חינוך נשים (הרבי)

00:01 This is Igress. In our last Shir, we began the lengthy discussion of women learning Torah, which was a major priority for the Frieda Kedaba and for our Reba. Uh, it should continue to be a priority today, a major priority, as we saw yesterday. We saw a letter from the Reba explaining just how much the Frieda Kedaba cared about women's education, which encouraged the Hasidim in Kfar Chabad to take it seriously and to get a girls' school off the ground. We then saw something like seven or eight letters from the Frieda Kedaba, it was a big Frieda Kedaba day, where it was clear just how much he cared about women learning Hasidus and women's education in general. Today, we are shifting gears and looking at the Reba's position on women's education. You, uh, probably won't be surprised to see that it's overwhelmingly positive. Uh, it's the Reba, and obviously he's going to be in line with the Frieda Kedaba. But what you might be surprised to see is just how expansive it actually is. The Reba really expands the idea of women's education, and by the end of our discussion today, he's going to end up assigning women a list of, uh, a reading list that is, uh, uh, about as long as the reading list that any man would have. Uh, first, we're gonna look at a few brief letters, and then we'll spend most of our time, im yirtzeh Hashem, on the rather lengthy Yechidas with the Belzer Reba from the eighties, I think

01:06 nineteen eighty-one, and a Sikha from nineteen ninety that spells out very clearly, an edited Sikha that spells out very clearly exactly what the Reba expects from women's education. So without further ado, we have a short letter. Very much in line with what we saw from the Frieda Kedaba. This letter is labeled Base, Taf Taf Kuf Tzadk Dalet. This is the Reba's letter from Tuvshin Tes Vav. All Reba letters today. No Frieda Kedaba today. Shalom Ubracha, the Reba writes, "Ken kesef asher kimdaber eides chinuch habanos yiem bases al pi Torah v'lo al pi meseres imre sh'zeh oser." You write to me, says the Reba, that when you talk to people about educating girls, and you say that it should be based on the Torah, it should be a Torah thing, not just a traditional thing, meaning they don't just learn it in their homes, but they should actually, you know, study Torah the way Torah is, like in school, in books. Uh, imre sh'zeh oser. They tell him that's oser. They tell him, "You're not allowed to do that. Women are supposed to be educated from their mothers and from their grandmothers. They're not supposed to have formal education." So this person's complaining to the Reba that he's trying to spread the idea of women's education in a formal way, in a te-- in a, you know, out of, out of books in a school, and they're telling him that it's oser. So the Reba says back, "Hine mefis chai b'chayim b'deres achrenim." It has been

02:11 very clear in the, in, uh, in the most recent years. "Asher de'azu mushlelis mufreches," that this opinion that it's oser to teach women Torah is completely rejected and completely unreasonable. But I'm translating loosely. "V'chol misbonen," and anybody who thinks about this, "ra'ayah," they will see, "chezek v'chorban," the incredible damage and destruction, "shevi es nagazuv es manachim b'flat," that this behavior has caused in most recent years. The Reba goes, "In answer to those who say that it is oser to teach women Torah formally, look at what's happened to that opinion." People who have that opinion, they've watched the, they've watched those girls who do not have a proper Torah education, uh, they've watched horrible things happen to them. "Afilu," happened to their de'as, obviously. "Afilu areitz l'da'et b'Shulchan Arukh," even somebody who wants to, uh, look in the Shulchan Arukh, "bli avala," without really understanding too well, "kim li peresh hamilus," the pashas, the milus d'seyseus, says the Reba, if you open a Shulchan Arukh, and even if you're not looking too deep, and you're just looking at the most simple understanding of the Shulchan Arukh, uh, how do you do a psak din, then you would know already the psak din, the well-known, um, halakhic decision, asher that, "hanashim chayavs lilmed halakhas hatzrichos lan," that women are required, are chayav, obligated, to learn the Jewish laws that are pertinent to them, the ones that they need for their daily life. "Leida esan," he's quoting right now the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Arukh, by the way. "Leida,"

03:22 he's quoting it word for word. "Leida esan," to know them. "Kamei dinei niddah," they have to know the laws of niddah, obviously. "V'tefilah," going to a mikvah. "Melicha," salting, because back then, um, you needed to-- back then we didn't buy our meat in supermarkets. You had to-- salting meat was part of, uh, running a Jewish household. Uh, "issur yichud," the prohibition of being alone with somebody of the opposite, uh, gender, "vekiyetze bahem," and things like that. So they have to know those halakhas. "V'chol mitzvot asah she'einaz man grema," they have to know the laws of every positive commandment that is not time-bound. "V'chol mitzvot la'asah shel Torah v' shel divrei Sefarim she'ein muzar et hahen huluk kamei anashim," is what I believe that says there. That is, that they have to know all of the negative prohibitions of the Torah, also all of the negative prohibitions that have been enacted by the, uh, divrei Sefarim, by the rabbis, because they have the same rules about them that men do. Which means the majority of the six hundred and thirteen commandments, at least the ones we do nowadays, are pertinent to them. They're halakhas they have to keep, they're mitzvahs they have to do, and therefore they are required to know how to do them. They have to study those laws. "Vi yameyam hayah hakham derash," back then, a hakham, a wise man, used to say over the halakhas, mitzvot, v'regulas, v'tzrichot, l'hadam, leida esam v'lashon shmirat hanashim. Back then, says the Alter Rebbe, he's quoting

