewish tradition after the Great War affects the historic debate on women's education. Mimesis alone can no longer meet all necessary educational goals. Women now must turn to Jewish texts.

In fact, Rav Kagan's overall approach to Jewish law often massages custom to conform to texts. Just as men must now give more weight to texts than to an elusive tradition, women now must now begin to turn to Jewish texts in the absence of a viable mimetic tradition.

Additionally, according to Hafetz Hayyim, in these circumstances, Rabbi Eliezer's position no longer obtains! If women do not learn Torah from texts, we cannot be sure to learn Torah at all. As Sara Schenirer notes, this is especially unfortunate in an environment in which women pursue secular educations, resulting in women educated in everything but Torah.

Torah giants such as twentieth century halachic authority Rav Zalman Sorotzkin, a close associate of Hazon Ish and vice chair of the Agudah, supported girl's education in terms similar to those of Rav Kagan.<a href="#n45"><sup><span id="_n45">45</span></sup></a> Some voices, notably that of the Satmar rebbe, remained opposed to girls' education from Hebrew texts such as the Torah.<a href="#n46"><sup><span id="_n46">46</span></sup></a> Nevertheless, in the wake of Rav Kagan, the halachic discussion moves from whether we can learn texts formally to what texts we should learn. Note that Hafetz Hayyim's list of materials appropriate for study does not focus on halachah. Rather, he emphasizes works that develop faith and a religious orientation, from Tanach to Oral Torah, such as Mishnah Pirkei Avot.

</div>
<div class="hashkafa_question">

[expand title="Do we need to give up on mimesis?" tag="h2"]
<div class="hashkafa_text">

Can tradition be reconstructed on the basis of more recent, text based learning? Once a generation or two of women have imbibed Torah knowledge through text study, do you think Hafetz Hayyim would have us refocus on modelling behavior, rather than teaching it at school? LINK FORUM

</div>
[/expand]

</div>
<b class="summaryTitle">SUMMARY: </b><span class="summary">Troubled by the extent of young women's engagement in secular studies, with no religious counterpart, and by their disaffection with religious life, Sara Schenirer founded the Bais Yaakov network of girls' schools. Schenirer sought and received rabbinic support for her movement, notably from Hafetz Hayyim. He argued that historical shifts away from traditional home-centered communities and toward textual transmission of Jewish tradition mean that mimesis alone can no longer meet all necessary educational goals. In these circumstances, Rabbi Eliezer's position no longer obtains. Women now must turn to Jewish texts to learn Torah. </span>
<h2><span id="What To Study: Written Torah">What To Study: Written Torah</span></h2>
<div class="body">

Going back to the Rambam's reading of Rabbi Eliezer, we have seen a distinction between written and Oral Torah. Aside from Satmar, nearly all segments of contemporary Jewish society permit girls and women to learn directly from the texts of <i>humash</i>. This widespread practice makes sense, given the <i>hakhel</i> command required us to hear Torah spoken.<a href="#n47"><sup><span id="_n47">47</span></sup></a>

Learning <i>humash</i> with commentaries is more contentious. On the one hand, Torah cannot be properly understood without the prism of Torah she be'al peh. If we do not learn commentaries, it is difficult to translate the words of Torah into what we are meant to practice. And yet, drawing on Taz's distinction between simple text readings and in depth learning, modern day authorities such as Rav Shmuel Wosner, known as Shevet HaLevi, oppose female learning of <i>humash</i> with traditional commentaries. As Shevet HaLevi writes:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> שו"ת שבט הלוי ו:קנ</span></span>

אין לנו היתר ללמוד עם הבנות תנ"ך עם המפרשים העמוקים כמו הרמב"ן והא"ע וכדומה וגם פרש"י עה"ת הלא מלא וגדוש דרשות חז"ל תורה שבע"פ שחז"ל רחקו אותם מזה אלא פשוטן של העניינים עם מוסרי חז"ל ודרשתם ומדרשים שהם נוגעים ליראת שמים מוסר צניעות או הלכות פסוקות להם, וידעתי שרוב בתי ספר לבנות בדורנו אין עומדים בזה ומפריזים על המידה ונגד ההלכה...ודבר פשוט שהריעותא של כאלו מלמדם תפלות תצמח בין מוקדם בין מאוחר וד"ת וגזירתם לא ישתנו לעולם...

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Responsa Shevet haLevi 6:150" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">We don't have permission to study Bible with girls with the deep commentators such as the Ramba"n and Ibn Ezra and so forth, and even the commentary of Rash"I on the Torah is full and stuffed [with] homilies of our sages of blessed memory, Oral Torah, from which our sages of blessed memory distanced them [girls]. Only [allowed is study of] the simple meaning of matters, alongside ethics of our sages of blessed memory and their homilies and midrashim that touch [on] fear of heaven, ethics, modesty, or clear halachic rulings for them [women]. And I've known that most girls' schools in our generation do not withstand this [demand to study more] and go beyond what is appropriate and against the halachah….and it is a simple matter that the negative element of "as though he teaches them nonsense" will sprout, whether sooner or later. And words of Torah and their decrees [of our sages] will never change…</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

Rav Wosner sees no grounds to permit women to learn classic commentaries on the Torah, because they include quotations from and references to Oral Torah. He understands Rabbi Eliezer's words as a full-blown rabbinic prohibition of such study. Simple midrashim or hashkafic texts promoting fear of heaven are all that are permitted. However, Rav Wosner concedes that even most of his own Haredi community does not follow his view on this issue.

Debate regarding depth of Tanach study came to the fore in 1964, when Rav Yehuda Copperman established Jerusalem's Michlalah in Jerusalem, of which it was a hallmark of the curriculum. Over time, opposition to in depth Tanach study at the Michlalah has dissipated. The Michlalah now offers women masters degrees in teaching Aggadic portions of Oral Torah.

</div>
<div class="hashkafa_question">

[expand title="Is a restrictive position the most consistent approach to what we should study?" tag="h2"]
<div class="hashkafa_text">

Shevet HaLevi's position, ruling out passages from Mishnah, Talmud and Midrash that shed light on Tanach unless they clearly reinforce faith or character development, has an ideological purity. Indeed, it is not simple to permit women to learn Talmudic passages only when they are quoted by a Torah commentator and not otherwise.

On the other hand, his position goes against the grain of much Rabbinic thought. Rabbis of the eighteenth and nineteenth century in particular responded to the enlightenment by redoubling efforts to demonstrate the essential unity of the Written and Oral Torah. Much as it may be difficult to distinguish between contexts for learning Oral Torah, it is also difficult to fathom teaching only the simple meaning of verses without the basic interpretations of our Sages.

</div>
[/expand]

</div>
<b class="summaryTitle">SUMMARY: </b><span class="summary">There is a strong halachic consensus in favor of women learning Written Torah. Opposition to learning Written Torah in great depth (as akin to Oral Torah) has dissipated greatly over the past half-century. </span>
<h2><span id="What to Study: Oral Torah">What to Study: Oral Torah</span></h2>
<div class="body">

From the verses on <i>hakhel</i> to the Rambam to the writings of Hafetz Hayyim, there is agreement that a woman should learn materials that will help establish her faith. Rav Wosner's caveats about Talmudic passages Rashi quotes do not extend to midrash that enhances fear of Heaven. Indeed, most traditional works of Jewish theology and ethics draw extensively on Talmudic passages.

As for Mishnah, Rav Moshe Feinstein, the most prominent American halachic authority of the twentieth century, wrote that of all the Mishnah, only the ethical teachings of Pirkei Avot may be taught to women:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> שו"ת אגרות משה יורה דעה חלק ג סימן פז</span></span>

ורק פרקי אבות משום שהוא עניני מוסר והנהגות טובות יש ללמדם בהסבר לעוררן לאהבת תורה ולמדות טובות, אבל לא שאר המסכתות...

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Responsa Igrot Moshe Yoreh Deah 3:87" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And only Pirkei Avot because it is matters of ethics and good conduct should [one] teach them with explanations to arouse them to love of Torah and to good attributes, but not the rest of the tractates…</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

Yet we find testimony that Rav Kanievsky, known as the Steipler, permitted women to learn Mishnah per se.<a href="#n48"><sup><span id="_n48">48</span></sup></a> So too, Hazon Ish is reported to have even permitted women to learn Talmud on an occasional basis, as did Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky.<a href="#n49"><sup><span id="_n49">49</span></sup></a>

Former Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu understood the consensus of modern day rabbinic authorities as extending the permission for women to learn Written Torah to include Oral Torah:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> מאמר מרדכי א יו"ד יא</span></span>

כבר כתבו האחרונים שבימינו מותר לאשה ללמוד תורה, הן תורה שבכתב והן תורה שבעל פה...ואף המורה רשאי ללמדה...שבימינו אין הנשים ספונות בביתן כפי שהיה בעבר, ומוטב שתלמד דברי קודש מאשר תקרא דברים אסורים ודברי הבאי.

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Ma'amar Mordechai I Yoreh Deah 11" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">The later halachic authorities have already written that in our days it is permitted for a woman to learn Torah, both Written Torah and Oral Torah…and even the teacher is permitted to teach her…for in our days women are not enclosed in their homes as was in the past, and it is better that she should learn holy matters than that she should read forbidden or lewd matters.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

The key is that women who will engage in formal education in any case should devote those energies primarily to Torah. Choosing to occupy oneself with lewd materials is clearly more problematic than occupying oneself with Torah.

</div>
<div class="hashkafa_question">

[expand title="Does bitul Torah (not wasting time one could spend learning) apply to women?" tag="h2"]
<div class="hashkafa_text">

A man's obligation to learn Torah makes it clear that halachah dictates he prioritize Torah study over more frivolous pursuits. Women, too, when given a choice between less substantial study and study of Torah should think twice.

We have more flexibility in how we study Torah, qualitatively and quantitatively, than men have. Even with that flexibility, we should not lightly choose to devote ourselves to other pursuits. While we have room for serious study of a range of subjects, a woman's exemption from the formal mitzvah of <i>talmud Torah</i> is not a free ticket to binge watch television or mindlessly surf the internet.

</div>
[/expand]

</div>
<div class="body">

Another halachic argument to permit women to learn Oral Torah contends that the Oral Torah subject to objections to women learning includes only those matters that might appear to be the result of rabbinic manipulations.<a href="#n50"><sup><span id="_n50">50</span></sup></a> Another is that, now that Oral Torah is itself written down in texts, perhaps the categories under discussion have shifted.<a href="#n51"><sup><span id="_n51">51</span></sup></a>

In America, Rav Joseph Soloveitchik expressed the view that females in depth learning directly from sources is a modern imperative:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> מפניני הרב קסז </span></span>

...הנשים לא יסכימו להתנהג לפי התורה אם הענין לא יהיה מובן להן ממקורו במקרא ובגמרא...יש בעיות מסובכות המופיעות בכל יום בעולם הטכני שלנו, ואם בנות לא ילמדו יסודות התורה מן החומש ומן הגמרא עם פירושי הראשונים, אז ח"ו תפסיק היהדות האמיתית שלנו

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" MiPeninei HaRav 167" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">Women will not consent to conduct themselves in accordance with Torah if the matter will not be understood by them from its source in scripture and in Gemara…There are complicated problems that appear every day in our technical world, and if girls will not learn the fundamentals of Torah from the <i>humash</i> and from the Gemara with the commentaries of the early authorities, then God forbid our authentic Judaism will come to a halt.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

Proper mitzvah performance requires learning from the inside, not just halachic conclusions. Rapid changes in technology cannot be dealt with on the strength of mimesis alone. As our lifestyles change from year to year, a Torah lifestyle is not sustainable without deep knowledge of Torah from the inside, to meet new challenges from a point of knowledge and understanding.

</div>
<div class="hashkafa_question">

[expand title="Has technology killed lived tradition?" tag="h2"]
<div class="hashkafa_text">

In effect, Rav Soloveitchik drives the nail into the coffin of the mimetic tradition. Whereas Rav Kagan laments our inability to rely on mimesis given historical upheaval, Rav Soloveitchik asserts that mimesis is helpless to navigate a quickly shifting technological landscape. To take current examples, when kitchen appliances become "smarter" by the year, and food as much a feat of chemical engineering as of biology, generations of practical know-how are inadequate to meet the new challenges alone.

As long as we live in a technology-driven society with constant disruptive innovations, women and men need halachic knowledge that isolates concepts, as in texts. Practice can be learned imitatively, but only to a point. Any reconstruction of mimesis for our technological age will have to incorporate both text study and flexibility.

