Women Learning Gemara (threads merged)

mimivan

Tue, Sep 18 2007, 4:24 am

bashinda wrote:

We learned briefly for 2 hours a week and here's what I learned from the experience: appreciation for the effort it takes for serious Torah study. You cannot learn gemora 2 hours a week. It was really funny. Many of the same people who wanted to learn were saying "just tell us what the din is" a few classes later. LOL

I liked learning it but felt I needed tons of graphs just to keep clear what was going on. (we were learning about the position of the menora IIRC)

mimivan: from what I learned the Rebbe (Lubavitcher for those not in the know) was fine with women learning Gemora. In real life, as you say, almost no women really have the time and if we have the time we're learning Chassidus.

Yes, that was what I was trying to convey...

I also realized why men feel the need they have to learn Gemara day and night...because that is what this kind of learning requires!

mimivan

Tue, Sep 18 2007, 4:39 am

BtW, I think they gave us a page of Gemara so we would stop kvetching about why women are not encouraged to learn Gemara. I can nurse a baby and learn a bit of Tanya (well, the passages these days are quite difficult!) but Gemara?

I think that "lesson" stopped alot of kvetching! LOL

zeldy

Tue, Sep 18 2007, 5:32 am

Quote:

I was taught a woman could learn Gemara if she has already mastered the basics and it is not at the chesbon of her other home and children.

I would think the above would apply to any gender and any subject. No man should be learning anything at the expense of his home and children. No woman should be learning at the expense of her home and children.

miriamnechama

Tue, Sep 18 2007, 7:13 am

a rov in israel was once asked by a mother whicjh seminary to send her daughter. she wanted the best the rov said the seminary that'll teach your daughter to cook and bake and keep a house she should go to.

I never learnt gemara in school or seminary, we did mefarshim but even that was too much for me. we had in seminary raboniom who would quote a gemara and explain it but that was as far as it was. I don't see why I need to learn it, dh will explain what he learns in daf yomi and of course I can read the days daf in the daily hamodia. so sometimes I read it to dh and he jokes about his rebetzen learning gemara!! not really.

baba

Tue, Sep 18 2007, 8:10 am

I learnt it in semenary and absolutely loved it. I've got more of a science mind and so this really worked for me. It really enhanced my emunah. Now I try to learn sometimes with DH, but often it doesnt reall matter. I really miss that type of thinking though.

Chocoholic

Tue, Sep 18 2007, 9:01 am

I learned it in Sem and I really really enjoyed and loved it... it goes better with my way of thinking instead of hours of bla on tznius or mystical things that don´t interest me so much.. Wink

catonmylap

Tue, Sep 18 2007, 9:59 am

I thought I would like it based on the type of mind I have, but I was always so bothered by the impractical. I just wanted to know what the halacha was---what the conclusion was. I heard a lot of women have this problem with gemora.

Ruchel

Wed, Sep 19 2007, 2:57 pm

I only know one woman who learns Gemarra, and she has an agenda as she is not really frum. She goes to a Gemarra course that accepted her (these courses are all man only).

I have nothing against it, I think I would even be curious about it. I am just not used to the idea, but not uncomfortable either.

chaimsmom

Tue, Sep 25 2007, 10:27 am

miriamnechama wrote:

the seminary that'll teach your daughter to cook and bake and keep a house she should go to.

Why would a girl need to go to seminary to learn those things?

Lovemylife

Wed, Nov 14 2007, 7:38 pm

I learned gemorah in high school (bais rivkah, crown heights) and in sem.

I have no idea why it's alluring. It's pretty repetitive and boring.

TwinsMommy

Thu, Nov 15 2007, 9:47 pm

I learned a lot of Gemara before I became frum. I had a daily chevrusah when I was an undergrad at Brandeis University. My chevrusah was a male friend, observant Conservative Jew. I was sort of Reform and sort of Conservative at the time. We learned a LOT of Gemara together.

Then I became frum and did some shiurim through the netivot program for women in Los Angeles-- it's a neat program--- geared towards the EXTREMELY modern Orthodox---- I'm not *that* modern, but I did enjoy learning Gemara.

Now I live in Cleveland where I'm pretty sure no women learn Gemara. And now that I have kids I don't have time anyway--- it's hard enough to be koveah itim for the things I *am* learning (I have a chevrusah for Pirke Avos--- I think that's my favorite right now).

Motek

Sun, Nov 18 2007, 4:34 pm

Lovemylife wrote:

It's pretty repetitive and boring.

Did you also learn to talk that way about the Oral Torah in school? I hope not.

Any subject can be boring. Depends a lot on the teacher.

freidasima

Fri, Dec 28 2007, 7:20 am

When I was younger I wanted to learn and was upset that we were only learning mishnayos in school. So I went to my father z"l once when he was learning at home and asked if he would show me some gemara. He did and after he learned a daf with me he said, "ok, you see what it is, now go and learn all the things that women need to know first and when you have filled yourself with them, you can come back to me and I will teach you more".

I never did. I'm still learning all the things I have to know. That doesn't mean that I don't learn gemara second hand from DH and other things I read, but to open up and "learn"? First let me get through all the other things I have to know...

ihyphenated

Tue, Mar 18 2008, 9:02 pm

I learned gemara for 2 yrs after college. Straight gemara in the morning (half time w a chevrusa, then shiur) then gemara/shulhan arukh/later responsa for halakha in the afternoons. It was awesome. Best two years ever. I loved it. I left to go back to biology, but I still miss learning full-time in a major way....

Tzippora

Tue, Mar 18 2008, 9:39 pm

I learned with my father, who raised me as his only son, and now with my DH.

It's interesting stuff and I really think the difference in approaches between the two of them is what surprised me.

Motek

Tue, Mar 18 2008, 11:12 pm

Tzippora wrote:

I really think the difference in approaches between the two of them is what surprised me.

different approaches? between the two what? Confused