04:25 the Alter Rebbe still, there used to be a rav in every town or a hakham in every town whose job it was to give drashas regularly that explain these laws in ways that women would be able to understand. But the idea of there being a, a lack of women's education is not really in Shulchan Arukh. It's just that there was a lack of women's education at the level that we're asking for right now. So the two big things we get out of this letter is number one, those who are saying that women's education is oser or that, uh, introducing these sorts of things is against the tradition, the Rebbe says, number one, take a look at the outcomes. People who have that perspective, they've tried this, it's failing horribly. The women are, as we're going to see very soon, the Rebbe's going to say, exposed to all sorts of other things in this day and age and absolutely need to be exposed to the cleansing ruach of Torah. And in addition to that, uh, anybody who takes even a baseline look at the Shulchan Arukh, at the Code of Jewish Law, is going to come to the conclusion that women need to learn a whole lot of Torah pretty formally. They do need to know how to do all of their mitzvahs, and they have a lot of mitzvahs. So this is the Rebbe responding in the year Tuv Shin Tes Vav, which would be nineteen fifty-six, I believe, right? No, nineteen fifty-five. Nineteen fifty-five,

05:21 uh, sort of beginning to lay the groundwork for what will become really a revolution in the Frieda Kedaba's original idea. We have here also in Tuv Shin Tes Vav, big year for women's education, I guess. This letter is labeled Gimel, Tuv Pe Vav, and it's from Yud Dalet ER, and we're only going to read one part of it that is highlighted down here. The Rebbe says you're writing to me. The Rebbe's talking to this person about, uh, teaching at a school that doesn't necessarily reflect Chabad values, doesn't necessarily, from what I can tell, even reflect Orthodox values, but he's teaching there anyway, and the Rebbe's giving him advice and telling him one of the main things he has to do is obviously teach them, but also make it very clear that he's not, uh, that he's not on board with what they're doing, and that he's not, uh, he's not, uh, officially under their auspices because if he's officially under their auspices, the Rebbe has a problem with him working there. But it seems that if he's, uh, able to just kinda come in and give a talk, but he doesn't really work for them, then he's just educating the youth however you can. Anyway, the Rebbe says that this individual would like to start teaching Hasidus in one of these mixed institutions where boys and girls learn together and where he has happened to sneak in some authentic Torah. He said, "Obviously," as the Rebbe told this individual earlier, you gotta do this all

07:48 without it looking like you're approving of the institution in which you are educating these children. Just an interesting letter. We probably have some people on the chat, certainly we have some people listening who have eleven-year-old daughters. This letter is for you. This guy's teaching his eleven-year-old daughter Gemara. And especially the Rebbe says this is important because she's almost twelve, and when she's twelve she's going to have to take on all mitzvahs. So it makes a lot of sense for you to be learning this with her. So you get the Rebbe here strongly encouraging, really strongly encouraging a father to learn Gemara with his daughter as long as he sticks, as long as he sticks to practical sugyas. And I'm not even really seeing the Rebbe say, "As long as you stick to it," the Rebbe's saying, "I suggest you stick to it." I don't see the Rebbe saying, "I'm forbidding you to learn other sugyas with your daughter." This is the year Tuf Shin Yud Zion. Even though women's education has been going strong for a while, and Bais Yaakov at this point has been around for a while, I really don't know that there are a lot of Orthodox institutions, and certainly not a lot of Rebbes, uh, making the announcement in the year nineteen fifty-seven that, uh, you can teach your daughter Gemara. Now, this isn't an announcement, it's a one-on-one letter, but in a moment we're gonna see it go more public. The Rebbe's position on Gemara is, as far as I