</div>
[/expand]

</div>
<div class="body">

Back in late twentieth-century Israel, Rav Soloveitchik's student and son-in-law, Rosh Yeshiva Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, built differently on this vision. He begins by agreeing with Rav Soloveitchick that true realization of halachah in performance demands true knowledge. So for women to learn what to do, we must learn deeply. He even outlines potential sections of Oral Torah with practical ramifications to study. His discussion of women's learning Talmud per se is more ambivalent:

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Torah Study for Women, Ten Da'at III:3" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">I am not opposed to teaching women Talmud. From a practical point of view, this is somewhat difficult because many women seem to lack the motivation, a societal support is missing and, more importantly, there is lacking a desire to be unconditionally committed to such learning in the future… I am also not convinced that it is desirable to press women to study Talmud in such an intensive form. After all, halachah does differentiate between men and women in this matter, and their respective life roles are also different. But when one speaks about the ability to study a page of Talmud, to understand it and enjoy it, I see no reason to deny these teachings to women. And it is even necessary to establish this as an integral part of the school curriculum, an actual <i>shiur</i>.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

While Rav Lichtenstein permits women to study Talmud, he notes that Talmud study for women is unlikely to have mass appeal, because of its intensity and because of the halachic distinction between men and women in study of Torah. Yet he would include Talmud study in a girls' school curriculum.

Rav Lichtenstein was the guiding rabbinic force behind the founding of the Migdal Oz Seminary, at which he personally taught intensive Talmud classes for years to highly motivated female students. Still, his argument that he sees 'no reason to deny' women the enjoyment of its study is not a clear halachic argument in favor of women learning Oral Torah beyond what is necessary in order to internalize halachah.<a href="#n52"><sup><span id="_n52">52</span></sup></a>

</div>
<div class="hashkafa_question">

[expand title="Why Don't More Women Learn Talmud in Communities that Permit it?" tag="h2"]
<div class="hashkafa_text">

Most students are more attracted by Torah study, Talmudic texts included, that connects directly to matters of faith or to matters of relevant halachic practice. In some learning contexts that is seen as a weakness, on the pretext that a true scholar proves himself through deep interest in arcane discussion far removed from the real world. Similarly, female scholars often receive criticism for writing on women's topics, as on this site, and not on other matters. Or for blurring, as do the site's 'hashkafah' sections, a hard distinction between mitzvah and meaning.

Treating more accessible or attractive modes of learning as less significant may serve to discourage women from learning at all.

But the halachic support for women to occupy ourselves with matters of direct hashkafic or halachic import is particularly strong. There is plenty to learn with direct relevance to our Jewish lives as we live them. Attentiveness to relevance need not detract from analytical study of texts.

The tension between emphasizing relevance or conceptual study in learning Torah can be traced back to the earliest rabbinic sages. Devaluing study for its relevance is only one approach to <i>talmud Torah</i>, one that need not dominate ours. Teaching women primarily what affects or engages us most does not make our learning less significant. With the background of years of more practically oriented study, any student is better equipped to engage in more conceptual study without losing sight of the halachah.

The more one knows, the more any area of Torah shoes up as inherently relevant, and the less likely one is to speculate in the direction of <i>tiflut</i>. Those of us who are drawn to conceptual study have halachic opinions on which to rely for its pursuit, but that need not be a goal for women as a whole.

</div>
[/expand]

</div>
<div class="body">

Unique among the myriad halachic rulings in support of women's Torah study are the teachings of Rav Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the late Lubavitcher Rebbe. Like others, he holds that we honor the spirit of the original halachic rulings by opening the learning of Oral Torah to women now; the learning should be thorough, so that it penetrates the learner; otherwise, we shape ourselves in directions less permeated by the spirit of Torah.

The Rebbe goes on to make an original point, that women's learning is not just an answer to troubled times. Women's learning is intrinsically worthwhile:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">ר' מ"מ שניאורסון, לימוד תורה לנשים </span></span>

...הרי לא זו בלבד שמותר להן ללמוד תורה שבעל פה, אלא יתירה מזה, על פי טעם הלכה זו עצמה – צריך ללמדן תושבע"פ, לא רק לימוד הלכות פסוקות בלי טעמיהן אלא גם לימוד טעמי ההלכות, ועד לשקלא וטריא שבתורה, שמטבע האדם (איש או אשה) שחפץ ומתענג יותר בלימוד זה, שעל ידי זה תהיה אצלן התפתחות החושים והכשרונות ("ערמומית") ברוח תורתנו הקדושה..שענין זה הוא מהחידושים לטובה שבדורות האחרונים: אע"פ שה(היתר, ויתירה מזה ה)צורך בדורות האחרונים בלימוד תושבע"פ לנשים הוא מצד ירידת הדורות...הרי, התוצאה בפועל ממש (תהי' הסיבה איזו שתהי')—היא לטובה, שע"י זה נתוסף יותר בלימוד התורה. ויש לומר שהטעם שזכינו להוספה בלימוד התורה דנשים בדורות האחרונים דוקא...כיון שבסוף זמן הגלות מודגשת יותר ההכנה לזמן הגאולה."

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title="R. M.M. Schneerson, Torah Study for Women " tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">…Behold it is not only permissible for them to learn Oral Torah, but more than that, according to the very rationale of this halachah—[one] must teach them Oral Torah, not just study of halachic rulings without their rationales but also learning the reasons behind the commandments, up until the give and take that is in the Torah, for it is from the nature of a person (man or woman) that he desires and takes greater pleasure in this learning, that by its means they will develop senses and skills ("cunning") in the spirit of our holy Torah…For this matter is among the good new developments of the latest enerations: even though the (permission, and more than that, the) need in recent generations for women's learning Oral Torah is from the aspect of the decline of generations…behold, the actual result really (let the reason be what it may)—is for good, for by means of this, there is additional Torah study. And one could say that the reason we have merited the addition of women's Torah study specifically in recent generations…is since at the end of the time of diaspora, the preparation for the time of redemption is more emphasized.<a href="#n53"><sup><span id="_n53">53</span></sup></a></p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

For the Rebbe, women's learning is an imperative in our day for a range of reasons. Our learning is also a positive development in its own right: it adds to the overall amount of Torah study in the world, it stands as a merit for our generation, and it constitutes a step toward redemption.

Here the Rebbe diverges from the prevailing narrative, according to which the relationship between women's learning and regrettable historical developments creates a sense of regret. The Rebbe was willing to move past regret into religious appreciation. Even were the tides of history reversible, the Rebbe would not wish to relinquish the force of women's learning in shaping the Jewish future. This position fits into broader Chabad theology about changes in the world that precede redemption.<a href="#n54"><sup><span id="_n54">54</span></sup></a>

There are numerous approaches to permitting women to learn Oral Torah. Rav Hayyim David haLevy, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv in the late twentieth century summarized one common denominator between them:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> מים חיים חלק ב סימן פט</span></span>

ההיתר ללמד בנות תורה שבע"פ אינו סתם קולא שהומצאה בזמננו אלא שהוא מצוי בגופה של ההלכה...

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Mayyim Hayyim 2:89" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">The permission to teach girls <i>Torah shebe'al peh</i> is not just a leniency that was invented in our time, but rather is found within the halachic corpus… <a href="#n55"><sup><span id="_n55">55</span></sup></a></p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

Those who grant women permission to learn Oral Torah, to whatever extent, do so from within the boundaries of the halachic process.

</div>
<div class="hashkafa_question">

[expand title="Is there a Unique Role for Women's Torah Study Today?" tag="h2"]
<div class="hashkafa_text">

The range of opinions here bears direct responsibility for the range in attitudes and opportunities for women to learn Torah that we raised in the beginning of this article. Formal learning of Torah for women on an institutional scale is still very much an experiment, in which we are blessed to participate. The various institutions for women's studies that have sprouted in recent years reflect the range of viewpoints on proper topics and approach to women's study. The experiment is ongoing.

This site is guided by the approach that women can internalize <i>mitzvot</i> when we learn them directly from the sources.

I see women's learning in particular as an opportunity to develop an integrated approach to Jewish life, one that brings text-knowledge together with the practical and experiential aspects of Judaism over which women historically took responsibility.

Classic mimesis might be lost, but perhaps we can construct a new mimesis. This mimesis would build on tradition and be informed by text. We can internalize halachic rules and concepts through traditional study in order to learn to animate them. Women's historical role in perpetuating custom and experiential Judaism in the home coupled with an emphasis on relevance in women's study of Torah, positions us to mediate between custom and text in ways responsive to the world around us, so that we can faithfully bring Torah to life.

</div>
[/expand]

</div>
<b class="summaryTitle">SUMMARY: </b><span class="summary">Most halachic authorities permit women to learn rabbinic texts that build faith and character, and halachic summary texts. Although there is more debate about study of Oral Torah, many important halachic authorities permit it, providing a range of justifications. The more such study is oriented toward contributing to a woman's understanding of faith, Jewish ethics, and halachic responsibilities, the easier it is to permit. Secular education unaccompanied by engagement in Torah study is a surer route to <i>tiflut</i> than learning Oral Torah. </span>
<h2><span id="Our Relationship To Study">Our Relationship To Study</span></h2>
<div class="body">

The Talmud asks about the nature of the merit the <i>sotah</i> might have that can suspend her punishment. Talmudic sage Ravina settles on her having the merit of Torah:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> מס' סוטה .דף כא</span></span>

רבינא אמר לעולם זכות תורה ודקאמרת אינה מצווה ועושה נהי דפקודי לא מפקדא באגרא דמקרין ומתניין בנייהו ונטרן להו לגברייהו עד דאתו מבי מדרשא מי לא פלגאן בהדייהו

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" T. Sotah 21a" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">Ravina said: It is always the merit of Torah [that suspends a <i>sotah</i>'s punishment]. And that which you said, that she [has the status of] one who is not commanded yet performs: Albeit she is not command, [but] through the reward of reading [verses] and repeating [mishnayot to] their sons and watching out for their husbands till they come from the <i>bet midrash</i>, do they not share [the reward] with them?</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

Women are not subject to the formal command of <i>talmud Torah</i>, but we do have the merit of one who performs a mitzvah voluntarily, LINK as well as the merit of encouraging the study of our husbands and sons. The Shulhan Aruch agrees that women share in the reward husbands and sons receive for learning Torah when we facilitate such study.<a href="#n56"><sup><span id="_n56">56</span></sup></a>

Although commentators and a parallel Talmudic passage<a href="#n57"><sup><span id="_n57">57</span></sup></a> understand our role with sons as ensuring their study of scripture and Mishnah, the plain meaning of the passage here suggests that we teach them directly as well. Rav Schneerson points out that in our generation, mothers can facilitate children's and husband's study also through teaching them.<a href="#n58"><sup><span id="_n58">58</span></sup></a>

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> ,את עלית עמ' 50 ,"שותפות בלימוד" </span></span>

והבנים מספרים לאמותיהם על לימודים, הן במקרא והן במשנה, וגם בגמרא...והאמהות מוסיפות להסביר ולבאר להם את לימודם, ועל דרך זה בנוגע לבעליהן...שמביעות דעתן וסברתן וכו'.

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" You Surpassed, "Partnership In Study", page 50" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And the children tell their mothers about their studies, both in scripture and in Mishnah, and also in Gemara…and the mothers add to explain and to elucidate to them their studies, and in this way [also] regarding their husbands…that they express their thoughts and explanations etc.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

A woman's Torah enhances the Torah of her husband and children. Torah learning also transforms a woman herself. To return to Rav Lichtenstein's article:

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title="Rav A. Lichtenstein, Torah Study for Women, Ten Da'at III:3" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">The woman who is to serve as the educator of the coming generation needs something to pass on, and therefore she needs the knowledge as well as a personal commitment to encourage the transmission of tradition. For this purpose it is desirable that the learning be intensified, because in this way she deepens her own commitment, her sense of responsibility. When something is well learned, it creates personal commitment. There are things that can be known in a general way, but they are not felt existentially, and therefore they do not penetrate one’s consciousness….</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="body">

Our deep, serious learning and engagement with Torah can enhance our facilitation of deep, serious learning and engagement with Torah in anyone we come across. In learning, each of us builds our communities as well as ourselves.

Although other authorities disagree, American halachic decisor and educator Rav Shlomo Wahrman holds that a woman can make a public siyyum on a tractate of Talmud with the full status of a se'udat mitzvah.<a href="#n59"><sup><span id="_n59">59</span></sup></a> On this view, our own learning does have direct import for the community.

</div>
<div class="hashkafa_question">

[expand title="Can we simultaneously facilitate Others' Study and Our Own?" tag="h2"]
<div class="hashkafa_text">

The Talmud praises women for enabling our husbands and sons to study and promises us great reward. Single women can similarly encourage friends and family to study. We should take pride in dedicating ourselves to building up Torah study for our loved ones. We feel the benefits as they develop in Torah and as we hear the Torah they have to share.

They also stand to benefit when we ourselves learn, as do we.

In <i>birchot haTorah</i>, women and men alike pray that our descendants should be devoted to Torah. Our forebears may have intoned this blessing for us. We continue the line both by intoning it for our loved ones and also by keeping ourselves in mind.

