[Avodah] Education - was RAYK and the end of chol

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R"n Toby Katz wrote:
> The original point was that amaratzim tend not to be careful
> with halacha, and that halachic observance and yiras Shamayim
> improve with more Torah learning. (Torah meaning Talmud.)
> However, this is only true for men.  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.

You seem to be saying that men DO need to learn Gemara in order to have yiras Shamayim and dikduk bemitzvos, and that if men do not learn Gemara, they will lack yiras Shamayim and dikduk bemitzvos.

I disagree very strongly. To whatever extent it might be true that "amaratzim tend not to be careful with halacha", it is *not* because of insufficient gemara learning; it *is* because of insufficient halacha and hashkafa learning.

In fact, I cannot imagine how it could happen that increased gemara learning would lead to a generalized increase in dikduk bemitzvos. At most, it could lead to a increase in dikduk of the specific mitzva being discussed in the gemara one is learning. For example, if one is learning Gemara Shabbos, that would lead to a greater appreciation of Hilchos Shabbos, and so to a greater care of what Hilchos Shabbos requires of us. But how would it lead to being more careful about Hilchos Brachos, or Bein Adam L'chaveiro?

I would also concede that learning gemara can lead to a generalized increase in Yiras Shamayim, but in my experience this only occurs when one comes upon an unusually interesting explanation of some pesukim. (A turning point in my life was a gemara in Sukkah, involving three pesukim which seemed to be both superfluous and contradictory at first glance, but the gemara very carefully picked them apart and showed how each was necessary, as each revealed a different piece of the halacha. [I remember it being about "hechsher l'kabel tumah", and a key phrase was "kee yutan".] Whatever lingering doubts I had about the divinity of the Torah were forever washed away by that piece of Gemara.) But such gemaras are few and far between, and similar experiences can be gotten from other seforim besides gemara. (I remember a Kli Yakar in Sefer Shemos which went on for about 3 pages, discussing the pesukim used for the Answers To The Four Children which appear in the Hagada, and contrasting it to how they appear in the Chumash.)

In summary, I think it is pointless to suggest what men derive from gemara, and why women don't need it. Suffice it to say that men have an obligation of Talmud Torah, and need to learn it all, even the parts that have no practical use, while women do not have that mitzvah, and so they only need to learn whatever is necessary to be a good Jewess.

Akiva Miller
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