12:16 can tell, uh, much more permissive than anybody else of that generation. Uh, this is a long thing. I just-- I want-- I, I gave you all of it. I'm gonna put it all in the sources. You can read all of it. We're going to jump around. I'm gonna try to fill in the blanks for you because it's, it's so Gishmak. I don't say Gishmak often about things. I think it's a slightly misused ca-- slightly misused or overused word. This is objectively fun to read from beginning to end. It is, it is delicious. Uh, the Rebbe met with the Belzer Rebbe in the year nineteen eighty-one. The Belzer Rebbe came to meet with the Rebbe, and, um, the Belzer Rebbe, uh, asks the Rebbe about women's education, and the Rebbe just goes. And you can tell that he has scandalized the Belzer Rebbe. You can tell this from the text. The Belzer Rebbe is saying things like, "Really?" And, and he's accepting it. He's accepting what the Rebbe's saying, but you can tell the Rebbe is, uh, is, is, is saying novel things. So, uh, it's just-- it's fun to read his reactions. It's fun to read the conversation. I'm gonna show pieces of, of-- pieces of it to you. I don't know how many of you have seen this before, maybe parts of it. Uh, I have never read the entire thing until I prepared for this year cover to cover. I read the whole thing. It's just great. It's great. So we have the

13:15 Belzer Rebbe is talking to the Rebbe, and he says, "Before we came here, we established a school for girls, "and Hashem yisborach ya'aze she-yehi ezebat tlacha." And he says, "God should help that it be with success." And he just throws that out there, and I don't think he expected this to be the entire direction of the conversation. But that little note that he opened up a girls school is going to launch a nine-page conversation with the Rebbe. We're not gonna read all of it. We're gonna jump around, but still. The Rebbe says back, "Zed, dover godel," that's a big deal. "Chenocha boniste dereinu," educating girls in our generation, "harehu dover ikar v'yesedi," this is a fundamental and foundational thing, educating women in our generation. The Rebbe goes on to say that it's particularly important nowadays because the girls are required by U-- by, by the United States to learn secular subjects, so the Torah is needed to counterbalance that. The Rebbe adds that a few people think this is inappropriate because it's better if women don't leave the house and encounter negative influences at all, following the rule, "Kol kvuda bas melech penimah," all the glory of the princess is internal or indoors. Uh, but the Rebbe says this is the minority. The Belzer Rebbe then adds that practically, this isn't what women are even doing nowadays. They're out and about anyway. They're working in offices, so there's no excuse not to send them out to school. And compared to office jobs and the like,

14:23 sending them to school is relatively indoors, and the Rebbe completely agrees. The Rebbe says, "Yes, that, that is a good point." The Rebbe then says that this is a recent thing, sending girls to school, and that when the previous Rebbe sent shluchim to Morocco to open a girls school, the Sephardi Rabbanim pushed back on it, claiming that Ashkenazi Rabbanim were pareitz geder, that they were breaking down barriers and coming in and exposing their daughters to the outside world. But it's now clear how important it is and how many good outcomes we've seen from women's education, so nowadays everyone's on board, especially since they found that the women who had been educated only from their mothers seem to have been doing some things wrong in Taharat HaMishpacha. This part's a little bit scary. The Rebbe says that it became clear that, uh, some women who had learned from their mother and from their grandmother how to do family purity, how to, uh, how to do mikvah and things like that, Taharat HaMishpacha in yonom, uh, had been doing it wrong for a very long time. And, uh, the Rebbe says you would avoid this entirely by teaching them these things in school, although obviously to a kala or to someone who's soon to be married or relatively in the Parshah. Uh, we're then gonna continue to read inside a little bit. The Rebbe says, "Amarti pam, be-nigele limud habonas," I once said regarding the teaching of girls, "Shemekeven, shemekeven vehein mechuyaves ba'ahavas Hashem veyiras Hashem," that

15:26 since they are obligated in loving God and fearing God, "Shekehein heim, einam bechalal mitzvas she'ez man gerama," although it's true they are not within-- they don't have to keep the non-time bound-- they, they don't have to keep time-bound mitzvas. "Me'anashim p'turas. Li'es hamishisha mitzvas shechovin tamid le'ovsek me'al ha'adam afilu re'eg echad kol yamav." But those mitzvas, ahavas Hashem and yiras Hashem, loving Hashem and fearing Hashem, are among the six commandments that a person constantly has to do, which mean at all moments, which means they're not time-bound. Therefore, "Harehein mechuyaves ba'avdah le'ese Hashem lechecha u've'ese Hashem levai lechecha sirah u'bediuk kamoh, u'bediuk k'mei habonim." So the Rebbe's saying here that since women are exempt from time-bound mitzvas, uh, or let me say it a little differently. The fact that women are exempt from time-bound mitzvas does not mean they're exempt from loving and fearing God, because those are perpetual mitzvas, which are therefore not time-bound. So the Rebbe says, "Bediuk k'mei habonim," that the obligation of a woman to love and fear Hashem is going to be identical to the obligation of a woman to, uh, of, of a boy to love and fear Hashem. They're going to have identical obligations. "Hayu elu, shetanu pam be-nigele limud ha-chasidus." Now this is just so-- I brought this not even because it's so shayach to what we're talking about, but because you can't miss this. I n-- I, I, I never knew this. I never even thought of this. Look at this. "Hayu elu, shetanu," there are those

