Rav Kook had an open mind
Rav Kook was known to be exceptionally open minded and tolerant - because he WAS:-). He always strove to find the truth in every opinion and philosophy - even atheism. Not that Chas Vi-shalom he agreed with atheists on the core question, for G-d's existence was as real and evident to him as his own and as the existence of the world [actually MORE real]. But he found truth in their rejection of FALSE gods. He taught to search for the גרעין האמת, the nucleus of truth everywhere. After finding the truth, the falsehood should be discarded. Hashem is very broad and can encompass many different and even seemingly contradictory truths, as expressed by the teaching of Chazal אלו ואלו דברי אלקים חיים [and here, here, here, here and there is much more IN HASHEM'S ENDLESS MERCY!!!].
Yesterday was the yahrtzeit of the Satmar Rebbe. One doesn't have to be a Satmar but it is also admirable to find the truth in their hashkafos. The more one learns, the closer he gets to the ultimate truth.
Advanced Torah study for girls and women
Today the vogue is to encourage extensive scholarship in Torah for women. They should be given the SAME OPPORTUNITIES AS MEN!! Otherwise it would be UNFAIR. Or so people write. On these pages I have addressed this issue many a time.
My position is that .... women aren't interested in learning like the men. Ask any girl if she is interested in sweating all day over commentaries of Rebbi Akiva Eiger discussing whether we say מגו להוציא or not or reading loooong simanim in Chiddushei Rabbeinu Chaim Ha-levi analyzing the opinions of קנין הפירות כקנין הגוף or לאו כקנין הגוף, I don't think you would have many volunteers. Actually I KNOW that you wouldn't. I can't explain WHY because I happen to be enthralled by Rebbi Akiva Eiger and Rav Chaim but that is the undeniable reality.
Any girl or woman who wants to learn like the guys has AMPLE opportunity. She can go on line and listen to shiurim from Ravs Schachter/Rosensweig/Weiss/Rudinsky and countless more [including li-havdil a TRILLION havdalos between giants of Torah and an am haretz - yours truly] and hear shiurim EXACTLY as the boys hear it. She can sit with the Artscroll Mishnayos and Gemaros and go through Bavli and Yerushalmi etc. etc. Who is stopping her? Free country. Wherever she lives [unless she lives in a place like North Korea but most Jewish women wisely avoid north Korea as a place of residence]. In Stern College, Gemara classes are offered but there are VERY FEW TAKERS.
There are a very small number of women - very small - who want to make teaching Torah their career and are interested in advanced Torah study. But that is a small minority. So the whole question of whether girls should be taught like boys is academic and not practical because the girls don't want it. Girls and women are generally interested [if they are upwardly mobile spiritually] in attending shiurim and reading a sefer from time to time that resonates with them [like Nesivos Shalom or Rav Pincus' seforim] but not to learn like the men. It is interesting that since the women's Torah study "revolution" about 40 years ago, not ONE serious work of scholarship has been produced by a woman. The explanation is not because they are less intelligent than men but that they are less interested in this area. There is another explanation as well [see further].
It really worked out perfectly that the girls aren't interested in learning like boys because Chazal were also not "down with the idea" that girls should be taught like boys.
My own personal issue is how to get the BOYS and MEN interested in learning as they are commanded to do.
Rav Kook on Torah Study for women
With that backdrop I quote a passage from Rav Kook [the open minded Tzadik we started this essay with]:
אם המדע, שגם התורה בכללה היא מסוגו, הוסיף לאדם אושר, זאת היא אבן המעמסה, שחולקים עליה חושבים. הצדדים מורים לכאן ולכאן, ואיפה היא הפשרה? אבל נשכח לדבר ע"ד המינים, האיש והאשה. התכונה של הגבר היא בנויה לבא לאשרו ע"י הוספת תרבות ושכלול מדעי ואומנותי, והתכונה של האשה היא בנויה, להיות הולכת ומתפתחת דוקא מתוכיותה, בלא עמל של ספרים, וכל המלמד את בתו תורה כאילו מלמדה תפלות. כל קלקולי החיים באים, ועכ"פ רבים מהם, מזה שהאיש רוצה ללבוש בגדי אשה, לגדל מאליו כצמח השדה, במובן הרוחני והמעשי, והאשה חפצה ללמוד ולכבש. יבאו ימים ויכיר העולם את עוותתו, ויחזיק כל מין במדתו, ואז יהיה לנו מין אנושי, ממוזג, שהטבע הבריא כשהוא לעצמו, מצד האם, והופעת רוח הפועל והמחפש מצד האב, שניהם כללו את יופיו.
OH ME OH MY!!! Today people would STONE him for writing such words. [What is someone doing when he learns a Chumash with an English translation and a blue cover? Getting "Stoned"]
Zugt the Rav ztz"l: Men and women are DIFFERENT!!!:-):-). Among MANY other differences, men need SEFORIM to grow as Jews. That is their nature. Women grow from their INSIDES and NOT through seforim. He doesn't say that a woman should never open up a sefer but that her MAIN AVODA is to serve Hashem without seforim. [If a woman has a tremendous, irresistible urge to learn, I would posit that Rav Kook would encourage her - as the exception and not the rule]. Great destruction emerges, says the Rav, when men try to be women and women try to be men.
Today we have to teach women more than our grandmothers and great grandmothers for various reasons. But that doesn't change the core reality that a woman's PRIMARY purpose is not intellectual but spiritual.
The world will reach its tikkun when men become the best men they can be and women become the best women they can be.