Advanced Torah study is not for all women. Many women focus spiritual efforts on other <i>mitzvot</i>. Our exemption from the formal mitzvah of <i>talmud Torah</i> provides us with the leeway to do so. It also allows us to determine what type of Torah learning will best help us improve our religious practice, build our faith, and draw closer to HaShem.

Torah study can and should be transformative. The Talmud reports that Rabbi Yosef would take particular pains to celebrate Shavuot. He explained:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> מס' פסחים סח:</span></span>

אי לאו האי יומא דקא גרים, כמה יוסף איכא בשוקא?

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" T. Pesahim 68b" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">If not for this day that caused it, how many Yosefs are there in the marketplace?</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="hashkafa_text">

Ie, if not for receiving the Torah, what would distinguish me from anyone else?

Learning Torah is not just something we do. Torah makes us who we are. Men and women are servants of God when we incorporate Torah into our lives as much as we can.

Now that women's opportunities to learn Torah have grown, we should make room for Torah in our lives. Uncertainty about women's learning and lack of social pressure make a difference and have a halachic basis. Yet there are enough options and opportunities now (on the internet alone), that we can take charge of our own learning and growth in Torah.

The importance of our own commitment to Torah study cannot be overstated. As Rav Hirsch wrote:

</div>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> חורב עה</span></span>

פעמים רבות בדברי ימי עמנו הצילו בנות ישראל את הרוח וחיי הטהרה בישראל...ורוח ישראל סבא תקום לתחיה מתוך ליבן של בנות ישראל...

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Horev 75" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">Many times in our nation's historical annals the daughters of Israel saved the spirit and life of holiness in Israel…and the ancient spirit of Israel will arise to life from within the hearts of the daughters of Israel…</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
<div class="hashkafa_text">

It is my deepest prayer that this site help spur its readers on to learn more Torah. The Jewish future depends on it.

</div>
[/expand]

</div>
<b class="summaryTitle">SUMMARY: </b><span class="summary">The Talmud describes a woman's reward for facilitating others' study. The more we learn ourselves, the more directly we can facilitate others' study and, no less important, the more we can transform ourselves. Our own learning can have a wide impact. </span>
<div class="furtherReading">
<h2>Further Reading</h2>
<ul>
 	<li>3. את עלית: אוצר שיחות מהרבי מליובאוויטש זצ"ל לנשים ונערות, פרקים ג-ד.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
 	<li>4. גוטל, הרב נריה "תלמוד תורה לנשים", מתוך טל לישראל. אור עציון, 2005.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
 	<li>5. הנקין, רב יהודה. שו"ת בני בנים חלק ג, סימן יב. ירושלים, 1998.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
 	<li>6. רוזנפלד, ב., עורך. האשה וחינוכה. אמונה, 1980.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
 	<li><a href="http://asif.co.il/download/haravarishvat%20(2).pdf"> שבט, הרב ארי יצחק. "אגרת חדשה של הרב קוק בנושא תלמוד תורה לנשים." </a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
 	<li><a href="http://archive.bermanshul.org/frimer/SpireBW200_1S040.pdf"> Sources gathered by R. Dr. Aryeh Frimer </a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
 	<li><a href="http://traditionarchive.org/news/originals/Volume%2019/No.%202/The%20Obligation%20Of%20Talmud.pdf"> Wolowelsky, Joel, ed. Women and the Study of Torah. Ktav, 2001. Esp. Harvey, Dr. Warren Z. "The Obligation of Talmud on Women According to Maimonides". </a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
 	<li>Zolty, Shoshana. And All Your Children Shall Be Learned: Women and the Study of Torah in Jewish Law. Jason Aronson, 1997.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="notes">
<h2>Notes</h2>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n1"><span id="n1">1.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> מס' סנהדרין לד.</span></span>

ו[דברי] "כפטיש יפוצץ סלע" (יר'כט:כג) מה פטיש זה מתחלק לכמה ניצוצות אף מקרא אחד יוצא לכמה טעמים

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" T. Sanhedrin 34a" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">"And [my word] is like a hammer shattered by a [hard] rock," (Yir' 23:29). Just as this hammer is split to a number of sparks, so too one verse goes out to a number of meanings.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n2"><span id="n2">2.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> ספרי פרשת עקב פיסקא ה</span></span>

...'ולמדתם אותם ושמרתם לעשותם' (דברים ה:א) מגיד הכתוב שהמעשה תלוי בתלמוד ואין תלמוד תלוי במעשה

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Sifri Parshat Ekev, 5" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">…'And learn them and observe them to perform them' (Devarim 5:1) [The verse] tells us that the action is dependent on learning, and learning is not dependent on the action.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n3"><span id="n3">3.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> ספרי פרשת ואתחנן פיסקא לד</span></span>

'ושיננתם' - שיהיו מחדדים בתוך פיך: כשאדם שואלך דבר, לא תהא מגמגם לו, אלא תהא אומר לו מיד

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Sifri Parshat Vaethanan 34" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">'And you shall repeat them'- that they will be sharp in your mouth. When a person asks you something, don’t be stuttering to him, rather be saying it to him immediately.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n4"><span id="n4">4.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> ספרי פרשת ואתחנן פיסקא ט</span></span>

'לבניך'. אלו תלמידיך

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Sifri Parshat Vaethanan 9" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">'To your sons'- These are your students.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n5"><span id="n5">5.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> משנה תורה הל' ת"ת א:ב</span></span>

אם כן למה נצטוה על בנו ועל בן בנו. להקדים בנו לבן בנו ובן בנו לבן חבירו

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Mishneh Torah Hilchot Talmud Torah 1:2" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">If so, why was he commanded concerning his son and concerning the son of his son? To put his son in front of his son's son and his son's son [in front of] his friend's son.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n6"><span id="n6">6.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> מס' ברכות כא:</span></span>

דאמר ריב"ל כל המלמד לבנו תורה מעלה עליו הכתוב כאלו קבלה מהר חורב

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" T. Berachot 21b" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">For Rav Yehoshua ben Levi said: Whoever teaches his son Torah, the scripture credits him as though he received it from Mt. Horev.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n7"><span id="n7">7.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> מס' יומא יט:</span></span>

השח שיחת חולין עובר בעשה, שנאמר: ׳ודברת בם׳, בם ולא בדברים אחרים

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" T. Yoma 19b" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">One who speaks ordinary speech transgresses a positive commandment, for it is said: 'and speak about them'- about them, and not other things.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n8"><span id="n8">8.</span></a> מס' מנחות צט:</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n9"><span id="n9">9.</span></a>See also Sefer HaMitzvot, Mitzvot Aseh 5
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> ספרי דברים פיסקא מא</span></span>

'ולעבדו', זה תלמוד ... דבר אחר 'ולעבדו' זו תפלה. .

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Sifri Devarim 41" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">'And to serve him'' that is study…another interpretation: 'and to serve him'- that is prayer.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n10"><span id="n10">10.</span></a> The halachah is found in Moed Katan 25a, its application to a woman here:
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> שו"ת רדב"ז חלק ג סימן תקנח (תתקפח)</span></span>

...אשה נמי יכולה היא ללמוד ולהיות דומה לס"ת הילכך קורע בין לאשה בין לאיש...

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Shu"t Radba"z 3:558" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">A woman also can learn and become similar to a Torah scroll. Therefore rend [garments for a scholar] whether woman or man.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n11"><span id="n11">11.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> מס' קידושין ל.</span></span>

למדו מקרא - אין מלמדו משנה;

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" T. Kiddushin 30a" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">If he has taught him written Torah, he need not teach him Mishnah.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n12"><span id="n12">12.</span></a> הל' ת"ת א:יא-יב</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n13"><span id="n13">13.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> תוספות מסכת קידושין ד"ה לא צריכא דף ל.</span></span>

...ור"ת פי' שאנו סומכין אהא דאמרינן בסנהדרין (דף כד.) בבל בלולה במקרא במשנה ובגמרא דגמרת בבל בלול מכולם.

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Tosafot Kiddushin 30a "Lo Tzricha"" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And Rabbeinu Tam explained that we rely [in allocating time for <i>talmud Torah</i>] on that which we say in Sanhedrin 24a Babylonia[n learning] is blended (בלולה) scripture, Mishnah, and gemara. That the Talmud Bavli is a blend of all of them.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n14"><span id="n14">14.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> רמ"א, שולחן ערוך יורה דעה הלכות תלמוד תורה סימן רמו ד</span></span>

..ואין לאדם לטייל בפרדס רק לאחר שמלא כריסו בשר ויין, והוא לידע איסור והיתר ודיני המצות (רמב"ם סוף מדע ס"פ ד' מהל' יסודי התורה)

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Rema, Shulhan Aruch Yoreh Deah 246:4" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">…And a person should only travel in the Pardes (other study) after he has filled his stomach with meat and wine, that is to know prohibition and permission and the laws of <i>mitzvot</i>.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n15"><span id="n15">15.</span></a> וכך משתמע ממ"ב קנה:א:ט. ור' חיי אדם, הקדמה.</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n16"><span id="n16">16.</span></a> מס' מנחות צט:</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n17"><span id="n17">17.</span></a> בה"ג קע.</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n18"><span id="n18">18.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> השגות הרמב"ן לספר המצוות לרמב"ם שכחת הלאוין</span></span>

והזהיר פן יסורו מן הלב מהודיעם לבנים ולבני בנים לדורות עולם

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Critiques of the Ramban to Rambam's Sefer haMitzvot, Left out Prohibitions" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And [the Torah] warned lest they depart from the heart from letting them be known to children and children's children for generations of eternity</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n19"><span id="n19">19.</span></a> רב שג"ר שני המאורות, "למדנות ישיבתית וקול נשי"</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n20"><span id="n20">20.</span></a>See however, R Efraim HaLivni, בין האיש לאשה, who argues that the midrashic teaching in Kiddushin 30a that takes '<i>beneichem</i>' to exclude grandchildren is a dissenting opinion, opposed to that of the Sifri. I have not seen anyone else take this approach.</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n21"><span id="n21">21.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> בית הבחירה מסכת סוטה דף כ.</span></span>

והיא סבורה שהשיגה ומקשקשת כפעמון להראות את חכמתה לכל

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Bet haBehirah, T. Sotah 20a" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And she thinks that she has achieved [deep knowledge] and swings like a bell to show her wisdom to all</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n22"><span id="n22">22.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> משנה מסכת סוטה פרק ג:ד</span></span>

רבי יהושע אומר רוצה אשה בקב ותפלות מתשעה קבין ופרישות

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Mishnah Sotah 3:4 " tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">Rabbi Yehoshua Says: A woman prefers one measure and lewdness to nine measures and piety.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n23"><span id="n23">23.</span></a>Note that the term "cunning" here does not seem to have the same negative connotation as it did in the passage from Sotah discussed above. LINK
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> מסכת נדה דף מה:</span></span>

אמר רב שמואל בר רב יצחק: מתוך שהתינוק מצוי בבית רבו נכנסת בו ערמומית תחלה

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" T. Niddah 45b" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">R. Shmuel son of Yitzhak said: Since the boy is found in his teacher's home, cunning enters him first.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n24"><span id="n24">24.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">מהר"ל חידושי אגדות מס' נדה מה:</span></span>

כי האיש יש לו שכל וחכמה ביותר הוא השכל הנבדל, אבל שכל היולאני מוכנת האשה לקבל ביותר

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title="Mahara"l Hiddushei Aggadot T. Niddah 45b" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">For the man has abstract intelligence and exceeding wisdom that is abstract intelligence, but raw intelligence a woman is prepared to receive more.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n25"><span id="n25">25.</span></a> הרב ארי יצחק שבט, "אגרת חדשה של הרב קוק בנושא תלמוד תורה לנשים" http://asif.co.il/download/haravarishvat%20(2).pdf</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n26"><span id="n26">26.</span></a> לדוג' שבת לג:</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n27"><span id="n27">27.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> תורה תמימה דברים פרק יא הערה מח</span></span>

כי כשרונות דעת ובינה שונים הן, … ולכן אף על פי שהנשים יש להן כח בבינה יתירה אבל דעתן ...קלה היא ....

