Excerpted from Rabbi Aaron Goldscheider’s Torah United: Teachings on the Weekly Parasha from Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, and the Chassidic Masters, co-published by OU Press and Ktav Publishing House
Women’s Role in Torah Study According to the Lubavitcher Rebbe
Parashat Ekev enjoins us to teach the words of God to our banim (Deuteronomy 11:19). The Talmud construes this term in its narrow sense of “sons,” excluding daughters. It makes clear that women are not obligated in talmud Torah (Torah study). Although this law leaves little room for ambiguity, our greatest scholars throughout the generations have offered nuanced explanations of it. In this context, we will examine the opinion followed in the world of Lubavitch Chassidut, even if the presentation cannot be fittingly comprehensive here.
In 1970, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, delivered a discourse on this topic. He began by citing the relevant laws codified by the Alter Rebbe, Shneur Zalman of Liady, in his Shulchan Aruch ha-Rav:
Women are not obligated in the mitzvah of talmud Torah (Torah study). Since they are not obligated, they have no obligation to teach their children or pay tuition for their education.
When a woman assists her son or husband in talmud Torah, however, she shares the merit equally with them.
Although not formally obligated in talmud Torah, women are obligated to study the halachot governing the mitzvot they must perform.
Needless to say, the Alter Rebbe formulated the laws very carefully. Why, the Lubavitcher Rebbe asked, did he place the third point last if it constitutes an obligation, while the second point discusses voluntary involvement alone?
The rebbe answered that while helping the men in the family is not strictly an obligation, it is also not merely a generic act of chesed or kindness. The woman is actively participating in the mitzvah of talmud Torah. He analogized this to the position of the Ran (Rabbi Nissim b. Reuven) regarding the mitzvah of procreation. Although strictly speaking only men have the mitzvah, the woman’s involvement or partnership in the act of intimacy, childbearing, and childbirth results in her sharing equally in the mitzvah. The Talmud’s exclusion of women from the mitzvah of talmud Torah is only on the level of obligation. By actively facilitating their learning, a woman becomes an equal partner who shares the reward with the one who is commanded in the mitzvah.
Although we have a better grasp of the Alter Rebbe’s second point, it still does not explain why this participatory act is greater than her own learning for the sake of observance. The Lubavitcher Rebbe located the difference in their purpose. Learning to acquire the knowledge needed to properly perform mitzvot is preparatory in nature, a means to another end. This talmud Torah is for an admirable cause, but it is not for its own sake. On the other hand, assisting learning that has no motive beyond the learning itself is considered full-fledged talmud Torah. As a result, the assistance comes before the independent study.
Even though this is the “lowest” of the levels enumerated by the Alter Rebbe, the Lubavitcher Rebbe went to lengths to show that it is nothing to be scoffed at. It is not “merely” a hechsher mitzvah, a preparatory adjunct to another mitzvah; it, too, partakes of the mitzvah itself in its own way. The Rogatchover Gaon (Rabbi Yosef Rosen), an eminent Talmudic genius, cited such a case from the avodah (Temple service). When a kohen would offer a sacrifice on the altar, he followed a procedure in ascending the altar with the animal parts, called holachah, which seems to be a practical necessity for carrying out the actual mitzvah of offering the sacrifice. Nevertheless, the Talmud rules that any inappropriate intent during this phase disqualifies the entire sacrifice. Clearly, this preparation is, in some sense, part and parcel of the mitzvah itself. The Lubavitcher Rebbe opined that in learning Torah to perform the mitzvot, a woman has a strong connection to talmud Torah itself. If that mitzvah is about deepening one’s connection to God and becoming uplifted, then the same is certainly achieved by her study.
This perspective answers a curious question about the blessings recited in the morning. If women are truly excluded from talmud Torah, why do they make a blessing over Torah study? According to the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s approach, a woman reaches an elevated spiritual level through her own action-oriented learning, so she recites the blessing. Her study is both ennobling and worthy.
If a woman were to master all the knowledge needed to flawlessly observe the mitzvot, would she continue to recite those blessings over Torah study? The rebbe answered his own hypothetical affirmatively. Her study is not just about practical application, it has intrinsic value and personal meaning.
In sum, the Lubavitcher Rebbe elevated the Torah learning of women in two respects. First, by enabling her family to engage in talmud Torah, a woman receives credit for that mitzvah specifically. Second, her Torah study for proficiency in executing her obligations is much more than a detached hechser mitzvah. The Lubavitcher Rebbe maximized the value of women’s Torah study to the extent possible within his Chassidic tradition and worldview.
This reconceptualization flowed from a much broader appreciation and celebration of the Jewish woman in Chabad Chassidut. At a special gathering at 770 in Crown Heights, the Lubavitcher Rebbe spoke to a packed hall of women about the unique qualities of the Jewish woman and her integral role in God’s plan. When the Torah was first given, God ordered Moshe to address the women first (Exodus 19:3), thereby strengthening the rest of people’s acceptance of it as well. Moreover, said the rebbe, when the mishkan (Tabernacle) was first built, Jewish women and girls were first to line up for donations; the men only contributed after having been inspired by their example. In fact, it is the Jewish woman, endowed with a distinctive gracefulness that exerts a positive influence on the concentric circles around her, that turns the home into a mishkan about which God can say: “I shall dwell in their midst” (Exodus 25:8).
The Lubavitcher Rebbe’s remarks echo a comment made by Rabbeinu Bachya some seven hundred and fifty years ago. The woman sets the tone of the home, so she bears the greater duty of inculcating love of Torah in her children. “Due to this role a mother should pray when she kindles her Shabbat candles that in the merit of the Shabbat flames, her children should merit the illumination of Torah, which is also likened to flames.” When taking the wide view, we can see that it is the women who facilitate talmud Torah by inspiring their children and husbands. To quote Rabbi Akiva, what’s ours is theirs.
