Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: I have a question.
[00:00:02] Speaker B: Do women in Jewish religion have the obligation of learning the Torah?
So the answer is yes, and the answer is no. And both of them are correct.
There are three reasons why we have to learn the Torah. Number one, because learning the Torah is a mitzvah. And whenever I'm learning the Torah, I am fulfilling a mitzvah. Just like there's a Mitzvah to eat kosher. Just like there's a mitzvah to put on, fill in. Just like there's a mitzvah for women to light Shabbos candles for us, there's a Mitzvah to learn the Torah.
But this mitzvah specifically applies only to men, because it says you should teach to your sons and not the daughters. So Mitzvah, learning the Torah applies only to men. But it's not so simple, because there are two other reasons why we learn the Torah.
In order to live a life like a Jew should, we should learn the Torah. You cannot be a law abiding Jew without the study that these laws require. As a matter of fact, it says in Talmud that an ignorant Jew cannot be a pious Jew. And ignorant obviously means ignorant in Judaism, not in math or sciences or English or Shakespeare.
So we Jews need to learn the Torah in order to know practically how.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: To behave, how to keep Shabbos.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: What are you allowed to do in Shabbat? What you're not allowed to do in Shabbat.
What food is kosher, what is not? What happened if little piece of milk dropped on a big piece of meat? What are you supposed to do? You're not supposed to milk piece of meat. But how is it if it's same utensils? There are so many complicated questions and we need to learn a lot of.
And then there's a third reason why we learn the Torah.
Because the Torah is not only telling us the laws, the Torah is also telling us how these laws are derived and the logic behind these laws.
As a matter of fact, vast majority of time in any Yeshiva, that's what people study. People study the Talmud. And Talmud doesn't just teach us the law, the laws. Talmud is teaching us the logic behind these laws, the ideas behind them, how each specific law is being developed and applied.
And this teaches us how God wants us to think, how God wants us to look at the world around, how God wants us to look at ourselves, and what general rules we need to apply when we approach things in our lives.
So for these two reasons, which we just mentioned, women have to learn the Torah. Why? Because they also need to live according to the Jewish laws. They're obligated in keeping Torah laws, just like men.
And they also need to have this Jewish worldview. They need to look at themselves and at everything around them through the prism of the Torah, the way God wants us to look at it.
So in other words, here we see that even though women don't have a mitzvah of learning the Torah, they still need to learn the Torah for practical reasons.
Now, I want to ask you a question, but it seems still very discriminatory.
[00:03:27] Speaker A: Because men have actual obligation, which is in the Torah itself, to learn the Torah.
Women, it seems like they have to learn the Torah only for technical reasons, because this will enable them to live like a Jew. But it's not a direct obligation. Why is it? Why is there such a difference?
When we pray, we don't learn the Torah. When we learn the Torah, we don't pray. They're two separate mitzvahs, not connected to each other directly.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: So now, when I have something that I need to do for technical reasons, just because it enables me to do something else, it becomes a part of this greater goal. In other words, if I have a job to do and I need to be in my office 9 to 5 to do this job, my driving to work and back home is not technically.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: Part of my work, but it's a necessary step. I cannot be at my work if I don't drive there. So that's why driving by doing, by being an absolute necessity for me to perform my duties at work, driving becomes.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: A part of it.
By the same token, if I have a mitzvah to do, and there's a.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: Technical necessity that needs to be done.
[00:04:51] Speaker B: In order for me to do this.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: This technical necessity becomes part of a mitzvah.
So in other words, whatever is involved in doing a mitzvah directly is holy. Whatever is not involved in doing a mitzvah is not holy.
If I have a piece of paper and I write the words of Torah on this piece of paper, this piece.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: Of paper is holy.
[00:05:16] Speaker A: And I'm learning the Torah now from this piece of paper, and I'm doing mitzvah.
But let's say in order to come to my class, in order to come to learn the Torah, in order to come to my Torah class, I'm just.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: Taking a wild example.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: I need to show a pass at the door, right?
Showing a pass at the door is.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: A technicality that has nothing to do with the mitzvah of learning Torah.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: But I cannot be admitted into the class unless I'll show the pass, right?
The pass is also a piece of paper.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: This piece of paper will never be as holy as a piece of paper that the Torah is written on.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: But this pass is becoming a part of my mitzvah. And that's why it attains some holiness, because it is becoming part of it, because it's a necessary step for me to learn the Torah.
So you have two pieces of paper. One of them has Torah words on it.
[00:06:15] Speaker B: That's definitely a very holy piece of paper.
[00:06:17] Speaker A: But it's part of mitzvah. I'm not surprised that it's holy. It's meant to be holy. And then it's a piece of paper where they print a pass on.
And a pass is a technicality that needs to be used in order for me to be admitted to a Torah class.
Now, this paper with a pass is becoming part of my mitzvah and is becoming somewhat at least, holy.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: So.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: So now what did I do?
I took this piece of paper that had nothing to do with anything holy.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: And I made it part of a mitzvah.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: So anything that is a necessary step for doing a mitzvah becomes a part of it. If you use your car to do.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: A mitzvah, if you use your car to drive, to shul, to synagogue, if.
[00:07:02] Speaker A: You use your car to help someone to get what they need, this car becomes a vehicle, no pun intended, to performing a mitzvah.
So now what is the outcome? Men have a mitzvah to learn the Torah.
[00:07:17] Speaker B: That's their direct mitzvah.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: Women don't have this mitzvah for women to learn Torah is a necessary step.
[00:07:22] Speaker B: In order to perform all other mitzvahs.
[00:07:23] Speaker A: So what do they do? They take something which is not a mitzvah and make it into a mitzvah. That's even a stronger statement, that's even a bigger effect on this world, because they take something which is not a mitzvah and do a mitzvah. And actually, as a matter of fact, we Jews are all called, metaphorically, God's wife. Why? Because that's exactly what we do. We take this world which is not a mitzvah, we take this world which is removed from spirituality, and we make it into something holy, which is the entire role of women in this world.