16:33 who claim, "pam be-nigele limud ha-chasidus," regarding teaching girls chasidus, "shelashem limud ha-chasidus yiztarichu." Excuse me. I did not about that. Let me go back. "Hare elu, shetanu pam be-nigele limud ha-chasidus." There were those who claimed regarding the learning of chasidus in general, to boys, to women, to, to, to everybody, to boys specifically, to men. "Shelashem yichud ha-chasidus yiztarichu," that for learning chasidus, you will need to “lehared miyezman hamukdish limud nigleh,” that if you're going to learn chasidus, you're going to need to take away time from the Torah's al-nigleh, from learning the revealed aspects of the Torah. He says that's “l'me efashaila,” therefore they had a question. “Limud ha-nigleh, hare uchiyuv vadai.” We know for sure that everybody has to study the revealed aspects of the Torah, halakha, Gemara, etc. “Zot metzitz l'seimina Torah,” that is a positive commandment. So that's a vadai, that is a bari. We are certain that everybody needs to learn halakha, that everybody needs to learn Gemara. The men, this, this we know. "Venimza, shekasha hu yered mizezman zeh bechnedeh limud ha-chasidus, neital hu zman medavar shehu biged bari l'shemeini shehu biged Hashem." When a person takes away time from the revealed aspects of the Torah to instead learn chasidus, they are taking away time from something they are definitely obligated to do and shuffling it over to something they might only be obligated to do. Why are they only maybe obligated to learn chasidus? Because “ayim kvar yigiya shala galus ez penimah zera Torah. Heim mota kvar lima Torah zerubabam.”

17:42 There is a safek, or at least there was a safek, a doubt over whether it was indeed time to reveal the inner aspect of the Torah, or whether it was indeed permitted to teach that kind of Torah in public. So regarding men, there's always been kind of a question mark on our learning of chasidus, that every time a man learns chasidus, he has to at least ask himself, "Am I taking away from a bari to feed a shema? Am I taking away from a definite obligation of learning the revealed aspects of the Torah to study the hidden aspects of the Torah?" “Ma she'ein kein b'libonas.” Did you see where this was going? That wouldn't apply to women, though. That wouldn't apply to women. Women can learn chasidus without worrying about this because “mikarah shaila zu eina kayamas.” From the beginning, this question wouldn't be asked, wouldn't exist. “Shar et bonos eino mechuyaves belimud haTorah” because girls are not required to learn the revealed aspects of the Torah. “Kashem hashiv meisan limud ha-chasidus, ein shumakem l'shaila kidugma shaila shel bari ve'shema.” Therefore, when we teach girls chasidus, there's no room for this question of what's, of what's definite and what's possi-- and what's, and what's possible I'll just explain that in case you didn't get just how interesting that is. The Rebbe's saying that there could always be a question for every man who takes away time from his study of Gemara or his study of Halakha to learn Chassidus, whether he's doing the right thing

18:43 because he has an obligation to be learning Halakha and learning Chasid-- uh, Halakha and Gemara, and maybe he doesn't have the same level obligation for learning Chassidus. But a woman who does not have an obligation to learn Halakha and Gemara officially, when she studies Chassidus, she can do that with completely-- with, with, with no concerns at all. It is actually more, I guess, direct and more, um, more accessible. It makes a lot more sense. It makes a lot more sense to teach girls Chassidus maybe even than it does to teach boys Chassidus, if you're going to that kind of extreme, because women, there's literally no tine possible against them learning Chassidus. So the Rebbe says this, and that's all beautiful theory, and the Belzer Rebbe says this. I want you to look inside and see this. This, th-this made me laugh. The Belzer Rebbe says, . Says the Belzer Rebbe, very interesting, but I, I, I-- certainly the Rebbe's intent is theoretical, right? The Belzer Rebbe says there's no way that you actually think this. You're saying theoretical-- theoretically you would teach girls Chassidus. but not practically, of course not. Didn't Chazal tell us ? Anybody who teaches his daughter Torah, it's like he's teaching her things that are either irrelevant or inappropriate. And the Taz says that even regarding Torash shebekhaav, teaching her, you know, basic Chumash, the heter is not, uh, is not, is not straightforward. Um, so, uh, and, and certain-- it, it doesn't involve explaining the actual mitzvahs. It involves only