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Torah Temimah Devarim 11 Note 48" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">For the skills of knowledge and discernment are different…and therefore even though women have strength of extra discernment but their knledge…is light…</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n28"><span id="n28">28.</span></a>For the classic work on gender differences in learning, see Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982.</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n29"><span id="n29">29.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> מס' סוכה כח.</span></span>

ולא אמרתי דבר שלא שמעתי מפי רבי מעולם

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Sukkah 28a" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And I didn't say anything that I didn't hear from my Rabbi ever.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n30"><span id="n30">30.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> מס' סנהדרין צד:</span></span>

בדקו מדן ועד באר שבע ולא מצאו עם הארץ מגבת ועד אנטיפרס ולא מצאו תינוק ותינוקת איש ואשה שלא היו בקיאין בהלכות טומאה וטהרה

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" T. Sanhedrin 94b" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">They checked from Dan to Beer Sheva and did not find an ignoramus. From Gevat to Antipras and did not find a male or female child man or woman who were not expert in the <i>halachot</i> of impurity and purity.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n31"><span id="n31">31.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> ירושלמי סוטה פרק ג</span></span>

ובן עזאי דלא כרבי לעזר בן עזריה

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Talmud Yerushalmi Sotah 3" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And ben 'Azzai is not like Rabbi Elazar ben 'Azaryah</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n32"><span id="n32">32.</span></a>שו"ת מהרי"ל החדשות צג</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n33"><span id="n33">33.</span></a> שו"ת מהרי"ל החדשות מה סימן ב</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n34"><span id="n34">34.</span></a><a href="http://goo.gl/aKYwMF"> Much of this presentation of the Rambam follows arguments laid out by Rav Yehuda Henkin in Bnei Banim III:12. </a>This section also draws on Rav Yosef Kafih, Hinuch HaBat Lilmod Torah, HaIsha VeHinuchah, 1980, p. 32-34. http://www.rambish.org.il/journals/h/haisha_vehinucha/haisha_vehinucha_01004.pdf R Hayyim David haLevy, Mayyim hayyim 2:89: available here, p. 18 http://archive.bermanshul.org/frimer/SpireBW200_1S040.pdf And Dr Warren Ze'ev Harvey The Obligation of Talmud on Women According to Maimonides, Tradition, 19:2, p. 122 http://traditionarchive.org/news/originals/Volume%2019/No.%202/The%20Obligation%20Of%20Talmud.pdf . Other interpretations of the Rambam are commonplace.</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n35"><span id="n35">35.</span></a>This distinction does not fit neatly with the Yerushalmi's account of Rabbi Eliezer refusing to answer the matron's question about written Torah.</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n36"><span id="n36">36.</span></a>מס' חגיגה ג. ראה לעיל LINK</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n37"><span id="n37">37.</span></a>See analogously T. Berachot 22a.</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n38"><span id="n38">38.</span></a> בני בנים 3:12, עמ' 45</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n39"><span id="n39">39.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> משנה תורה הלכות תשובה י:ה</span></span>

... כשמלמדין את הקטנים ואת הנשים וכלל עמי הארץ אין מלמדין אותן אלא לעבוד מיראה וכדי לקבל שכר, עד שתרבה דעתן ויתחכמו חכמה יתירה מגלים להם רז זה מעט מעט ומרגילין אותן לענין זה בנחת עד שישיגוהו וידעוהו ויעבדוהו מאהבה.

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Mishneh Torah Hilchot Teshuvah 10:5" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">…When teaching minors and women and the ignorant, only teach them to serve from awe and to receive reward, until their knowledge increases and they become wise with excessive wisdom, [then] reveal to them this secret slowly slowly and habituate them to this matter unhurriedly until they attain it and know it and serve Him from love:</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n40"><span id="n40">40.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> שולחן ערוך יורה דעה הלכות תלמוד תורה סימן רמו סעיף ו</span></span>

אשה שלמדה תורה יש לה שכר, אבל לא כשכר האיש, מפני שאינה מצווה ועושה. ואף על פי שיש לה שכר, צוו חז"ל שלא ילמד אדם את בתו תורה, מפני שרוב הנשים אין דעתן מכוונת להתלמד, ומוציאות דברי תורה לדברי הבאי לפי עניות דעתן. אמרו חכמים: כל המלמד את בתו תורה, כאילו מלמדה תיפלות (פי' דבר עבירה). בד"א בתורה שבע"פ; אבל תורה שבכתב לא ילמד אותה לכתחלה, ואם מלמדה אינו כמלמדה תיפלות

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Shulhan Aruch Yoreh Deah 246:6 " tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">A woman who learned Torah has a reward, but it is not like the man's reward, because she is not commanded yet does. And even though she has a reward, the sages commanded that a man not teach his daughter Torah because most women, their minds are not oriented to study. Rather, they bring Torah to matters of nonsense in accordance with the poverty of their intellects. The sages said, 'Anyone who teaches his daughter Torah is as though he has taught her nonsense. About what were [these] things said? For Oral Torah. But written Torah, he should not set out to teach her, but if he teaches her it is not like he teaches her nonsense:</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n41"><span id="n41">41.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> שו"ת מהרי"ל סימן קצט</span></span>

...אמנם יותר נראה לי שמעצמם עשו ...

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Responsa Maharil 199" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">…Indeed it seems more likely to me that they [learned women in Jewish history] did it [became learned] on their own…</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n42"><span id="n42">42.</span></a>Some even claim that this Perishah to limit Rambam and Rabbi Eliezer's scope to a father teaching his young daughter, so that study undertaken by teachers and students or fathers and adult daughters would also be permissible, with little if any restriction regarding subject. http://www.rambish.org.il/journals/h/haisha_vehinucha/haisha_vehinucha_01004.pdf</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n43"><span id="n43">43.</span></a>שבט הלוי ו:קנ</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n44"><span id="n44">44.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> שו"ת ציץ אליעזר חלק ט סימן ג</span></span>

וגם הרי המשמעות הפשוטה של הרמב"ם והטור והשו"ע ביו"ד שם היא שיש לה שכר גם כשלומדת לעצמה תורה שבע"פ

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Responsa Tzitz Eliezer 9:3" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And also behold the simple meaning of the Rambam and the Tur and the Shulhan Aruch in Yoreh Deah there is that she has a reward also when she learns <i>Torah shebe'al peh</i> on her own.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n45"><span id="n45">45.</span></a> למקביל אפשרי ראו את הראבי"ה ביחס לנשים והסבה. LINK</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n46"><span id="n46">46.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> אם בישראל, נצח, תל אביב, תשט"ו, ,עמ' 39-40 </span></span>

אין בכוחם של לימודי חול לכבות את להט הנשמה היהודית, אשר רק לימוד התורה מסוגל להשביעה. לימודי החול הם לנשמה כזהב לגוף. כלום יכול הזהב להשביע את רעבון הגוף? לעולם לא!..נפש יהודית לא תשבע מלימודי חול. רק לימודי קודש ישביעו את רעבונה, כי רק בוראה יכול לדעת במה היא ניזונה. אני מסופקת מאד אם איזושהי סטודנטית מאושרת לפעמים במידה כזאת, כפי שאני מאושרת בשעה שאני קוראת בספרי הקודש שלנו.

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" " tag="h4" expanded="true"]

[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n47"><span id="n47">47.</span></a> מאזניים למשפט א:מב</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n48"><span id="n48">48.</span></a> ויואל משה, מאמר לשון הקודש.</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n49"><span id="n49">49.</span></a> שבט הלוי ו:קנ</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n50"><span id="n50">50.</span></a> ארחות רבנו ב עמ' קצג. http://archive.bermanshul.org/frimer/SpireBW200_1S040.pdf עמ' 7.</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n51"><span id="n51">51.</span></a> שו"ת דברי חכמים עמ' רע"ח. http://archive.bermanshul.org/frimer/SpireBW200_1S040.pdf עמ' 19.</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n52"><span id="n52">52.</span></a>Rav Yosef Kafih, twentieth century leader of the Yemenite community of Jews, wrote that nearly all of Oral Torah never fell under the rubric of Rabbi Eliezer's discussion. :
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">,רב קאפח , "חינוך הבת" עמ' 32 </span></span>

אין אסור מכלל תורה שבעל פה אלא רק אותן שהן ממש "בעל פה" ובנויים לכאורה על מדות, אבל אותן שיש בהן עיקרים גדולים...אין איסור ללמדן

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title="Rav Kafih, The Girl's Education, p. 32" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">There is no prohibition from all of Torah shebe'al pah except for just those that they are really "be'al pah" oral and constructed as it were on [midrashic hermeneutical] rules, but those that have in them great principles…there is no prohibition to teach them.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n53"><span id="n53">53.</span></a>Rabbi Yehuda Henkin, as part of a lengthy responsum on women's learning Torah written in conjunction with his role as halachic decisor for Nishmat, a women's seminary, provides a different, equally original argument in defense of women's learning Oral Torah. Rav Henkin surmises that the original difficulty with women learning Oral Torah was its oral nature in the time of Rabbi Eliezer. Now that Oral Torah is itself written down in texts, perhaps the categories under discussion have shifted. Making a point of teaching women only orally what is now written misses the point. It is harder to make nonsense out of something which is clearly printed on a page than out of something taught orally. Just as mimesis is no longer independent of text, Oral Torah is no longer oral, so women may learn it freely.
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> שו"ת בני בנים ג:יב</span></span>

כי נשים סומכות על תורה שבכתב ואינן מפקפקות בה כיון שקוראות בעיניהן ואילו תורה ששומעות בעל פה מדמות שאינה בדוקא,...כיון שתורה שבעל פה ניתנה להיכתב שוב הוי כתורה שבכתב ומותר ללמדן.

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Benei Banim 3:12" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">Because women rely on Written Torah and don't question it, since they read it with their eyes, while Oral Torah that they hear orally they imagine is not necessarily so…Since <i>Torah shebe'al peh</i> has been allowed to be written it has become like Written Torah and it is permitted to teach them [women].</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n54"><span id="n54">54.</span></a> To be fair, this discussion comes from an article and not from a responsum.</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n55"><span id="n55">55.</span></a> את עלית, 45-46. http://archive.bermanshul.org/frimer/SpireBW200_1S040.pdf עמ' 15-17.</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n56"><span id="n56">56.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> את עלית, "לימוד תורה לנשים", עמ' 46,</span></span>

ויש לומר, שכיון שלעתיד לבוא תתגלה המעלה של "אשת חיל עטרת בעלה", "נקבה תסובב גבר", לכן, החידוש וההוספה בלימוד התורה בדורות האחרונים הוא בהדגשה יתירה בנוגע לנשים.

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" You Surpassed, "Torah Learning for Women", p. 46" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And one can say, that since in the future the value of "A woman of vaor is the crown of her husband", "A female encircles a man", therefore, the renewal and addition in learning Torah in the last generations is with an extra emphasis regarding women.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n57"><span id="n57">57.</span></a>http://archive.bermanshul.org/frimer/SpireBW200_1S040.pdf p. 18.</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n58"><span id="n58">58.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> רמ"א שו"ע יורה דעה סימן רמו</span></span>

הגה ומ"מ חייבת האשה ללמוד דינים השייכים לאשה (אגור בשם סמ"ג) ואשה אינה חייבת ללמד את בנה תורה ומ"מ אם עוזרת לבנה או לבעלה שיעסקו בתורה חולקת שכר בהדייהו (הגהות מיי' פ"א דת"ח וסמ"ג):

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Rema, Shulhan Aruch Yoreh Deah 246" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">Gloss: And in any case a woman is obligated to learn the laws that apply to a woman and a woman is not obligated to teach her son Torah and in any case if she helps her son or her husband that they should occupy themselves with Torah she shares reward with them.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom"><a href="#_n59"><span id="n59">59.</span></a> מס' ברכות יז.</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n60"><span id="n60">60.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> את עלית, "שותפות בלימוד", עמ' 50 והבנים </span></span>

מספרים לאמותיהם על לימודים, הן במקרא והן במשנה, וגם בגמרא...והאמהות מוסיפות להסביר ולבאר להם את לימודם, ועל דרך זה בנוגע לבעליהן...

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" You Surpassed, "Partnership In Study", page 50 " tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And the children tell their mothers about their studies, both in scripture and in Mishnah, and also in Gemara…and the mothers add to explain and to elucidate to them their studies, and in this way [also] regarding their husbands…</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
<div class="note-bottom">

<a href="#_n61"><span id="n61">61.</span></a>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> שארית יוסף ב:ד</span></span>

אשה מסיימת בט ימים.

