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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>From: "Richard Wolpoe" <A
href="mailto:rabbirichwolpoe@gmail.com">rabbirichwolpoe@gmail.com</A><BR><BR><BR>>
My father once said to me (I have mentioned this before) that there was<BR>>
nothing wrong with Mizrachi that wouldn't be corrected by Torah
learning,<BR>> that whatever was wrong with Mizrachi -- laxity in mitzvos, or
in tznius<BR>> -- stemmed from amaratzus and a lack of Torah knowledge, and
that when they<BR>> began to seriously learn Torah, these faults would be
corrected. [--TK]</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2><BR>RRW then wrote:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>>>I have a feeling that is perhaps part of the reason why
RYBS wanted women<BR>learning Talmud because nowadays education is paramount.
And those who<BR>understand the process of Talmud and poskim have a much better
appreciation<BR>for applying Halachah in everyday
life.<<</FONT></DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial
color=#000000 size=2></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>
<DIV><BR>>>>>></DIV>
<DIV>Yet in the Torah world Talmud learning for girls is considered a radical,
politically motivated innovation, and we do not in practice see the same
correlation between advanced Talmudic learning and dikduk bemitzvos among women
that we see among men. Often it is just the opposite (see Hollywood FL for
one example) -- in the MO communities where women are more likely to have
learned at least some Talmud, there is visibly LESS tznius among the
women. If anything, the correlation goes the other way -- across the
spectrum, in the schools and communities where women do NOT learn Talmud, they
are far MORE likely to cover their hair, not wear shorts or sleeveless
dresses in public, and so on. Learning Talmud does not seem to have
the same positive effect on women in terms of increasing halachic observance and
yiras Shamayim that it has on men.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Having said all that I will add that my father did not hold that it is
always absolutely assur for a woman to learn Talmud (certainly there have been
individual great women in history who learned Gemara), but he did hold that this
should not be done on a community-wide basis as a general part of women's
education, as a matter both of halacha and of public policy.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I would suggest that it is more important to encourage young women to MARRY
talmidei chachamim than to BECOME talmidei chachamim. Men have a strong
tendency to live up to (or sometimes, sadly, down to) what is expected of them
by the women in their lives. This is why women have such a civilizing
influence on society.<BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><B><BR></B><BR><B>--Toby
Katz<BR>=============<BR></B><BR></FONT></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">Wondering what's for Dinner Tonight? <A title="http://food.aol.com/dinner-tonight?NCID=aolfod00030000000001" href="http://food.aol.com/dinner-tonight?NCID=aolfod00030000000001" target="_blank">Get new twists on family favorites at AOL Food</A>.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>