20:03 the peshat divara and the most simple thing. So the Belzer Rebbe says back, that's, uh, that's, that's an interesting theory, that women would be more, um, I guess, uh, able to learn Chassidus than men because they don't have the obligation to learn the revealed aspects of the Torah. But obviously, that's theoretical, and we know it's not, right? So the Rebbe says back, . The Rebbe says, "As far as I know, the girls' schools, the Haredi girls' schools, are already basically teaching them the equivalent of Chassidus." That is, they're already basically teaching them something far beyond the limitations that seem to have been placed upon women when we say , the limitations you see in Shulchan Aruch and in the Taz. And the Rebbe says , the reason why they are doing that, why they are going out beyond the normal limitations of what the Shulchan Aruch seems to allow us to teach women, . Because kids nowadays, because kids nowadays, kids nowadays, it's not okay when you tell them that they have to do and they don't have to fully understand. You tell them that and they say, "I demand an explanation." They are demanding, they are desiring an understanding of the stuff that they are learning. And since nowadays, the students in general, children in general are saying, "We're not going to do Torah and mitzvahs if you don't explain them to us," the girls' schools as well have started explaining mitzvahs to the girls because otherwise they won't do them. And that's why

21:28 nowadays in the schools of Bais Yaakov and in similar schools that are like them, they teach something they call Hashkafas Chayim or Hashkafas Olam or Hashkafa. They teach, um, Jewish outlook, the Jewish philosophy, and they do this because they understand that if they don't give the girls some reason, they're not going to do it. We don't have the kind of bitul we used to have. Now, the Belzer Rebbe says back to this argument. So the Rebbe's saying, how different is that from saying teach them Chassidus? The Belzer Rebbe says back, that, that's different. That's different. That's mussar. We're, we're fine with teaching girls mussar, but we're not gonna teach them Chassidus. And the Rebbe says back, . Who says mussar is not an intellectual exercise? What they're arguing about here is the Rebbe had said, the Belzer Rebbe, excuse me, the Belzer Rebbe had said that, uh, we can't teach girls anything that involves, uh, in-depth thought. It's not allowed. And the Rebbe said back, "You're teaching them mussar." And he said back, "Mussar is not in-depth." And the Rebbe goes, "Since when?" So who says mussar is not in-depth? Who does-- Who says that doesn't involve intellectual exercise? The Belzer Rebbe says back, do you really mean to tell me that you think women should be delving into these topics deeply? And the Rebbe says back, do you really think it's such a problem to do that? The Rebbe goes, "Yeah, basically, yes." So you can tell the, the Belzer Rebbe, I mean, I

22:37 love the lashon here. He goes, question mark, exclamation point. Says the Belzer Rebbe, "You want the girls to, like, delve into these matters?" And the Rebbe goes, "Yeah, absolutely I do. I do. And as a matter of fact, I think they already are. I think that's mussar al pi seichel." As we mentioned earlier, regarding boys in yeshiva, boys and girls nowadays, they are not satisfied with a baseline reading of something. You gotta give them the depth. If you don't give them the depth, they're not going to do the mitzvahs. You have to give them the reasons. And so, yeah, I'm saying to delve into it. The Belzer Rebbe says back to the Rebbe, are you telling me now that, uh, we should be teaching the girls Mishnayis and Gemara? And the Rebbe basically says, "Yeah," again. So it's just great. Mishnayis are in Halakhas. The Rebbe goes, "Mishnayis? That's Halakha." And we already said women can learn Halakha. Therefore, women definitely need to learn Mishnayis because Mishnayis are Halakha. That's Jewish law. Regarding Gemara, when I was asked about this, I answered, . The Rebbe says, "When I was asked about girls learning Gemara, I answered that they should learn the Gemaras that are tied to the things that they are-- that are relevant to their lives. For example, Shabbos, Brachos, and Kitzur Shulchan." Which is very likely the letter that we saw or something like it. Furthermore, the Rebbe says, "Furthermore, nowadays, if you don't teach the girls Gemara, it's not the case that

24:04 they will not learn it. The girls are gonna learn Gemara whether you teach it to them or not." Whether or not you teach them Gemara, the girls are gonna learn Gemara. But you're not gonna-- But we don't know who they're gonna learn them from and what books they are going to learn them from. We're gonna do a little more outside right now. The Rebbe goes on to say here that he does not believe that any girl who hears about Gemara won't want to learn it, uh, because Gemara is just wonderful, right? It's so interesting. And since nowadays girls meet each other in shul and they talk, she's gonna find out about it, and even if she's, uh, she's even slightly intellectual, she's gonna wanna read about it. So it's a question of whether she reads about Gemara in a school, in a holy and safe environment that teaches it properly, or finds it on her own and possibly gets the wrong or a heretical idea. In response to the Belzer Rebbe's follow-up question, that, uh, based on the Shiita, where is there even room for the concern of teaching your daughter Torah? Is teaching her wasteful or inappropriate things? The Rebbe tells a story, and the story is about a girl who asked him about the age of the universe and told him that it's clearly a few billion years old. And the Rebbe asked this girl, "Didn't you learn in school that Hashem made the world in six days and rested on the seventh?"

