[Avodah] Education foir Women

[Shoshana L. Boublil]

> From: "Richard Wolpoe" <rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Avodah] Education - was RAYK and the end of chol

> RYBS disputes your claim that Halacha can be properly understood from 
> 2ndary
> sources. GRA, Rosh have stated similarly on the record

> On Sun, May 11, 2008 at 11:41 PM, <T613K at aol.com> wrote:

>>   For girls and women, it is enough to learn halacha and hashkafa.  They
>> do not /need/ to learn Gemara in order to have yiras Shamayim and dikduk
>> bemitzvos.
>>
>> If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Actually, I think it's already VERY broken <g>.

One of the issues we've discussed time and time again is that many are 
taught that only a specific psika is correct and that's it.  Especially 
young women.  For example, many Ashkenaz young women don't realize that the 
majority of Sephardi Gedolim forbid wigs, and permit to leave a certain 
amount of hair revealed. This causes social problems (at the least), but 
that is not the worst of it.

When I teach a kallah, I like to teach from Taharat Bat Yisrael or from Rav 
Chaim David HaLevy's book.  Why?  B/c they are simple, direct and easy to 
understand.  But both books have an interesting phenomenon: they mention 
repeatedly "in xxx case, ask a Rabbi".  Why not just give the answer?

That's b/c when a person learns halacha from a book such as a Kitzur or 
Shemirat Shabbat etc., the book is finite and can't bring all the possible 
circumstances that may influence the actual halachic behavior in specific 
cases.  Many times, young women think that these books cover all options, 
and don't even bother to ask if there could be another possibility.

When you learn G'mara, you learn that even after a psak was rendered on an 
issue -- it's quite possible that a slight difference is circumstances or 
conditions, will create a situation where a different psak is rendered. 
This knowledge is not available, usually, to someone who has never learned 
any G'mara.

That is why when I teach a kallah, I make sure to say that there are many 
more halachot not mentioned here, and that even if she thinks she knows the 
answer of what to do, she should still go to a Rabbi, and I bring an example 
or two during the course of study to show how some information that she may 
not have considered important, could change the psika.

My father likes to tell the tale of Rav Shapiro of Jerusalem, who was 
approached by a woman when some milk fell into her meat pot.  Usually, the 
amounts involved would have made it clear that the meat and the pot were 
Assur.  But Rav Shapiro called in the milkman, closed the shutters and asked 
him: Okay, between you and me, how much water have you been adding recently 
to the milk?  As you can guess, the result was that everything was 
permitted.... <g>

That is the danger of teaching halacha as a finite thing found in specific 
books - you don't learn to ask questions, and you may be causing damage by 
not asking questions that should have been asked.

Shoshana L. Boublil