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title="R Wahrman, She'erit Yosef 2:4" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">A woman makes a siyyum during the nine days [that counts to allow for <a href="http://google.com"> eating meat]</a></p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>
</div>
</div>

[tabby title="Sources"]
<div>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Background: Learning Torah</h3>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">1. משלי פרק ג:יח</span></span>

עֵץ חַיִּים הִיא לַמַּחֲזִיקִים בָּהּ וְתֹמְכֶיהָ מְאֻשָּׁר

&nbsp;

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Mishlei 3:18" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">It is a tree of life to those who grasp it and its supporters are happy:</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>

<hr style="width: 50%; margin: 20px auto 20px auto;" />

<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">2. דברים לא:יב</span></span>

הַקְהֵל אֶת-הָעָם הָאֲנָשִׁים וְהַנָּשִׁים וְהַטַּף וְגֵרְךָ אֲשֶׁר בִּשְׁעָרֶיךָ לְמַעַן יִשְׁמְעוּ וּלְמַעַן יִלְמְדוּ וְיָרְאוּ אֶת-ה' אֱלֹהֵיכֶם וְשָׁמְרוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת אֶת-כָּל-דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת

&nbsp;

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Devarim 31:12" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">Assemble the people: the men, the women, and the children, and your stranger who is in your gates, that they should hear and that they should learn, and they will fear the Lord your God, and they will observe [them] to perform all the words of this teaching [Torah].</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>

<hr style="width: 50%; margin: 20px auto 20px auto;" />

<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">3. דברים ה:א</span></span>

ַיּויִקְרָא מֹשֶׁה אֶל-כָּל-יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת-הַחֻקִּים וְאֶת-הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי דֹּבֵר בְּאָזְנֵיכֶם הַיּוֹם וּלְמַדְתֶּם אֹתָם וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם לַעֲשֹׂתָם

&nbsp;

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Devarim 5:1" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And Moshe called to all of Israel and said to them, 'Hear Israel the ordinances and the laws that I speak in your ears today, and learn them and observe [them] to perform them':</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>

<hr style="width: 50%; margin: 20px auto 20px auto;" />

<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">4. דברים ו:ז</span></span>

וְשִׁנַּנְתָּם לְבָנֶיךָ וְדִבַּרְתָּ בָּם בְּשִׁבְתְּךָ בְּבֵיתֶךָ וּבְלֶכְתְּךָ בַדֶּרֶךְ וּבְשָׁכְבְּךָ וּבְקוּמֶךָ

&nbsp;

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Devarim 6:7" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And you shall repeat them [<i>veshinantam</i>] to your children and you shall speak of them [<i>vedibarta bam</i>], in your sitting in your home and in your going on the road and in your lying down and in your arising:</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>

<hr style="width: 50%; margin: 20px auto 20px auto;" />

<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">5. יהושע א:ח</span></span>

והגית בו יומם ולילה

&nbsp;

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Yehoshua 1:8" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And you shall ponder it day and night.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>

<hr style="width: 50%; margin: 20px auto 20px auto;" />

<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">6. תניא ליקוטי אמרים פרק ה</span></span>

כשאדם מבין ומשיג את ההלכה במשנה ובגמרא לאשורה, על בוריה, הרי שכלו תופש ומקיף אותה וגם שכלו מלובש באותה שעה. התורה נמצאת בשכלו, והוא נמצא בתורה...הרי זה משיג בשכלו ותופש רצונו וחכמתו של הקב"ה.

&nbsp;

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Tanya Likutei Amarim, Ch. 5" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">When a person understands and attains a halachah in the Mishnah and in the Talmud to its correct [nature], to its fundamentals, his mind grasps and surrounds it and his mind, too, becomes clothed at that time. The Torah is found in his intellect, and he is found in the Torah…behold this one reaches [it] with his intellect and grasps the will and wisdom of the Holy One Blessed Be He.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>

<hr style="width: 50%; margin: 20px auto 20px auto;" />

<h3 style="text-align: center;">The Mitzvah of <i>Talmud Torah</i></h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Women's Exemption</h3>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">7. דברים יא:יט</span></span>

וְלִמַּדְתֶּם אֹתָם אֶת-בְּנֵיכֶם, לְדַבֵּר בָּם, בְּשִׁבְתְּךָ בְּבֵיתֶךָ וּבְלֶכְתְּךָ בַדֶּרֶךְ, וּבְשָׁכְבְּךָ וּבְקוּמֶךָ

&nbsp;

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Devarim 11:19" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And you will teach them [to] your children [<i>beneichem</i>] to speak of them, in your sitting in your home and in your going on the way and in your lying down and in your arising:</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>

<hr style="width: 50%; margin: 20px auto 20px auto;" />

<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">8. ספרי מו</span></span>

: ולמדתם אתם את בניכם ולאו בנותיכם

&nbsp;

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Sifri 46" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">"And you will teach them [to] your sons [<i>beneichem</i>]"-- and not to your daughters.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>

<hr style="width: 50%; margin: 20px auto 20px auto;" />

<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">9. מס' קידושין כט:</span></span>

ואיהי, מנלן דלא מיחייבה למילף נפשה? דכתיב ולימדתם, "ולמדתם". כל שאחרים מצווין ללמדו, מצווה ללמד את עצמו. וכל שאין אחרים מצווין ללמדו אין מצווה ללמד את עצמו

&nbsp;

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" T. Kiddushin 29b" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And she, whence [do we know] that she is not obligated to learn herself? As it is written "and you will teach" [in deficient spelling, looking like] and you will learn. Anyone that others are commanded to teach him, is commanded to learn himself. And anyone that others are not commanded to teach him, is not commanded to learn himself.</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>

<hr style="width: 50%; margin: 20px auto 20px auto;" />

<h3 style="text-align: center;">Rabbinic Obligation or Prohibition</h3>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">10. משנה מסכת סוטה ג:ד</span></span>

מכאן אומר בן עזאי: חייב אדם ללמד את בתו תורה, שאם תשתה תדע שהזכות תולה לה. ר"א אומר כל המלמד בתו תורה לומדה תפלות ...

&nbsp;

</div>
<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Mishnah Sotah 3:4" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">From here ben Azzai says: A man is obligated to teach his daughter Torah, [so] that if she drinks [the <i>sotah</i> fluids] she will know that [it is] the merit that suspends [punishment] for her. Rabbi Eliezer says: Anyone who teaches his daughter Torah is teaching her <i>tiflut</i> [nonsense or lewdness].</p>
[/expandsub1]

</div>

<hr style="width: 50%; margin: 20px auto 20px auto;" />

<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">11. מס' סוטה כא:</span></span>

א"ר אבהו מאי טעמא דר"א דכתיב אני חכמה שכנתי ערמה כיון שנכנסה חכמה באדם נכנסה עמו ערמומית

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" T. Sotah 21b" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">Rabbi Abbahu said: What is Rabbi Eliezer's rationale? For it is written 'I, wisdom, dwell [in] craftiness'. When wisdom has entered a person, craftiness enters with it.</p>
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<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">12. תלמוד ירושלמי מסכת סוטה ג:ד</span></span>

מטרונה שאלה את ר' לעזר: מפני מה חט אחת במעשה העגל, והן מתים בה שלש מיתות? אמ' לה: אין חכמתה שלאשה אלא בפילכה. דכת' (שמות לה) "וכל אשה חכמת לב בידיה טוו." אמ' לו הורקנוס בנו: בשביל שלא להשיבה דבר אחד מן התורה, איבדת ממני שלש מאות כור מעשר בכל שנה. אמ' ליה: ישרפו דברי תורה ואל ימסרו לנשים.

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Talmud Yerushalmi Sotah 3:4" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">A matron asked Rabbi Eliezer: Why is there one sin in the story of the [golden] calf, but they die for it three [types] of death? He said to her: A woman's wisdom is only in her spindle, as it is written, "And every woman wise of heart wove [for the <i>mishkan</i>] with her hands," (Shemot 35). His son Hurkanus said to him: For the sake of not answering her one matter from the Torah, you have lost for me 300 measures [roughly 360 liters] of the [Levite] tithe per annum. He [Rabbi Eliezer] said to him [his son]: [Better that] matters of Torah be burnt and they not be transmitted to women.</p>
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<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">13. מס' נדה מה:</span></span>

בינה יתירה באשה יותר מבאיש

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" T. Niddah 45b" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">There is more discernment [<i>binah</i>] in a woman than in a man.</p>
[/expandsub1]

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<h3 style="text-align: center;">Women's Obligation</h3>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">14. מס' חגיגה דף ג.</span></span>

"הקהל את העם האנשים והנשים והטף [...לְמַעַן יִשְׁמְעוּ וּלְמַעַן יִלְמְדוּ, וְיָרְאוּ אֶת-ה' אֱלֹהֵיכֶם, וְשָׁמְרוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת, אֶת-כָּל-דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת]." אם אנשים באים ל'למוד', נשים באות ל'שמוע', טף-- למה באין? כדי ליתן שכר למביאיהן.

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" T. Chagigah 3a" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">"Assemble the people: the men, the women, and the children…[that they should hear and that they should learn, and they will fear the Lord your God, and they will observe [them] to perform all the words of this Torah]." If 'the men' come to 'learn', 'women' come to 'listen', 'children'—why do they come? In order to give reward to those who bring them.</p>
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<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">15. תוספות מס' סוטה כא:</span></span>

ונראה דפי' דמצוה לשמוע הנשים כדי שידעו לקיים מצוה...

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Tosafot T. Sotah 21b" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And it appears that its explanation [is] that [it is] a mitzvah for the women to hear in order that they [can] know [how] to fulfill [the Divine] command….</p>
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<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">16. ספר חסידים סימן שיג</span></span>

חייב אדם ללמוד לבנותיו המצות, כגון פסקי הלכות. ומה שאמרו, שהמלמד לאשה תורה כאלו מלמדה תיפלות, זהו עומק תלמוד וטעמי המצות וסודי התורה. אותן אין מלמדין לאשה ולקטן. אבל הלכות מצות ילמד לה, שאם לא תדע הלכות שבת, איך תשמור שבת? וכן כל מצות כדי לעשות להזהר במצות.

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Sefer Hasidim 313" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">A man is obligated to teach his daughters the <i>mitzvot</i>, such as halachic rulings. And that which they said, that he who teaches a woman Torah is as though he teaches her <i>tiflut</i>, that [refers specifically to] depth of Talmud and reasons for commandments and secrets of the Torah. Those we don't teach to a woman and to a minor. But the laws of <i>mitzvot</i> he should teach her, for if she will not know the laws of Shabbat, how will she keep Shabbat? And similarly all <i>mitzvot</i>, in order to perform [them and] to be careful of the <i>mitzvot</i>.</p>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">Text Study Vs. Imitation</h3>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">17. שו"ת מהרי"ל סימן קצט</span></span>

ואי משום דידעו לקיים המצות, אפשר שילמדו ע"פ הקבלה השרשים והכללות. וכשיסתפקו ישאלו למורה. כאשר אנו רואין בדורינו שבקיאות הרבה בדיני מליחה והדחה וניקור והלכות נדה וכיוצא בזה, והכל ע"פ הקבלה מבחוץ,

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Responsa Maharil Siman 199" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And if [you suggest formal study] that they should know to perform <i>mitzvot</i>, it's possible that they learn the key points and the rules by means of received tradition. And when they'll have a doubt they'll ask a teacher [of halachah]. As we see in our generation, that they are rather expert in the laws of salting and rinsing [meat after slaughter] and removing the sciatic nerve and the laws of niddah and the like, and everything is in accordance with the received tradition from their environment.</p>
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<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">18. שו"ת מהרי"ל החדשות צג</span></span>

הנח להו לבנות ישראל, אם אינן נביאות הן, בנות נביאות הן. ומנעוריהן בקיאין הן על פי אימותן והורתן. ושורש רוב החומרות דרבנן, דמקילי הרבה בנות ע"ה ונשותיהן. על כן מוטל על כל חכם ות"ח להודיעם ולהפרישם מאיסור ולהדריכן בדרך ישרה, ולכל הפחות בני ביתו והם יודיעו לחברותיהם...