25:04 And, uh, she says back, "Yeah, I did, uh, but then science says that it's much, much older." And so the Rebbe says to her, "Why didn't you ask your teachers in school about the Sefira? Why didn't you say to your teachers, 'What do you do with this? On one hand, we have on one hand, we have the Torah." And this girl said back to the Rebbe, "I did ask them that. I asked them, and they told me that telling me any more than the basic Pshat in Chumash would violate kilum lamdei tiflos, would violate the rule about teaching girls Torah in depth, so they wouldn't answer my question. And so now I think the world is billions of years old." And the Rebbe says, uh, the Rebbe says, um, if they just explained it to her, uh, it would have been fine. But they didn't explain it to her, and now she's going to one day, with God's help, she's gonna have children. She's gonna pass this information on to them, and we're gonna have all kinds of problems because they weren't willing to go beyond kilum lamdei tiflos. The Belzer Rebbe, over here, then says that we should make sure, uh, based on this, that limudei chol, that the secular subjects the girls are learning don't teach them these kinds of things, right? Where did she get the idea that the world is billions of years old? That would be in her secular studies in school. So the Belzer Rebbe says we need to

26:02 make sure that kulin is al taras hakedosh, that we don't teach them secular subjects that give them the wrong idea. And the Rebbe says back, "I'd love to. I'm working on it. We're trying to fix it. But in America, we can't really do that because the textbooks are all approved by the state." And, uh, the Belzer Rebbe says back, we'll read inside a little bit, "Im ken, a dover mesukan," if so, then that's very dangerous because they're being exposed to these dangerous ideas. And our Rebbe says back, "Mechapsim derech l'saknes hadover," we are looking for ways to fix this. We really don't want the girls to be studying these, uh, or the boys, anybody, to be studying heretical material in their textbooks. "Aval eitz ha'rishonahi," but the first thing that needs to be done is, "La'aziv hatzuras hageones shelibonam al miliyar dei shanim m'shem sheker." But the first thing to do is to be careful to explain to boys and girls that the things that they're saying about the world being billions of years old is sheker, is complete falsehood. "Im ein lo bash, asu ledabar cach ki lamdei tiflos." They're answering these girls that they can't even talk to them about this because that's too much depth, and that violates the rules about teaching girls Torah in depth. "Hiyechel yesir shamayim, balas midos tovos, lo yasayz panim chas v'shalom." If they do that, then she could end up being, uh, somebody who fears Heaven. She could have good midos, and she could be somebody

27:04 who doesn't, uh, not, not meiz panim. She could be somebody who doesn't, uh, let's just say, act inappropriately for now, um, in a, uh, in a forward way. "Aval amais nisharet zla maskana sh'elim kai miliyar dei shanim." But she could end up leaving with the maskana, with the conclusion, that the world is billions of years old. Why would that be a problem? "Maskana zu kemuvan, einu bededas." This maskana is not going to sit alone. "Hi kareis fekas nisfas." It comes, it drags along with it other doubts in the faith. For example, "Ki shemaskemes she, sheparshios b'dover habriah, hem divrei aggadah." Once she comes to the conclusion that the entire Genesis, that the entire Breishis, is just words of aggadah, that it's not literal, "Niha etzlem yachas de'em zeh gam b'degei lashabas." She's gonna feel the same way about keeping Shabbos, that Shabbos is non-literal. Now, that's a ridiculous jump. Why would the Rebbe say that? Here's why. "Im yasbach limah ei dei Shabbes, hitbasval legamrei. Ari yem Shabbes hu kodesh mimenei shehu hayem shishi al briah." She knows that the day of Shabbes is supposed to be holy because it is the seventh day since Hashem created the world. "Ki sheshiam masah Hashem es hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz, um, es hashamayim ve'aretz, mi yom hashishi ha'oz mi'ein habrach. Ulam im habriah lo hayah shesh shiym," but if the creation of the world was not in six days, "elim miliyar dei shanim," but it was instead in billions of years, "misarah basish shel yom hashabbes." We will

28:13 then end up messing up the foundation of Shabbes for her. "Bedever aluluf gebish mir Shabbes shel bi Shabbes zeh," and you're gonna end up messing with her keeping of Shabbes. So the Rebbe says it's very, very important to be teaching girls these things in depth, because if you don't teach them in depth, they're going to get the wrong idea, and that wrong idea is going to ultimately end up messing with their practical observance. What we have here from the Rebbe is a very strong defense of women's education and also in-depth women's education for reasons that are in line with Shulchan Aruch. The Rebbe's not going outside of Shulchan Aruch. The Rebbe's saying that the Shulchan Aruch is telling us women need to learn whatever it takes to be able to accomplish the mitzvahs that they have to do. And the Rebbe says nowadays you can't do that without proper women's education, including the in-depth stuff. They won't come to love and fear God without the study of Chassidus. Without the in-depth explanations of mitzvahs, they are not going to keep the mitzvahs because we live in a time nowadays where people don't na'ase unless they nishma. They won't do unless they understand. Whether that's good or bad, and I think it's probably mostly bad, that is the case, and therefore people need to be given explanations that maybe in the past they didn't have to receive. The Rebbe's giving reason after reason that we have to teach women in depth, uh, even Gemara, the Rebbe's

