Talmud Torah for Women תלמוד תורה לנשים

(18) She is a tree of life to those who grasp her, And whoever holds on to her is happy.

(12) Gather the people—men, women, children, and the strangers in your communities—that they may hear and so learn to revere the LORD your God and to observe faithfully every word of this Teaching.

(1) Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the laws and rules that I proclaim to you this day! Study them and observe them faithfully! (2) The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.

(7) Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up.

(8) Let not this Book of the Teaching cease from your lips, but recite it day and night, so that you may observe faithfully all that is written in it. Only then will you prosper in your undertakings and only then will you be successful.

(19) and teach them to your children—reciting them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up;

(1) (Devarim 11:19) "And you shall teach them to your sons to speak in them": and not to your daughters

The Gemara asks: And from where do we derive that she is not obligated to teach herself? The Gemara answers: As it is written: “And you shall teach [velimadtem],” which can be read as: And you shall study [ulmadtem], which indicates that whoever others are commanded to teach is commanded to teach himself, and whoever others are not commanded to teach is not commanded to teach himself. And from where is it derived that others are not commanded to teach a woman? As the verse states: “And you shall teach them to your sons” (Deuteronomy 11:19), which emphasizes: Your sons and not your daughters.

From here Ben Azai says: A man is obligated to teach his daughter Torah, for if she drinks [as a suspected-adulteress], she will know that the merit suspends it for her. Rabbi Eli'ezer says: Whoever teaches his daughter Torah is considered as if he taught her tiflut (nonsense, lewdness).

Rabbi Abbahu says: What is the reason for Rabbi Eliezer’s statement? It is as it is written: “I, wisdom, dwell with cunning” (Proverbs 8:12), which indicates that once wisdom enters into a person, cunning enters with it.

There is more discernment [bina] in a woman than in a man.

They said to him that Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya interpreted the following verse: “Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones” (Deuteronomy 31:12). This verse is puzzling: If men come to learn, and women, who might not understand, come at least to hear, why do the little ones come? They come in order for God to give a reward to those who bring them

A man is obligated to teach his daughters the mitzvot, such as halachic rulings. And that which they said, that he who teaches a woman Torah is as though he teaches her tiflut, that [refers specifically to] depth of Talmud and reasons for commandments and secrets of the Torah. Those we do not teach to a woman and to a minor. But the laws of mitzvot he should teach her, for if she will not know the laws of Shabbat, how will she keep Shabbat? And similarly all mitzvot, in order to perform [them and] to be careful [to observe] the mitzvot.

And if [you suggest formal study in order] that they should know to perform mitzvot, they can learn the key points and the rules through received tradition. And when they have a doubt they will ask a halachic authority. As we see in our generation, that they are quite expert in the laws of salting and rinsing [meat after slaughter] and removing the sciatic nerve and the laws of nidda and the like, and everything through the received tradition from their environment.

…He also wrote for women the mitzvot that apply to them, positive and negative, and they will benefit from reading and learning them precisely, just as the occupation with Talmud benefits men.

Rama: Nonetheless, a woman is obligated to study laws that are relevant to her.

A woman who learned Torah receives a reward, but it is not equivalent to the man’s reward because she is not commanded, and anyone who does something that he is not commanded to do, his reward is not equivalent to the reward of one who is commanded and did, but rather less than that. And even though she receives a reward, the sages commanded that a man not teach his daughter Torah because most women’s minds are not oriented to study. Rather, they transform matters of Torah into matters of nonsense in accordance with the poverty of their intellects. The sages said, ‘Anyone who teaches his daughter Torah is as though he has taught her nonsense. To what does this refer? To Oral Torah. But Written Torah, he should not set out to teach her, but if he taught her it is not as if he taught her nonsense.

It seems to me that there [in hakhel] the king only explained the simple meaning of the matters and this is truly permissible even for us from the outset, as is the custom every day. Which is not the case in learning the explanation of matters of Torah through wise thinking and understanding, [which] they prohibited from the outset....

…That in these five mitzvot [belief in God, rejecting other gods, recognizing God’s unity, loving God and having awe of God], these are the ones that the early sages call Pardes, as they said “Four entered the Pardes“…I say that the only one fit to walk in the Pardes is one whose belly is full with bread and meat. “Bread and meat” means to know what is prohibited and permitted, and similar matters from among the other mitzvot….and everyone can know them, a minor and an adult, a man and a woman, a person of great understanding and a person of less understanding.

But if she learned for herself, we see that she is an exception to the majority and therefore he [the Rambam] wrote that she receives reward, that is, if she learned Torah correctly and is not transforming it to nonsense. But the father is not permitted to teach her for perhaps she will transform its [Torah’s] words to nonsense, for he does not know what is in her heart.

Ravina said: …Through…reading [verses] and repeating [mishnayot to] their sons and watching out for their husbands until they come from the bet midrash, do they not share the reward with them?

The Gemara relates that Rav Yosef, on the day of Shavuot, would say: Prepare me a choice third-born calf. He said: If not for this day on which the Torah was given that caused the Jewish people to have the Torah, how many Yosefs would there be in the market? It is only due to the importance of Torah study that I have become a leader of the Jewish people, and I therefore have a special obligation to rejoice on this day.