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" New Responsa Maharil 93" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">Leave it to them to the daughters of Israel, [for] if they are not prophetesses, they are daughters of prohetesses. And from their youths they are expert in accordance with their mothers and their teachings. And the root of most rabbinic stringencies is that many daughters and wives of the unlearned are lenient. Therefore, it is [incumbent] upon every sage and student of the sages to make them aware of and to separate them from prohibition and to guide them in the straight path, at the least the members of his household. And they will let it be known to their fellow women…</p>
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<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">19. ספר מצוות קטן הקדמה</span></span>

....וגם כתב עוד לנשים המצות הנוהגות להם, עשה ולאו, ותועיל להן הקריאה והדקדוק בהן כאשר יועיל עסק התלמוד לאנשים

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Sefer Mitzvot Katan (SeMa"K), Introduction" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">…and he also wrote further to women [that] the <i>mitzvot</i> that they practice for them, positive and negative, and reading and learning them precisely will prove effective, just as the occupation with Talmud is effective for men.</p>
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<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">20. שו"ע יורה דעה סימן רמו</span></span>

הגה ומ"מ חייבת האשה ללמוד דינים השייכים לאשה

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Rema Yoreh Deah 246" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">Gloss And in any case the woman is obligated to learn laws that apply to a woman.</p>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">Rambam's Ruling</h3>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">21. משנה תורה הלכות תלמוד תורה א:יג</span></span>

אשה שלמדה תורה יש לה שכר, אבל אינו כשכר האיש מפני שלא נצטוית וכל העושה דבר שאינו מצווה עליו לעשותו אין שכרו כשכר המצווה שעשה אלא פחות ממנו. ואע"פ שיש לה שכר, צוו חכמים שלא ילמד אדם את בתו תורה מפני שרוב הנשים אין דעתם מכוונת להתלמד. אלא הן מוציאות דברי תורה לדברי הבאי לפי עניות דעתן. אמרו חכמים כל המלמד את בתו תורה כאילו למדה תפלות. במה דברים אמורים בתורה שבעל פה, אבל תורה שבכתב לא ילמד אותה לכתחלה ואם למדה אינו כמלמדה תפלות:

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Mishneh Torah Laws of talmud Torah 1:13" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">A woman who learned Torah has a reward, but it is not like the man's reward, because she is not commanded, and anyone who does something which he is not a commanded upon him to do it, his reward is not like the reward of one who is commanded and does, but less than it. And even though she has a reward, the sages commanded that a man not teach his daughter Torah because most women, their minds are not oriented to study. Rather, they bring Torah to matters of nonsense in accordance with the poverty of their intellects. The sages said, 'Anyone who teaches his daughter Torah is as though he has taught her nonsense. About what were [these] things said? For Oral Torah. But Written Torah, he should not set out to teach her but if he taught her it is not like he taught her nonsense:</p>
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<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">22. ט"ז יורה דעה סימן רמו ס"ק ד</span></span>

נראה לי דהתם לא דרש המלך כי אם פשוטי הדברים וזה באמת מותר אף לדידן לכתחלה כמו שהוא המנהג בכל יום. מה שאין כן בלימוד פירוש דברי תורה דרך התחכמות והבנה, אסרו לכתחלה

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Taz Yoreh Deah 246:4" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">It seems to me that there [in <i>hakhel</i>] the king only explained the simple meaning of the matters and this is truly permissible even for us from the outset, as is the custom every day. Which is not the case in learning the explanation of matters of Torah by means of wise thinking and understanding, [which] they prohibited ab initio.</p>
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<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">23. משנה תורה הלכות יסודי התורה ד:יג</span></span>

...שבחמש מצות האלו הם שחכמים הראשונים קוראין אותו פרדס כמו שאמרו ארבעה נכנסו לפרדס....ואני אומר שאין ראוי לטייל בפרדס אלא מי שנתמלא כריסו לחם ובשר. ולחם ובשר הוא לידע האסור והמותר וכיוצא בהם משאר המצות....ואפשר שידעם הכל קטן וגדול איש ואשה בעל לב רחב ובעל לב קצר:

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Mishneh Torah, Laws of the Fundamentals of the Torah, 4:13 " tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">…That in these five <i>mitzvot</i> [belief in God, rejecting other Gods, recognizing His unity, loving God and having awe of God] these are that which the early sages call Pardes, as they said "Four entered the Pardes"…And I say that the only one fit to walk in the Pardes is one whose belly is full with bread and meat. And bread and meat is to know the prohibited and the permitted and the like from among the other <i>mitzvot</i>….and everyone can know them, a minor and an adult, a man and a woman, a person with a wide heart and a person short of heart.</p>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">Independent Study</h3>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">24. שו"ת מהרי"ל החדשות סימן מה</span></span>

ודווקא המלמד לבתו אבל היא שלמדה בעצמה יש לה שכר... שהיא מכוונת לטוב'.

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" New Responsa Maharil 45" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And specifically [Rambam referred to] he who teaches his daughter, but she that learned on her own has reward for she intends for good.</p>
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<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">25. פרישה רמו:טו </span></span>

אבל אם למדה לעצמה אנו רואין שיצאה מהרוב ולכך כתב לעיל שיש לה שכר ורצונו לומר אם למדה תורה על מכונה שאינה מוציאה לדברי הבאי. אבל האב אינו רשאי ללמדה דדילמא תוציא דבריה לדברי הבאי כי הוא אינו יודע מה שבלבה...

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Perishah 246:15" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">But if she learned for herself, we see that she departed from the majority and therefore he [the Rambam] wrote that she has a reward and he meant to say if she learned Torah correctly that she is not taking Torah to lewdness. But the father is not permitted to teach her for perhaps she will take its [Torah's] words to lewdness, for he does not know what is in her heart.</p>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">Turning Point: Bais Yaakov</h3>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">26. פירוש רש"ר הירש לתורה דברים יג:ו </span></span>

"ולמדתם"...אותה הבנה של ספרות היהדות ואותה ידיעה של המצוות, הדרושה כדי לקיים את "ויראו את-ה' אלהיכם ושמרו לעשות את-כל-דברי התורה הזאת" (להלן לא, יב)—אותה יש להקנות לבנותינו לא פחות מאשר לבנינו...וכן נהגו בישראל מאז ומתמיד, ועדות לכך היא ספרות שלמה באידיש שנכתבה בעיקר לצורך הנשים כדי לאפשר להן את הבנת המקרא והתפילות ולהקנות להן ידיעה עממית של ההלכה ושל תורת המוסר של החכמים.

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" R S R Hirsch Torah Commentary Devarim 6:13 " tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">…This same understanding of Jewish literature and this knowledge of the <i>mitzvot</i>, which is demanded in order to fulfill "and fear the Lord your God and observe to perform all the words of this Torah" (below 31, 12)—this should be transferred to our daughters no less than to our sons…and so they have practiced among [the people] Israel always, and testament to that is the complete literature in Yiddish that was written primarily for the need of women in order to enable them [to have] comprehension of the Bible and of the prayers and to transfer to them common knowledge of halachah and of ethical teachings of our sages.</p>
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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title="Sarah Schenirer, Em BeYisrael, Part I p. 39-40" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">It is not in the power of secular studies to quench the flame of the Jewish soul, that only learning of Torah has the capacity to satisfy. Secular studies are to the soul as gold to the body. Can gold satisfy physical hunger? Never!... A Jewish soul will not be satisfied from secular studies. Only sacred studies will satisfy her hunger, for only her Creator can know with what she is nourished. I highly doubt that there is any student as happy at times to that extent that I am happy when I read our sacred texts.</p>
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<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">27. לקוטי הלכות חפץ חיים סוטה כא</span></span>

המלמד את בתו תורה...נראה דכל זה דוקא בזמנים שלפנינו שקבלת האבות היתה חזקה מאוד אצל כל אחד ואחד להתנהג בדרך שדרכו בו אבותיו וכמאמר הכתוב, "שאל אביך ויגדך." בזה היינו יכולים לומר שלא תלמוד הבת תורה ותסמוך בהנהגה על אבותיה הישרים. כעת בעוונותינו הרבים קבלת האבות נתרופפה מאוד מאוד וגם מצוי שאינו במקום אבות כלל. בפרט אותן שמרגילין עצמן ללמוד כתב ולשון העמים בוודאי מצוה רבה ללמד אותן חומש וגם נביאים וכתובים ומוסרי חז"ל כגון מסכת אבות וספר מנורת המאור כדי שתאומת אצלן ענין אמונתינו הקדושה. אם לא עלול שיסורו לגמרי מדרך ה' ויעברו על כל יסודי הדת ח"ו.

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Likkutei Halachot Sotah 21" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">One who teaches his daughter Torah…It seems that all this is specific to times preceding us when the received ancestral tradition was very strong for each and every individual to act in the way that his forefathers acted, like the saying of the verse: 'ask your father and he will tell you.' Thus we were able to say that a daughter should not learn Torah and she should rely in her conduct on her righteous forfathers. Now in our great iniquities, the received ancestral tradition has become very, very weakened and it's also common that one is not in the place of his forefathers[' residence] at all. Especially those [women] who accustom themselves to study writing and language of the nations [i.e. secular learning], certainly it is a great mitzvah to teach them <i>humash</i> and also Prophets and Writings and the ethics of our sages of blessed memory such as [Mishnah] tractate Avot and the book Menorat haMeor, in order that the matter or our holy faith be authenticated to them. If not, they are bound to deviate completely from the path of HaShem, and to transgress all the fundamentals of the religion, God forbid.</p>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">What To Study: Written Torah</h3>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">28. שו"ת שבט הלוי ו:קנ</span></span>

אין לנו היתר ללמוד עם הבנות תנ"ך עם המפרשים העמוקים כמו הרמב"ן והא"ע וכדומה וגם פרש"י עה"ת הלא מלא וגדוש דרשות חז"ל תורה שבע"פ שחז"ל רחקו אותם מזה אלא פשוטן של העניינים עם מוסרי חז"ל ודרשתם ומדרשים שהם נוגעים ליראת שמים מוסר צניעות או הלכות פסוקות להם, וידעתי שרוב בתי ספר לבנות בדורנו אין עומדים בזה ומפריזים על המידה ונגד ההלכה...ודבר פשוט שהריעותא של כאלו מלמדם תפלות תצמח בין מוקדם בין מאוחר וד"ת וגזירתם לא ישתנו לעולם...

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Responsa Shevet haLevi 6:150" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">We don't have permission to study Bible with girls with the deep commentators such as the Ramba"n and Ibn Ezra and so forth, and even the commentary of Rash"I on the Torah is full and stuffed [with] homilies of our sages of blessed memory, Oral Torah, from which our sages of blessed memory distanced them [girls]. Only [allowed is study of] the simple meaning of matters, alongside ethics of our sages of blessed memory and their homilies and midrashim that touch [on] fear of heaven, ethics, modesty, or clear halachic rulings for them [women]. And I've known that most girls' schools in our generation do not withstand this [demand to study more] and go beyond what is appropriate and against the halachah….and it is a simple matter that the negative element of "as though he teaches them nonsense" will sprout, whether sooner or later. And words of Torah and their decrees [of our sages] will never change…</p>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">What to Study: Oral Torah</h3>
<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">29. שו"ת אגרות משה יורה דעה חלק ג סימן פז</span></span>

ורק פרקי אבות משום שהוא עניני מוסר והנהגות טובות יש ללמדם בהסבר לעוררן לאהבת תורה ולמדות טובות, אבל לא שאר המסכתות...

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Responsa Igrot Moshe Yoreh Deah 3:87" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And only Pirkei Avot because it is matters of ethics and good conduct should [one] teach them with explanations to arouse them to love of Torah and to good attributes, but not the rest of the tractates…</p>
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<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">30. מאמר מרדכי א יו"ד יא</span></span>

כבר כתבו האחרונים שבימינו מותר לאשה ללמוד תורה, הן תורה שבכתב והן תורה שבעל פה...ואף המורה רשאי ללמדה...שבימינו אין הנשים ספונות בביתן כפי שהיה בעבר, ומוטב שתלמד דברי קודש מאשר תקרא דברים אסורים ודברי הבאי.

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[expandsub1 title=" Ma'amar Mordechai I Yoreh Deah 11" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">The later halachic authorities have already written that in our days it is permitted for a woman to learn Torah, both Written Torah and Oral Torah…and even the teacher is permitted to teach her…for in our days women are not enclosed in their homes as was in the past, and it is better that she should learn holy matters than that she should read forbidden or lewd matters.</p>
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<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">31. מפניני הרב קסז </span></span>

...הנשים לא יסכימו להתנהג לפי התורה אם הענין לא יהיה מובן להן ממקורו במקרא ובגמרא...יש בעיות מסובכות המופיעות בכל יום בעולם הטכני שלנו, ואם בנות לא ילמדו יסודות התורה מן החומש ומן הגמרא עם פירושי הראשונים, אז ח"ו תפסיק היהדות האמיתית שלנו

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" MiPeninei HaRav 167" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">Women will not consent to conduct themselves in accordance with Torah if the matter will not be understood by them from its source in scripture and in Gemara…There are complicated problems that appear every day in our technical world, and if girls will not learn the fundamentals of Torah from the <i>humash</i> and from the Gemara with the commentaries of the early authorities, then God forbid our authentic Judaism will come to a halt.</p>
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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Torah Study for Women, Ten Da'at III:3" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">I am not opposed to teaching women Talmud. From a practical point of view, this is somewhat difficult because many women seem to lack the motivation, a societal support is missing and, more importantly, there is lacking a desire to be unconditionally committed to such learning in the future… I am also not convinced that it is desirable to press women to study Talmud in such an intensive form. After all, halachah does differentiate between men and women in this matter, and their respective life roles are also different. But when one speaks about the ability to study a page of Talmud, to understand it and enjoy it, I see no reason to deny these teachings to women. And it is even necessary to establish this as an integral part of the school curriculum, an actual <i>shiur</i>.</p>
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<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">32. ר' מ"מ שניאורסון, לימוד תורה לנשים </span></span>

...הרי לא זו בלבד שמותר להן ללמוד תורה שבעל פה, אלא יתירה מזה, על פי טעם הלכה זו עצמה – צריך ללמדן תושבע"פ, לא רק לימוד הלכות פסוקות בלי טעמיהן אלא גם לימוד טעמי ההלכות, ועד לשקלא וטריא שבתורה, שמטבע האדם (איש או אשה) שחפץ ומתענג יותר בלימוד זה, שעל ידי זה תהיה אצלן התפתחות החושים והכשרונות ("ערמומית") ברוח תורתנו הקדושה..שענין זה הוא מהחידושים לטובה שבדורות האחרונים: אע"פ שה(היתר, ויתירה מזה ה)צורך בדורות האחרונים בלימוד תושבע"פ לנשים הוא מצד ירידת הדורות...הרי, התוצאה בפועל ממש (תהי' הסיבה איזו שתהי')—היא לטובה, שע"י זה נתוסף יותר בלימוד התורה. ויש לומר שהטעם שזכינו להוספה בלימוד התורה דנשים בדורות האחרונים דוקא...כיון שבסוף זמן הגלות מודגשת יותר ההכנה לזמן הגאולה."

