Write To Life     by Elana Horwitz

originally published in Hamodia

Girls Learning Torah

To the Editor:

In his recent article, Rabbi O. raised the possibility that a girl’s sophisticated Torah education interferes with her undisputed, all-important role of Jewish wife and mother. My personal experience is that higher Torah learning greatly enhances a woman’s ability to encourage with enthusiasm her husband’s involvement in Torah learning, and to raise her children with a strong connection to Torah.

The following are examples of areas in which higher Torah knowledge has heightened my service of Hashem in the role of wife and mother:

1. When our children, sons as well as daughters, require help with limudei kodesh subjects, I can learn with them (up to the degree to which I have been educated). Mothers are called upon often to do this.

2. During a devar Torah at the Shabbos table, at shul, or at a simcha, I have the option of listening and understanding, and need not feel compelled to talk with other women out of sheer boredom and a feeling of not being addressed.

3. My husband knows that he can intelligently share with me details of a shiur he attended or gave, thereby being able to share this important, ongoing part of his life with his life’s partner.

4. When I daven Lechah Dodi at home with my young children, perhaps I have a small chance of transmitting nuances of yearning for geulah, because I have studied in context the verses that form the sources of this prayer. How many women  (or men) know that this is what Lechah Dodi is about? For lack of study, are we foregoing as well awareness of the many messages in the Shabbos zemiros? What a shame if we are, since we spend time and energy singing them every week.

5. When pleading with Hashem for our lives, meaning, during the prayers of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I have some idea of the crucial historical events we are remembering and bringing to Hashem’s attention, having studied many of the sources in the shemonah esrei in context.  No, peeking at the English linear translation is not just as good as a crash course.

6. I can use my Torah education to teach others, in order to encourage them, too, in their role of Jewish wife and mother.  Several sefarim were viewed, and a number of sources analyzed, when preparing my series of classes on the topic of wives encouraging our husbands in learning Torah.

7. My Navi teacher in seminary excused me from the final examination in Melachim, knowing full well that this meant that I wouldn’t toil over this sefer in depth. While her intentions were noble, affording me the freedom to attend to my duties as a new kallah, I have since regretted my decision to forego the study of this sefer. Similarly, my class never got to Parshas Ha’azinu; it’s so annoying to remain clueless about each of the brachos that the shevatim received. Since my marriage fourteen years ago, I have never had the time or focus to go back to these neglected areas of study. Girls would do well to take advantage of their opportunities to learn as much Torah as they can. The inspiration they gain will carry them through the rest of their lives.

Rabbi O. described a member of a school board as reacting with indifference to a demand of a higher level of Torah education for the students, with a retort of, “What difference does it make? They’re just girls!” To refer loosely to the well-known commentary, my wish is that that school board member and others who share his opinion “read” our girls not as “just girls” but rather as builders. We, the wives and mothers of Klal Yisrael, need tools with which to build. Woe is to us, the women of Klal Yisrael, if we are denied the vital detailed knowledge of our sacred Torah. How pathetic and futile to expect our women to succeed at transmitting a love for all we hold most precious if we are to be kept ignorant and distant from the source of that love.

Due to misguided movements of our time, I must stress that in no way do I intend to condone a woman’s study of Torah at the expense of her vital position as wife to her husband and mother to her children. On the contrary, my point is for her higher Jewish education to enhance her enthusiasm for her traditional role.

It is true, as Rabbi O. points out, that the situation today is different from the one Sarah Schenirer had to face. Certainly the situation today is far more serious! Girls from even the most fortified homes are at risk of filling the potential vaccum in their souls with constant trips to shopping malls, secular bestseller novels, foreign music CDs and cafe lounging. Now, more than ever, girls need the valuable nutrition of meforshim well toiled over and memorized pesukim rightfully achieved.

Elana Horwitz
Ra’anana