[Avodah] Shemini Atzeres as a time for Hislamdus

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Oct 09, 2020 at 12:28:09PM -0400, I wrote:
> But first, a pitstop to look at RSWolbe's introduction to Hislamdus,
> to where he links Hislamtus to Torah. We start with his quoting the
> Rambam:
> 
> 	A woman who learned Torah receives reward, but not like the reward
> 	of a man, because she isn't obligated. Etc... And even though
> 	she receives reward, our sages commanded that a man not teach
> 	his daughter Torah, because most women's intellects aren't ready
> 	lehislameid. Rather, they find the words of Torah to be words
> 	of emptiness according to the poverty of their intellect. Our
> 	sages said that one who teaches his daughter Torah is like he
> 	taught her foolishness.
> 
> 	    - Hil' Talmud Torah 1:13
> 
>     The Rambam teaches us through this that the purpose of Torah study
>     is hislamdus, and someone whose intellect isn't ready lehislameid he
>     is released from the obligation of Torah study....

One chaver couldn't get past this. I didn't see that coming. I did the
first time I ran a vaad using this section of Alei Shur with a non-O
population. But they didn't have a problem. Nor any of the groups
since.

Non-O Jews are used to picking the elements they accept out of the ones
they don't. I guess because we do this far less often, expecting primary
sources to be authoritative and accepted, this chaver was thrown.

Reaching RSW's conclusion from the Rambam doesn't require accepting the
Rambam's opinion of women and their ability to learn. You can understand
it as the Rambam's prejudice, a statement sadly true of women in many
cultures in history (and some today) and particularly living among 12th
century Almohad Muslems.

The relevant factoid of the Rambam is that someone who cannot learn
behislamdus, in a reflective way that aims at internalization, doesn't
gain much from learning. A man may be a metzuveh ve'oseh anyway, perhaps
in hopes that someday he has a good moment. But if a woman isn't metzuvah
and cannot learn behislamdus, there is so little zekhus in learning
without hislamdus, it's not worth the risk of turning it into tiflus.

We're talking out an "if X then Y" from the Rambam to derive something
about where the value of talmud Torah (other than fulfilling a chiyuv)
resides. You don't need to worry about whether the Rambam was correct in
assuming X holds, just in his assuming the if-then.

And, as I said, my non-O students are somehow used to thinking that way.

While O Jews have less calling to do the same, there is still a profound
need to do so. Beyond examples like this Rambam. After all, eilu va'eilu
Divrei Elokim Chaim. If we want to learn from sefarim that promote
derakhim that don't share our givens, we need to be able to extract the
elements that can enhance my derekh from the ones that are incompatible
with it.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Worrying is like a rocking chair:
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   it gives you something to do for a while,
Author: Widen Your Tent      but in the end it gets you nowhere.
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF