The feminist rhetoric proclaims that women should learn on the same advanced level as men. If there are women lawyers and doctors, why should they be any less than men when it comes to Torah study?!! Millions and millions of dollars are invested in this ideology.
5 comments for thought:
Daf Yomit
1] When you google "daf yomi" or daf yomi related searches, on the very first page you will get to a site that features daf yomi shiurim by women for women [even though only a minute fraction of the daf yomi learners in the world are women and even fewer are teachers]. The problem is that there is no study of Gemara that is on the reduced, basic level as daf yomi. Don't get me wrong - daf yomi is BEAUTIFUL!! If you learn it - all the power to you!!!! Keep it up!!! I love you and salute you!!!! But to learn two sides of a page for the first time in about 45 minutes [or 25 minutes. Or 15 minutes. There is even a 10 minute option for "very busy people"] and to think you really understand it is not realistic. There are dozens of problems, questions, discussions, analysis etc. etc. on each page of gemara. Just b/c one is not aware of a question or problem doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. The daf yomi method is to avoid them [unless they are footnoted by Moreinu Vi-rabbeinu HaRav HaGaon R' Artscroll Shlita]. There is no way to finish the daf in time if one truly tries to understand what the gemara is saying.
There is also the issue of review. Learning without review is a surefire method to forget what one learned. Kal Va-chomer when the material is as complex as a daf gemara. The BIGGEST GENUISES in world history, reviewed each page of gemara HUNDREDS OF TIMES in order to fully grasp and retain what they learned.
So those ladies who are looking for "high level Talmud Study" - daf yomi is not for them. Men are OBLIGATED to learn the entire Torah [as per the psak of the Alter Rebbe in his S.A.] so daf yomi might be the right idea. But women are not. So daf yomi is a poor choice for them.
What About Men?
2] What about the men? Why don't these women send their SONS to top Talmud institutions like Mir and Brisk? Why isn't that the goal? Like - don't MEN also deserve to study Talmud at the highest level as they do medicine or law? Why send to the local community college if one can send to Harvard or MIT??
Whom Do We Serve?
3] We learn Torah to serve Hashem. Do these women really think that Hashem is unhappy b/c no woman alive is familiar with the tshuvos of R' Akiva Eiger or the Noda Bi-yehuda. THAT is His problem?? He looks at the women in Bnei Brak or Kiryat Sefer and says "How come you don't have a daily iyun seder??"
In fact, I never hear the claim that this is what HASHEM wants but rather what WE want. So who are we serving? Hashem or our own needs???
HASHEM needs women rabbis or women Torah scholars? He has been lacking THAT the last 3,300 years since מתן תורה???
Female Authors
4] In the last 40-50 since the genesis of advanced women's Torah study, there has not been ONE sefer of note in the area of Gemara or psak Halacha written by a woman. A few have been written which are summaries of other sefarim but nothing original. In order to be a serious Talmid Chochom who can pen an impressive original sefer, one has to sit for YEARS and learn just for the sake of learning. Not join short term "programs" intended to bestow a degree or some type of certification. There is literally no woman alive [or almost no woman] who seriously wants to spend 12 hours a day in a Beis Medrash for many years just cracking difficult Ktzos Hachoshen's or Avnei Miluim's. That is what thousands of men do....
Maybe Chazal were right and women really DO have a different purpose than men??
Be Your Own Gender
5] My point: Men are not women and shouldn't strive to be. Women are not men and shouldn't strive to be. There are great qualities in each gender.