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[expandsub1 title="R. M.M. Schneerson, Torah Study for Women " tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">…Behold it is not only permissible for them to learn Oral Torah, but more than that, according to the very rationale of this halachah—[one] must teach them Oral Torah, not just study of halachic rulings without their rationales but also learning the reasons behind the commandments, up until the give and take that is in the Torah, for it is from the nature of a person (man or woman) that he desires and takes greater pleasure in this learning, that by its means they will develop senses and skills ("cunning") in the spirit of our holy Torah…For this matter is among the good new developments of the latest enerations: even though the (permission, and more than that, the) need in recent generations for women's learning Oral Torah is from the aspect of the decline of generations…behold, the actual result really (let the reason be what it may)—is for good, for by means of this, there is additional Torah study. And one could say that the reason we have merited the addition of women's Torah study specifically in recent generations…is since at the end of the time of diaspora, the preparation for the time of redemption is more emphasized.</p>
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<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">33. מים חיים חלק ב סימן פט</span></span>

ההיתר ללמד בנות תורה שבע"פ אינו סתם קולא שהומצאה בזמננו אלא שהוא מצוי בגופה של ההלכה...

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" Mayyim Hayyim 2:89" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">The permission to teach girls <i>Torah shebe'al peh</i> is not just a leniency that was invented in our time, but rather is found within the halachic corpus…</p>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">Our Relationship To Study</h3>
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<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">34. מס' סוטה .דף כא</span></span>

רבינא אמר לעולם זכות תורה ודקאמרת אינה מצווה ועושה נהי דפקודי לא מפקדא באגרא דמקרין ומתניין בנייהו ונטרן להו לגברייהו עד דאתו מבי מדרשא מי לא פלגאן בהדייהו

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" T. Sotah 21a" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">Ravina said: It is always the merit of Torah [that suspends a <i>sotah</i>'s punishment]. And that which you said, that she [has the status of] one who is not commanded yet performs: Albeit she is not command, [but] through the reward of reading [verses] and repeating [mishnayot to] their sons and watching out for their husbands till they come from the <i>bet midrash</i>, do they not share [the reward] with them?</p>
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<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">35. ,את עלית עמ' 50 ,"שותפות בלימוד" </span></span>

והבנים מספרים לאמותיהם על לימודים, הן במקרא והן במשנה, וגם בגמרא...והאמהות מוסיפות להסביר ולבאר להם את לימודם, ועל דרך זה בנוגע לבעליהן...שמביעות דעתן וסברתן וכו'.

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" You Surpassed, "Partnership In Study", page 50" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">And the children tell their mothers about their studies, both in scripture and in Mishnah, and also in Gemara…and the mothers add to explain and to elucidate to them their studies, and in this way [also] regarding their husbands…that they express their thoughts and explanations etc.</p>
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[expandsub1 title="Rav A. Lichtenstein, Torah Study for Women, Ten Da'at III:3" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">The woman who is to serve as the educator of the coming generation needs something to pass on, and therefore she needs the knowledge as well as a personal commitment to encourage the transmission of tradition. For this purpose it is desirable that the learning be intensified, because in this way she deepens her own commitment, her sense of responsibility. When something is well learned, it creates personal commitment. There are things that can be known in a general way, but they are not felt existentially, and therefore they do not penetrate one’s consciousness….</p>
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<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">36. מס' פסחים סח:</span></span>

אי לאו האי יומא דקא גרים, כמה יוסף איכא בשוקא?

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<div class="eng-source">

[expandsub1 title=" T. Pesahim 68b" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">If not for this day that caused it, how many Yosefs are there in the marketplace?</p>
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<div class="heb-source">

<span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name">37. חורב עה</span></span>

פעמים רבות בדברי ימי עמנו הצילו בנות ישראל את הרוח וחיי הטהרה בישראל...ורוח ישראל סבא תקום לתחיה מתוך ליבן של בנות ישראל...