29:10 opening, Mishnayos, all sorts of things that in the-- I mean, even in the times of the Frieda Keremba, the Frieda Keremba's pushing Chassidus for women. He's definitely pushing women's education. This to me seems far more expansive than the sorts of things we saw in the Frieda Keremba's letters. Which brings us to the main sicha, which is the last thing we're gonna look at today. This is a sicha from Shabbos Parshas Emor. It's Erev Lag BaOmer. It was right before the conference of Neshei Avnei Chabad, I believe. I don't think it was a Knes Hachluchas. I think it was a Neshei convention, but I'll see near the bottom. It'll tell me. And, uh, this sicha's from the year nineteen ninety, so it is quite recent. Um, I don't believe our shift has been updated since then. Nobody gave me the memo. So this is sort of the final form of what the Rebbe wants women to do, and he spells it out very clearly as far as their learning schedule. And as I advertised for you a little earlier, this schedule is so much Torah. I, I, I don't think I know men who have gotten through this kind of material. So the Rebbe assigns so much Torah to women that, uh, at this point we basically-- at this point, the learning of men and women is almost identical. Almost identical. Uh, with the exception perhaps of in-depth study of poskim on Gemaras that are not shayeach to their lives. Let's, let's see inside. "Olem shel

30:12 chaza. Yesh le'erev. Gam eires chiyuv ha'amim bechalal shel nashim belimada Torah asher einin zeh negeah gam lechinuch habanos." The Rebbe says, based on what we were talking about earlier, which we have not read together, that, uh, it is time for us to talk in depth about the education of girls. "Lechol deresh," first and foremost, "hanashim chayavos limad halachos hatzrichos lahem le'dei chaisam kemedinah nidah vetvilah melicha isur yichud vekerei atzmo lahem." Number one, he's gonna just quote the Aftah Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch. Women need to know the laws that they will have to practically perform. Nidah, tvila, melicha, that's salting things. Uh, isur yichud, not being alone in a room with someone they're not allowed to be alone in a room with. "Vechol mitzvos shelo she'einas man gemurah." They need to know the laws of all non-time-bound positive commandments. "Vechol mitzvos lo sesase sh'ol Torah v'shel divrei Sefarim." And the laws of all of the negative commandments, both the Torah ones and the rabbinic ones. "Shemozariz ven ka'nashim," which they have the same rules about that men have. "Ribui gadol halachos haTorah." The Rebbe says this is the majority of the halacha in the Torah. "Halavai hayu kol hanashim bekiim bechol zeh." I love that line. The Rebbe says, "Halavai, if only all men were experts in the things that I am saying women need to know." If you look there, footnote twenty, he adds more stuff. That's why I highlighted it. Let me zoom in so you can see. The the Rebbe says in footnote twenty,

31:19 that in our days . Nowadays, we are at the final days of exile. and we are, uh, hopefully waiting for the final con-complete redemption. Take of immediately. waiting at every moment, uh, every day for him to come. The Rebbe says that nowadays that we are close to the coming of Mashiach, Mashiach's coming any minute, included in the laws that women need to know, practically speaking, will be many of the laws of sacrifices and things like that. As you probably know, women have to bring sacrifices for certain things. Women need to know about the rules about bringing these sacrifices. The Rebbe says we can add in Kodshim now. The Rebbe just gave women Kodshim. So in addition to the Rebbe just gave them Kodshim kind of, at least parts of it. And furthermore, and fun-- most fundamentally, they need to learn Hasidus. Because in Hasidus, they learn about faith in God, about the oneness of God, about the, uh, lo- about love of God and fear of God. as in the-- as the verse says, "You should know the God of your father and serve Him with a complete heart." Learning Hasidus is practically, uh, practically implements the ability to do the six mitzvahs that are perpetual, that a person must do at all moments, and therefore are not time-bound. And women have to do that just like men. So the Rebbe so far has told women they need to learn basically, uh, a ton of Shulchan Aruch, most of it. Um, maybe not Choshen Mishpat,

