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8.31.2006

WOMEN-----learning torah


The halachah has nothing to do with anyone being stupid. The fact is that men and women have two totally differently types of brains - some differences:

Men are 10x more likely to be ADD

Men are twice as likely to be mentally retarded

Men are twice as likely to contract Alzheimer's disease

A teenage girl's attention span is 4 times greater than that of a teenage boy!


Yet -- teenage boys are 30 times more likely to score in the top 10 percentile on the SAT in math
Men are 100 times more likely to be capable of becoming a chess grandmaster; women are 2.5 times more likely to be successful psychologists.

Women are twice as likely to develop Parkinson's Disease.

Women are 3x more likely to remember childhood memories.

That's just the beginning.

Clearly, men and women are two totally different species. And their minds work differently. If I were to tell you that the Torah says that the job of being a chess grandmaster was relegated to men and not women, you'd object saying "But women are smart, too!" And if I were to tell you that the Torah says that men should be the ones to represent humanity on the Math part of the SATs you'd object saying "But teenage girls have 4 times the attention span of teenage boys!"

The Torah surely knows what men and women are suited for, a lot better than us. And the Torah, as stated in the halachah, says that women are not given the job of learning Torah shebal peh; that was left to men. Women have a different job in this world.

Your "kal vahcomer" about math and science vs. Torah is fallacious --- what does one have to do with the other? Torah is NOT a science --- its a soul-practice. Torah connects your soul to certain powers up on high, and chidushei torah come not merely form the mind but from the neshama itself.

The Shem Mishmuel distinguishes Torah learning form secular knowledge by saying that secular knowledge is "physical", instinctive knowledge --- like a spider's "knowledge" of how to spin a web. Torah knowledge is real, earned, soul-knowledge.

Are you going to tell me that animals, because they are capable of spinning webs, are "smart" so they would be able to learn Torah too?

But even the scientists and psychologists can see that men and women have different mind-strengths, as stated above. If there is a kal vachomer here it is this: If even in secular sciences there are clear distinctions between men's minds and women's minds, all the more so in spiritual "sciences".

But all this is superfluous -- the Torah says that women are not suited to learn Torah shebal peh. What reason do you have to question that? Because they are "smart"? That was never the point.

As far as Hashem "wanting His Torah to be learned" and etc, you are mistaken. If Hashem wanted women to leanr Torah she bal peh He would not have prohibited it. Clearly, women "connect" to Hashem NOT through learning but through other means. In fact, the Gemroa says explicitly that women merit the reward of Torah NOT by learning, but by assisting their husbands and children in their learning.

In fact, even the Torah that girls are obligated to learn halchah and mussar - does not merit for them the zechus of Torah; for their "obligation" to learn these things is not an obligation to LEARN - it is merely a necessary part of fulfilling their obligation to DO the Mitzvos, for if they do not know, how can they do?

They have no obligation to learn ANYTHING. It is merely that certain things must be learned in order to fulfill their obligation to practice, not because of any obligation to learn.

We ought not try to rewrite the Halchah the way we think it should be. If women - or men - have a desire for something permitted or obligatory, that's fine, but if they have a desire for something prohibited, then they shoudl resist. That's what were in this world for - to withstand nisyonos. And that includes women going to Gemora classes.

My argument regarding the curriculum was this: Women are obligated to know the basics of Judaism because of the mitzvah to know of G-ds existence and His Oneness; and their obligation of yiras shamayim and simply religious commitment means that they should learn those things that facilitate the fulfillment of their obligations. Spending time on things that they are NOT obligated in any form or manner to learn - such as meforshim etc - when they are not yet anythgin close to knowledgable; in those things that they are obligated to learn, that is, those things that will strengthen their emunah and yiras shamayim, is foolish.

PS - Please don't come back with a retort that "all Torah" regardless of what it is, instills Yiras Shamayim. I have heard that argument form perhaps a dozen women's educators and it is nonsense. Because while it is true that someone who learns Hilchos Lulav before Pesach will merit thereby that he will fulfill Pesach better, you still cannot compare someone who prepares for Pesach by learning Hilchos Lulav to someone who prepares by learning Hilchos Pesach!

The Halachos and Hashkafos of Emunah and Yesodei HaTorah address directly the issues confronting them. You would not go into business without learning choshem mishpat, even though ALL TORAH will generate honesty in business; you would not be mesader a Get without learning hilchos gittin; and you cannot believe in Hashem and have Yiras SHamayim without learning Hichos Yesodei HaTorah and Yiras Hashem.

I wonder if they would say the same thing when a girl gets engaged: Don't have kallah classes -- teach them chumash and rashi, and that will generate the appropriate Yiras Shamayim and Midos for them to run a Bayis Neeman.

And someone who learns chumash and rashi before they get married and ignores the laws of taharas hamishpachah is a fool; and someone who thinks that only chumash and rashi and ramban is going to prepare them for marriage is a fool; and someone who thinks they can deal with the trials and tribulations of religious confusion and doubt without learning the answers is a fool as well.

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