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[expandsub1 title=" Horev 75" tag="h4" expanded="true"]
<p class="chapter-color">Many times in our nation's historical annals the daughters of Israel saved the spirit and life of holiness in Israel…and the ancient spirit of Israel will arise to life from within the hearts of the daughters of Israel…</p>
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 [tabby title="Q&amp;A"] <p class="section-header">Hashkafic Q&amp;A</p> <div class="hashkafa_question"> [expand title="Should we be doing this?" tag="h2"] <span class="hashkafah_content"> <div class="hashkafa_text"> <p>This, what we do here on this site, learning Torah, directly from sources, including the Talmud and halachic codes. </p> <p>For many women, this question does not register. Torah study holds little appeal or interest. For some, the very question is an insult. After all, men do not have to entertain questions about the propriety or importance of their Torah learning. </p> <p>One reason for the ubiquity of questions about the appropriateness of source-based halachah study for women, is that our communities exhibit ambivalence towards women's learning. </p> <p>Deep uncertainty about women's learning appears in many guises: The father who learns every Shabbat with his sons, but not with his daughters. The school that teaches Mishnah to boys and not to girls. The family friends who give the bar mitzvah religious books and the bat mitzvah jewelry. The parents who send their sons to learn in Israel, but keep their daughters close to home. The dating prospect who won't go out with a 'girl who learns.' The Rabbi who says certain seminaries are off limits because of their curricula. Communal initiatives for women to devote time to acts of loving-kindness (or to less lofty pursuits), but not to study. The couples who make great efforts so that the husband can learn daily, while the wife finds no time to learn Torah herself. The local <i>batei midrash</i> (houses of study) that women never enter and often do not seek to enter. </p> </div> <div class="heb-source"><span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> משלי פרק ג:יח</span></span><p>עֵץ חַיִּים הִיא לַמַּחֲזִיקִים בָּהּ וְתֹמְכֶיהָ מְאֻשָּׁר </p> </div> <div class="eng-source"> [expandsub1 title=" Mishlei 3:18" tag="h4" expanded="true"] <p class="chapter-color">It is a tree of life to those who grasp it and its supporters are happy: </p> [/expandsub1] </div> <div class="hashkafa_text"> <p>While it's clear that Torah is "a tree of life," it is less clear what role learning plays in a woman's "holding fast to it." </p> <p>Can we grasp Torah without studying it? Do resistance, ambivalence, or indifference to women's Torah learning have halachic roots? Is the recent growth of frameworks for women's study rooted in halachah as well? In this article, we trace community ambivalence to Torah study to its halachic roots. </p> </div></span> [/expand] </div> <div class="hashkafa_question"> [expand title="Why do you learn Torah?" tag="h2"] <span class="hashkafah_content"> <div class="hashkafa_text"> <p>Women learn Torah in many different ways, for many different reasons. What are yours? How would you describe your connection to Torah and what you seek in learning it? How does your relationship to <i>talmud Torah</i> compare to your relationship to other <i>mitzvot</i>?LINK TO FORUM </p> </div></span> [/expand] </div> <div class="hashkafa_question"> [expand title="Is this compelling reason to exempt women from the mitzvah?" tag="h2"] <span class="hashkafah_content"> <div class="hashkafa_text"> <p>Hebrew grammar treats a noun referring to a mixed-gender group as a masculine plural, so that the word "<i>beneichem</i>" can mean 'your sons' or your children'. Sometimes the Torah refers to all Jews as a group and sometimes it explicitly distinguishes women from men. In ambiguous cases such as the word "<i>beneichem</i>" in this verse, our sages often stipulate which meaning is correct. Whether or not females are included varies from verse to verse, and thus depends on both context and tradition. </p> <p>Midrashic readings often provide textual derivations for a halachah. Those derivations, following carefully formulated traditional exegetical rules, can be the very source of the halachah. Sometimes, though, a midrash expounds texts in order to uphold previously known halachic traditions and connect the tradition to the text. </p> <p>This particular midrash halachah may well be a midrash of the second type, upholding a previously known tradition from Moshe that women are exempt from the obligation of <i>talmud Torah</i>. In other words, the answer to 'why is there an exemption' does not necessarily boil down to the interpretation of "<i>beneichem</i>" as "your sons". </p> <p>This possibility still leaves us to speculate why halachah would distinguish between men and women with regard to learning Torah. </p> <p>One suggestion is that halachah assigns roles in public society to men. In that case, this gender distinction could ultimately derive from the mitzvah of <i>talmud Torah</i>'s role in forming a public society built on Torah, of which teacher- student transmission is a main building block.<a href="#n17"><sup><span id="_n17">17</span></sup></a> This type of speculation raises other questions about gender roles. </p> </div></span> [/expand] </div> <div class="hashkafa_question"> [expand title="Why was Rabbi Eliezer so wary of women's Talmud Torah?" tag="h2"] <span class="hashkafah_content"> <div class="hashkafa_text"> <p>A first possible approach to this question is historical. There is a temptation to suggest that the inferior social and educational status of women in his day shaped Rabbi Eliezer's perspective on women learning Torah. However, Rabbi Eliezer's wife, Imma Shalom, appears in the Talmud as a thoughtful and powerful personality of great lineage. In the story, the matron's social status is high; Rabbi Eliezer's own son depends on her largesse. Furthermore, Rabbi Eliezer recognizes that the matron's questions are good questions. Indeed, they are worthy of answers, when his male students ask them. Even were it simple to historicize Talmudic statements, these biographical points would confound efforts to do so here. </p> <p>A second approach to understanding Rabbi Eliezer's perspective is essentialist, highlighting perceived essential distinctions between men and women. It is clear from his reference to women's wisdom at the spindle that Rabbi Eliezer sees women's fields of wisdom as distinct from men's. </p> <p>Elsewhere, the Talmud presents a debate about nature versus nurture and cognitive maturity (for making vows). One position claims that male cognitive development proceeds faster than females', because a boy's educational opportunity advances him.<a href="#n21"><sup><span id="_n21">21</span></sup></a> A second view, associated with Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, claims that females develop cognitively faster than males, for essentialist reasons: </p> </div> <div class="heb-source"><span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> מס' נדה מה:</span></span><p>בינה יתירה באשה יותר מבאיש</p> </div> <div class="eng-source"> [expandsub1 title=" T. Niddah 45b" tag="h4" expanded="true"] <p class="chapter-color">There is more discernment [<i>binah</i>] in a woman than in a man. </p> [/expandsub1] </div> <div class="hashkafa_text"> <p>Halachah rules in accordance with the position that females' vows count at an age earlier than males'. Many rabbis have seized on and developed the essentialist idea brought to justify that ruling. For example, the Maharal of Prague contrasts a woman's <i>binah</i>, which he translates as raw intelligence, with a man's more abstract intelligence.<a href="#n22"><sup><span id="_n22">22</span></sup></a> Rav Kook references <i>binah</i> too, in arguing that women have less need for formal study than men.<a href="#n23"><sup><span id="_n23">23</span></sup></a></p> <p>Rav Baruch haLevi Epstein, author of the Torah Temimah suggests that the Talmudic dictum, "<i>nashim da'atan kalah 'alehen</i>," "women, their minds [<i>da'atan</i>] are easily susceptible [to influence from outside pressures],"<a href="#n24"><sup><span id="_n24">24</span></sup></a> implies that women have a cognitive disadvantage compared to men. Rav Epstein attempts to reconcile a woman's <i>da'at</i> deficit with her surplus <i>binah</i> by suggesting that <i>binah</i> and <i>da'at</i> represent different types of thinking. So, for example, on his view <i>Torah shebe'al peh</i> is essentially less suited to a woman's <i>binah</i> than is <i>Torah shebichtav</i>.<a href="#n25"><sup><span id="_n25">25</span></sup></a></p> <p>Translating these essentialist ideas into a more current idiom, one could argue that men and women, on the whole, have different cognitive styles. Our sages may relate to these in their different formulations of men's and women's relationship to study.<a href="#n26"><sup><span id="_n26">26</span></sup></a></p> <p>A third approach to understanding Rabbi Eliezer sees his perspective as rooted in his oft-repeated, rigid view on the proper transmission of Torah from teacher to student.<a href="#n27"><sup><span id="_n27">27</span></sup></a> Statements to this effect appear in a few passages. Rabbi Eliezer was opposed to divergence from the teacher-student model in which he himself learned and taught. Female presence among the students would be another example of unacceptable divergence from the tradition he fought to conserve. </p> </div></span> [/expand] </div> <div class="hashkafa_question"> [expand title="How Should We Learn?" tag="h2"] <span class="hashkafah_content"> <div class="hashkafa_text"> <p>While we're not obligated in the formal mitzvah of <i>talmud Torah</i>, we are obligated to learn the <i>halachot</i> that apply to us. Rabbi Eliezer's opposition to our study of Torah does not preclude our learning <i>halachot</i>. The question has long been: how? </p> <p>Mimetic learning is well suited to preserving custom and detail. It can also lend itself to misunderstanding or to exaggeration over time, in the direction of leniency or of stringency. </p> <p>The debate regarding the most effective corrective for the shortcomings of imitative learning, rabbinic intervention alone or a combination of rabbinic intervention and formal study, is of long-standing. Unsolicited rabbinic intervention is unlikely to be heeded or to be comprehensive. Formal study may have deeper reach, but can also lead to mistaken conclusions, unless there is ongoing rabbinic guidance. </p> <p>In your experience, what have been the effects of Torah study on your halachic practice? LINK FORUM </p> </div></span> [/expand] </div> <div class="hashkafa_question"> [expand title="What does it mean to learn, just not in depth?" tag="h2"] <span class="hashkafah_content"> <div class="hashkafa_text"> <p>Taz explains what Rambam's hesitation might be regarding women learning Written Torah: depth. More challenging is defining depth. The idea seems to be that women should have Torah literacy, but that we should not dedicate ourselves to deep conceptual thinking about Torah. Just as the focus for women learning halachah might be practical knowledge, the focus in learning Torah might be information. Perhaps learning Written Torah in greater depth inevitably overlaps with learning Oral Torah. Or perhaps there are more demands of one entering into deep study.<a href="#n35"><sup><span id="_n35">35</span></sup></a></p> <p>Note, however, that neither Taz nor Rambam denies that women have the capacity to learn Written Torah on a high level, nor do they suggest that it will bring about any negative result. </p> </div></span> [/expand] </div> <div class="hashkafa_question"> [expand title="What of the Well-Educated Woman?" tag="h2"] <span class="hashkafah_content"> <div class="hashkafa_text"> <p>With education widely available, has the majority tendency of women shifted,<a href="#n43"><sup><span id="_n43">43</span></sup></a> or does widespread education simply counteract some essential female tendencies in practice, without fundamentally changing them? </p> <p>If a woman learns Torah in the context of a mandatory class in school, can we give her Perishah's presumption of seriousness? </p> <p>Unfortunately, questions of how the institutionalization of girls' education, secular and religious, affects our assessment of the majority of women remain unresolved in halachic literature. </p> <p>Still, Perishah's comment has hashkafic meaning for us as well as halachic meaning. It can be difficult for a modern, educated woman to relate to Rabbi Eliezer's objection to women's study. Through Perishah's reading of it, we need not take Rabbi Eliezer's position as a limit on our horizons. Neither should we dismiss Rabbi Eliezer out of hand, as long as the above questions are unresolved. Instead, we can take Rabbi Eliezer's statement as a challenge. Rabbi Eliezer's concern was that in our hands, or minds, Torah would turn to <i>tiflut</i>. If we are to learn Torah, we are charged with the responsibility not to turn to <i>tiflut</i>. </p> <p>Perishah had confidence that a woman studying Torah with real desire to serve God would not be subject to Rabbi Eliezer's objection. Rabbi Eliezer can become our companion in the <i>bet midrash</i>, prodding us to keep our learning on course. When we choose to learn Torah seriously as a form of listening to the word of God, when our learning builds our faith and enhances our observance, we address Rabbi Eliezer's concerns in a powerful way. </p> </div></span> [/expand] </div> <div class="hashkafa_question"> [expand title="Do we need to give up on mimesis?" tag="h2"] <span class="hashkafah_content"> <div class="hashkafa_text"> <p>Can tradition be reconstructed on the basis of more recent, text based learning? Once a generation or two of women have imbibed Torah knowledge through text study, do you think Hafetz Hayyim would have us refocus on modelling behavior, rather than teaching it at school? LINK FORUM </p> </div></span> [/expand] </div> <div class="hashkafa_question"> [expand title="Is a restrictive position the most consistent approach to what we should study?" tag="h2"] <span class="hashkafah_content"> <div class="hashkafa_text"> <p>Shevet HaLevi's position, ruling out passages from Mishnah, Talmud and Midrash that shed light on Tanach unless they clearly reinforce faith or character development, has an ideological purity. Indeed, it is not simple to permit women to learn Talmudic passages only when they are quoted by a Torah commentator and not otherwise. </p> <p>On the other hand, his position goes against the grain of much Rabbinic thought. Rabbis of the eighteenth and nineteenth century in particular responded to the enlightenment by redoubling efforts to demonstrate the essential unity of the Written and Oral Torah. Much as it may be difficult to distinguish between contexts for learning Oral Torah, it is also difficult to fathom teaching only the simple meaning of verses without the basic interpretations of our Sages. </p> </div></span> [/expand] </div> <div class="hashkafa_question"> [expand title="Does bitul Torah (not wasting time one could spend learning) apply to women?" tag="h2"] <span class="hashkafah_content"> <div class="hashkafa_text"> <p>A man's obligation to learn Torah makes it clear that halachah dictates he prioritize Torah study over more frivolous pursuits. Women, too, when given a choice between less substantial study and study of Torah should think twice. </p> <p>We have more flexibility in how we study Torah, qualitatively and quantitatively, than men have. Even with that flexibility, we should not lightly choose to devote ourselves to other pursuits. While we have room for serious study of a range of subjects, a woman's exemption from the formal mitzvah of <i>talmud Torah</i> is not a free ticket to binge watch television or mindlessly surf the internet. </p> </div></span> [/expand] </div> <div class="hashkafa_question"> [expand title="Has technology killed lived tradition?" tag="h2"] <span class="hashkafah_content"> <div class="hashkafa_text"> <p>In effect, Rav Soloveitchik drives the nail into the coffin of the mimetic tradition. Whereas Rav Kagan laments our inability to rely on mimesis given historical upheaval, Rav Soloveitchik asserts that mimesis is helpless to navigate a quickly shifting technological landscape. To take current examples, when kitchen appliances become "smarter" by the year, and food as much a feat of chemical engineering as of biology, generations of practical know-how are inadequate to meet the new challenges alone. </p> <p>As long as we live in a technology-driven society with constant disruptive innovations, women and men need halachic knowledge that isolates concepts, as in texts. Practice can be learned imitatively, but only to a point. Any reconstruction of mimesis for our technological age will have to incorporate both text study and flexibility. </p> </div></span> [/expand] </div> <div class="hashkafa_question"> [expand title="Why Don't More Women Learn Talmud in Communities that Permit it?" tag="h2"] <span class="hashkafah_content"> <div class="hashkafa_text"> <p>Most students are more attracted by Torah study, Talmudic texts included, that connects directly to matters of faith or to matters of relevant halachic practice. In some learning contexts that is seen as a weakness, on the pretext that a true scholar proves himself through deep interest in arcane discussion far removed from the real world. Similarly, female scholars often receive criticism for writing on women's topics, as on this site, and not on other matters. Or for blurring, as do the site's 'hashkafah' sections, a hard distinction between mitzvah and meaning. </p> <p>Treating more accessible or attractive modes of learning as less significant may serve to discourage women from learning at all. </p> <p>But the halachic support for women to occupy ourselves with matters of direct hashkafic or halachic import is particularly strong. There is plenty to learn with direct relevance to our Jewish lives as we live them. Attentiveness to relevance need not detract from analytical study of texts. </p> <p>The tension between emphasizing relevance or conceptual study in learning Torah can be traced back to the earliest rabbinic sages. Devaluing study for its relevance is only one approach to <i>talmud Torah</i>, one that need not dominate ours. Teaching women primarily what affects or engages us most does not make our learning less significant. With the background of years of more practically oriented study, any student is better equipped to engage in more conceptual study without losing sight of the halachah. </p> <p>The more one knows, the more any area of Torah shoes up as inherently relevant, and the less likely one is to speculate in the direction of <i>tiflut</i>. Those of us who are drawn to conceptual study have halachic opinions on which to rely for its pursuit, but that need not be a goal for women as a whole. </p> </div></span> [/expand] </div> <div class="hashkafa_question"> [expand title="Is there a Unique Role for Women's Torah Study Today?" tag="h2"] <span class="hashkafah_content"> <div class="hashkafa_text"> <p>The range of opinions here bears direct responsibility for the range in attitudes and opportunities for women to learn Torah that we raised in the beginning of this article. Formal learning of Torah for women on an institutional scale is still very much an experiment, in which we are blessed to participate. The various institutions for women's studies that have sprouted in recent years reflect the range of viewpoints on proper topics and approach to women's study. The experiment is ongoing. </p> <p>This site is guided by the approach that women can internalize <i>mitzvot</i> when we learn them directly from the sources. </p> <p>I see women's learning in particular as an opportunity to develop an integrated approach to Jewish life, one that brings text-knowledge together with the practical and experiential aspects of Judaism over which women historically took responsibility. </p> <p>Classic mimesis might be lost, but perhaps we can construct a new mimesis. This mimesis would build on tradition and be informed by text. We can internalize halachic rules and concepts through traditional study in order to learn to animate them. Women's historical role in perpetuating custom and experiential Judaism in the home coupled with an emphasis on relevance in women's study of Torah, positions us to mediate between custom and text in ways responsive to the world around us, so that we can faithfully bring Torah to life. </p> </div></span> [/expand] </div> <div class="hashkafa_question"> [expand title="Can we simultaneously facilitate Others' Study and Our Own?" tag="h2"] <span class="hashkafah_content"> <div class="hashkafa_text"> <p>The Talmud praises women for enabling our husbands and sons to study and promises us great reward. Single women can similarly encourage friends and family to study. We should take pride in dedicating ourselves to building up Torah study for our loved ones. We feel the benefits as they develop in Torah and as we hear the Torah they have to share. </p> <p>They also stand to benefit when we ourselves learn, as do we. </p> <p>In <i>birchot haTorah</i>, women and men alike pray that our descendants should be devoted to Torah. Our forebears may have intoned this blessing for us. We continue the line both by intoning it for our loved ones and also by keeping ourselves in mind. </p> <p>Advanced Torah study is not for all women. Many women focus spiritual efforts on other <i>mitzvot</i>. Our exemption from the formal mitzvah of <i>talmud Torah</i> provides us with the leeway to do so. It also allows us to determine what type of Torah learning will best help us improve our religious practice, build our faith, and draw closer to HaShem. </p> <p>Torah study can and should be transformative. The Talmud reports that Rabbi Yosef would take particular pains to celebrate Shavuot. He explained: </p> </div> <div class="heb-source"><span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> מס' פסחים סח:</span></span><p> אי לאו האי יומא דקא גרים, כמה יוסף איכא בשוקא? </p> </div> <div class="eng-source"> [expandsub1 title=" T. Pesahim 68b" tag="h4" expanded="true"] <p class="chapter-color"> If not for this day that caused it, how many Yosefs are there in the marketplace? </p> [/expandsub1] </div> <div class="hashkafa_text"> <p>Ie, if not for receiving the Torah, what would distinguish me from anyone else? </p> <p>Learning Torah is not just something we do. Torah makes us who we are. Men and women are servants of God when we incorporate Torah into our lives as much as we can. </p> <p>Now that women's opportunities to learn Torah have grown, we should make room for Torah in our lives. Uncertainty about women's learning and lack of social pressure make a difference and have a halachic basis. Yet there are enough options and opportunities now (on the internet alone), that we can take charge of our own learning and growth in Torah. </p> <p>The importance of our own commitment to Torah study cannot be overstated. As Rav Hirsch wrote: </p> </div> <div class="heb-source"><span class="source-reference"><span class="book-name"> חורב עה</span></span><p> פעמים רבות בדברי ימי עמנו הצילו בנות ישראל את הרוח וחיי הטהרה בישראל...ורוח ישראל סבא תקום לתחיה מתוך ליבן של בנות ישראל... </p> </div> <div class="eng-source"> [expandsub1 title=" Horev 75" tag="h4" expanded="true"] <p class="chapter-color"> Many times in our nation's historical annals the daughters of Israel saved the spirit and life of holiness in Israel…and the ancient spirit of Israel will arise to life from within the hearts of the daughters of Israel… </p> [/expandsub1] </div> <div class="hashkafa_text"> <p>It is my deepest prayer that this site help spur its readers on to learn more Torah. The Jewish future depends on it. </p> </div></span> [/expand] </div> <p class="section-header">Reader Q&amp;A</p>
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