32:46 I don't know, but honestly even that too, uh, . So honestly, the Rebbe just gave them basically the whole Shulchan Aruch, um, Shas and, uh, including Kodshim because we're close to the times of Mashiach and the whole Hasidus. The Rebbe says, "How about the halachas they don't need to know? Let's give them those too." We're gonna jump a little bit and I'm gonna show you what he says. That since he-- what he says in the part that we're jumping is the Rebbe says in this part that we're skipping, that since nowadays they are studying things that introduce cleverness and, uh, and, uh, intellectualism into them anyway, except it's coming from secular studies, they're already exposed enough to that, that there's no reason not to counterbalance that with the learning of Torah properly. Then here the Rebbe says, this would apply then to the t- to the study of the oral Torah, that is Gemara. in addition to the halachas they need to know. Since women are, and gi- women and girls are anyway learning things that introduce a certain degree of cleverness into them, that is, uh, that is already coming from other sources. So it's not just the case nowadays that they're allowed to learn the oral Torah. Furthermore, based on the very reasoning of this halacha, we now need to teach them Torah Sheba'al Peh, the, the oral Torah. Not just the halacha as it is without its reasons, we have to teach them the reasons of halachas. That's Gemara. down to the

34:13 back and forth of Torah. That is very much Gemara. That's Gemara in some depth. Because the nature of a person, man or woman, is that they desire and they d- enjoy that kind of learning more than just being told a list of dos and don'ts. And this will open up their talents and their abilities in the spirit of our holy Torah. So the Rebbe is saying here that once again, the Rebbe is not changing halacha, not at all. He's not even looking for a heter. The Rebbe is saying, "Let's look at the original halacha." The original halacha is that we are not to teach women Torah, because if you teach a woman, uh, in-depth Torah, the cleverness of the Torah, the cleverness of the Talmud, because you'll take basically people who have simple faith and are simple and direct and honest about their Yiddishkeit, and you'll take them and turn them into people who are trying to find leniencies and loopholes and who are lying about things and cheating things. You, you don't want that. You don't want that kind of cleverness in their heads. But given that that was the whole reason for not teaching them Torah Sheba'al Peh in the first place, look at the society we have nowadays. In the society we have nowadays, women and men are both exposed to that from a young age from the world at large. They already have this amumius. They alread- they already have this sort of negative cleverness that we were worried about the

35:17 Talmud accidentally giving them. Given that they have this already, the Gemara is the only counterbalance that can protect them, and teaching them Torah in a way that is a list of dos and don'ts isn't going to speak to them. It's not going to make them passionate about Torah, which we need in order to counterbalance the evils of the world. It's not going to make them, uh, passionate about doing mitzvahs. Now, nowadays people won't do things unless you explain to them why. So the Rebbe says, "From the very law that tells us not to teach women Torah, nowadays it's very clear you have to teach women Torah." It's not a heter, it's not a chidush, it's not an addition, it's the same halacha. The Rebbe is saying the very same halacha that told us for, uh, for thousands of years that women should not be studying Jewish law in depth beyond the basic dos and don'ts that are for them, that same halacha is now telling me that women should be learning absolutely everything. And to review, the Rebbe basically gave them the entire Shulchan Aruch. The Rebbe basically gave them the entire Hasidus. The Rebbe now basically gave them Seder Kodshim a moment ago because Mashiach's coming, and the Rebbe just now gave them the Shakla V'Taria and the in-depth study of Gemara and just about everything. I can't really think of anything that the Rebbe gave to me- that, that, that, excuse me, that, uh, that men study that the Rebbe didn't just give

36:17 to women in this sikha. And in giving it, the Rebbe's not making a chidush, he's not making a heter. The Rebbe's saying that anybody who looks at the halacha carefully enough will come to the same conclusion, that nowadays the same halacha that had women not learning these things have-- has women learning all of these things. So what I hope we've been able to see together, we've been on a journey. It's been a two-part series. We went all the way back from the Friediker Rebbe. We saw this in its earliest stages developing. We really see it here in the year nineteen ninety coming to fruition. The current state of the matter is that as far as I can tell from the Rebbe's shtick, these are edited talks. These are clear letters. The Rebbe's shtick is very clearly that women, uh, not only can, but not only should, but must study a good deal of Torah that we might have thought is not for them. Uh, and that would seem to be not just Jewish law, but the reasonings behind the Jewish law, not just Musar, but the depth of Hasidus. Uh, all-- the entire sefarim shelf is open to women as far as I can tell from these talks. I don't really see limits anywhere. The only hesitation I saw earlier was the Rebbe saying that they should learn Gemaras that are specifically shayach to them. But in this sikha in nineteen ninety, he seems to sort of go even further and say that, uh, given

37:14 that nowadays they, uh, given that nowadays they have amumius from other places, and nowadays you won't really get a geshmak in learning unless you're learning the in-depth sugyas, the Rebbe seems to be giving them the in-depth sugyas too. So as far as I can tell, I don't really see any limits on anything right now. Uh, if there's a bookshelf and there's a woman around, that woman should be by that bookshelf. That is my broad conclusion from the Friediker Rebbe's letters, the Rebbe's letters, the sikha, and the yechidus. Okay, that's it. Thank you all very much.