Nashim Melumados- On The Natural Progression of Women's Learning

Take a look at this picture. What do you see? Are you able to tell the importance of the moment it captures? A young woman, holding a text is speaking in a shul or beis midrash. What is she saying? A devar Torah perhaps? If so, it is a nice but commonplace occurrence. It hardly seems momentous. Perhaps if we watch what's going on, with open ears and hearts, we begin to see that this picture holds a glimpse of the future.

It was not so long ago that formal Jewish education for women was anything but a given. For reasons both religious and sociological, the texts which inform so much of our lives as Jews, were inaccessible to almost all women. Although we take it as a given, Beis Yaakov was a revolutionary concept when it began. Even with the founding of these schools for young women, there was a limit on what was taught. For the most part, Torah Sh'B'al Peh, the oral law, remained an exclusively male domain. It is only in the last 40 years, for reasons both religious and sociological, that women have had the opportunity to learn gemara.

For some within the Orthodox world, women's learning is seen as a threat. Inherently, as a break with tradition, it is taken to be problematic. Even if this view is correct, and I personally think it is not, the phenomena of serious women's learning can not and will not be turned back. Trying to block it, is like trying to hold up a dam, as the flowing water, produces more and more cracks. Neither prohibitions or insults will do anything. We are in an era where Nashim Melumados, women well educated in all areas of Torah is becoming more commonplace and familiar.

For others, the progress is not happening fast enough. It is not enough for women to have serious opportunities for learning. Rabbinic ordination for women is the goal, and it needs to happen now. To me, this push for Orthodox women rabbis, threatens to diminish the opportunities for serious learning for women. It feeds fuel to the fire of those who claim that women's learning is agenda driven, rather than a natural expression of a desire to learn Toras HaShem. For good and for bad, for change to take place in the Orthodox world, it needs to happen slowly and imperceptibly, giving the impression of things remaining as they've always been. The ancient Greeks discussed the Ship of Theseus. If the boards of a ship are replaced as they rot, when there are no more original boards, does it remain the same ship? It might be perceived as the same ship, but only if the change happens slowly over time. In the Orthodox world, the connection to tradition, both real and imagined, calls for slow movement (I than Elli Fischer for both introducing me to this concept and its application to the world of Orthodoxy). If women's learning is allowed to progress naturally and organically, it will not be many years before there are women with the knowledge to be serious posekim. Whether that will lead to a formal title, remains to be seen.

Take a look at the picture again. Elisheva Finkelman, a young high school student from Israel is standing in the beis midrash of Rav Meir Shapiro of Lublin. Rebbe Meir, of course, was the founder of Daf Yomi, a modest and innovative concept in its time, that today has taken over the world of Orthodoxy. Elisheva is one of those who, following Rav Meir's program, learns a daf of gemara each day. On a recent trip to Eastern Europe, she and her classmates visited Lublin. As luck or fate would have it, they arrived there when it was time to be mesayem Maseches Sukkah. When Rav Meir Shapiro started the daf yomi program, did he ever imagine that women would be taking part? Almost certainly not. Would he approve? Again, I doubt it, but here's the thing, it doesn't really matter. Daf yomi succeeded, despite being a new approach to gemara learning. Just as Beis Yaakov and daf yomi succeeded due to support of some gedolim, women's learning will succeed for the very same reason. Change is here. It can not be stopped and it should not be forced. I hope that we can all answer “amen” to Elisheva, as she completes the Hadran, asking for continued success in learning other masechtos.

Post by Pesach Sommer.

Amidah Lifnei HaMakom- how I ditched the daf, rediscovered tefillah, and remembered what relationships are really about

When I was in my twenties, I came up with the goal of “finishing” Shas by the time I was 40. Although I had a long way to go, I had finally reached the point where I could make a leining on my own, and I had discovered the joys of bekiyus. I am nearly 43 years old and I failed to reach my goal. Sure I made progress, completing a number of masechtos of gemara, with chavrusas and through Daf Yomi, but I reached my 40^th birthday having gone through less than half of Shas.

Although it was too late to reach my arbitrary goal, I started doing Daf Yomi again, nearly two years ago. Despite the philosophical struggles with which I was dealing at the time, or maybe because of them, I kept up with the schedule on a nearly perfect basis, falling behind less than a handful of times. I enjoyed the learning, picked up a lot of ideas and insights, and started to imagine that I could attend the next Siyum HaShas, as a misayem, and not just a spectator, as I had been at the last one. Then, during my recent trip to Israel, I stopped doing the daf. Not a temporary break, and maybe not forever, but certainly for the foreseeable future. Although I was sorry to stop, I knew it had to be done.

For a long time, I've struggled with davening. Although part of the struggle was due to my difficulty keeping my mind from wandering, I sensed however, that that was a result of my lack of connecting with tefillah, rather than the reason for my struggles. I couldn't make sense of what tefillah was supposed to be about. It seemed silly and superficial to believe that davening was a way to “get stuff” from God, but I had a hard time getting past that. Besides, if that was the goal, I was either really bad at achieving it, or God just really didn't like me. I came across those who suggested other ideas, most commonly, that fefillah was a form of self-judgement. Although that made some sense to me, it just didn't click with me. Davening became a greater and greater burden in my life. I started learning during davening, not out of piety, but as an attempt to pass the time without thinking about my inability to connect to prayer. Nearly every morning, I completed the Daf during Shacharis. It wasn't that I thought this would help me daven better. Essentially, I was giving up. Then, with the help of some friends and some self-reflection, I realized I was approaching things the wrong way.

What is the goal of spending time with your spouse? What does your friend give you that makes it worthwhile to spend time with them? Intuitively, we recognize the shallow absurdity of these questions. Still, in my mind, I had been asking the same sort of question about God. What do I get for davening? What's in it for me?

The main part of each tefillah, the part we call the Shemoneh Esrei, is more properly called the Amidah, or even better yet, Amidah Lifnei HaMakom, standing before God (interestingly called The Place). Many of the ritual parts of the Amidah are to help us feel that it is just the two of us, me and God, me in God's presence, God, as a presence in my life. Included in this, is how we stand, our posture, bowing and so much more. The goal is to just be there in a Shir HaShirim-lovers sort of way. Not out of compunction, habit or law, but out of love. Sometimes of course that's difficult if not impossible. Sometimes we feel so angry, frustrated or sad, that we hardly want to talk. Surely we've experienced the same feelings in the midst of our most important relationships. We are still asked not to, and are hopefully unable to, negate the one we love, our spouse, and friend. Tefillah at that moment takes on a different tone, but still, we stand together, and communicate, however imperfectly.

I miss the constancy and companionship of doing the daf and I don't know whether I will ever finish Shas, but I do know that I have no desire to so at the expense of my davening. While learning Torah connects my intellect to God, it is through davening that I most closely feel His presence.

Post by Pesach Sommer.

Post by Pesach Sommer.