Where’s the Passion? On Torah Education for Girls

Several recently published articles on this platform (see here and here) discussed Torah study for women, focussing on opening the wealth of the Torah bookcase for the benefit of those who desire it. In what follows, I would like to deal with the matter of institutional Torah education for girls. The way in which Torah subjects are studied at Bais Ya’akov (Charedi “seminaries”) makes it eminently difficult for girls to create a personal connection to the Torah. If we want to strengthen Torah study for girls, we need to begin at the school level.

In a nutshell, Torah study in girls’ schools, a subject developed only in the last few decades, adopted the approach of modern education systems, by which girls are required to memorize texts, commentaries, and Midrashic tales, precisely as transmitted by the teacher. This is the very opposite of how Torah is studied in the Yeshiva, where the main axis of the study is the Chavruta: group study. The role of frontal lessons is secondary and intended to expand and develop the learning that students have already acquired on their own. As a result, Torah students are challenged to innovate, deepen, reflect, and ask difficult questions that draw creative answers.

In contrast, the method in girls’ schools encourages memorization and repetition, necessarily limiting or completely eliminating the space for personal creativity. While the yeshiva study encourages innovation and creativity, the seminary study form hardly allows it

In contrast, the method in girls’ schools encourages memorization and repetition, necessarily limiting or completely eliminating the space for personal creativity. While the yeshiva study encourages innovation and creativity, the seminary study form hardly allows it.

As I will show below, the reason for introducing Torah study into girls’ schools was to connect Jewish girls to Torah and Judaism. It is possible that the reason why the study method did not resemble the traditional one is to create a distinction from the yeshiva-oriented Torah study, which is reserved for men only. In practice, however, this method distances female students from the joy of learning, ensuring that most female seminary graduates do not feel any significant connection to the Torah.

Boys and Girls: A Necessary Comparison

In her recent piece, Chana Spiegel discussed the painful issue of the power struggles that threaten to penetrate the “sterile space” of Torah study. The Torah is indeed a magnet for all, and God forbid we accuse it of patriarchy or any other paternalistic approach.

I identify with Spiegel’s pain, yet find it difficult to accept the author’s words whereby sincere Torah study is “study for the sake of study,” without involving elements of imitation of contrarianism. The trouble is that girls are not brought up to study Torah for its own sake, and the accepted form of Torah study in Bais Yaakov schools, to make a generalization, does not cultivate the simple and unmediated connection to which the author refers. Making a comparison to boys’ Torah study does not necessarily draw from a feminist or power-oriented agenda. I find it important to raise awareness of the inner connection to Torah study, so obvious in boys’ education and so missing for girls.

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Bais Yaakov schools typically adopt modern teaching methods even for the realm of Torah study, in which the teacher’s role is to organize knowledge and convey it to the student in a structured manner. This is wholly different, for instance, from the Montessori approach, which allows the student to guide the learning, while the teacher’s role is to hone and refine the knowledge that the student acquires on his own. The latter method is predicated on a natural desire to learn and develop and assumes that independent learning encourages curiosity and connection to the acquired knowledge. This reflects the curiosity and connection latent in the Yeshiva method of Chavruta study. In contrast, it is quite absent from the modern educational framework implemented in Bais Yaakov institutions.

Making a comparison to boys’ Torah study does not necessarily draw from a feminist or power-oriented agenda. I find it important to raise awareness of the inner connection to Torah study, so obvious in boys’ education and so missing for girls

Concerning other subject matters, I understand that each method has its pros and cons. For Torah study, however, which is foundational in building the spiritual stature of our daughters, I believe that the modern method is highly damaging.

The Purpose of Girls’ Torah Study

Mrs. Spiegel opposes the trends of intensive Torah study for women on the grounds that the study should be “Torah study for the sake of Torah study,” so that there is no room to criticize this or that style of study. However, in the case of Torah study for women, I think this statement is not entirely accurate. To a large extent, studying Torah at Bais Yaakov is not an end in itself. Rather, its purpose is to strengthen the connection of female students to Torah and mitzvah observance.

For example, this is how the Chafetz Chaim refers to Torah study for women in the emerging Bais Yaakov:

But today, in our many iniquities, transmission from our ancestors has become very loose, and many are entirely disconnected from their ancestors locale, and in particular for those who train themselves in the writings and languages of the nations, surely it is a great obligation to teach them the Torah as well as the prophets and the morals of the Sages… so that the matter of our holy faith will be clear to them. Absent this,  it is possible that they will deviate completely from the path of Hashem, and will transgress the basic fundamentals of our religion, Heaven forbid.[1]

Torah study for women in Bais Yaakov institutions, as understood by the Chafetz Chaim, serves the religious strengthening of female students. Unlike the corresponding Yeshiva model, it is not “Torah study for the sake of Torah study.”

Even before we discuss the extent to which current models of women’s Torah study meet the needs of individual women who desire the Torah (as Orit Joshua and Chana Spiegel discuss), we need to consider whether the accepted method of study in Bais Yaakov institutions provides the spiritual anchor that the Chafetz Chaim notes. Does studying at Bais Yaakov today supply a deep and rooted connection with staying power beyond the seminary years?

Unfortunately, it seems that today’s educational institutions invest much more effort in girls’ comprehension of differential equations than in their connection to Torah study. Whether by design or by force of social circumstances, the weight given to Tanach lessons in girls’ schools does not come close to that of other fields of knowledge, in which advanced didactic methods are mobilized to ensure continued attention, sometimes including creative spaces that promote high-level student participation. Unfortunately, this is less common for Torah classes. If the purpose of the Torah studies at Bais Yaakov is to maintain our girls’ connection to Torah and faith, it seems that our educational institutions are neglecting their duty.

Moreover, the damage is not limited to the declining interest in Torah lessons within the confines of Bais Yaakov schools. The monotonous tone that characterizes Torah lessons affects the motivation to acquire in-depth Torah knowledge long after the seminary years are over. Girls who have not experienced As Rav Kook wrote, “To draw down the spiritual world, a person must sense that he lacks it.”[2] If a girl has not experienced the exhilaration of Torah study, the joy of solving its intricacies, or the appreciation of its depths, she will not feel that she’s missing something. There will be no vessel to fill.

Once the school years are over, however, this anchor fades away, and a painful split is created between the Charedi woman’s lifestyle and the spiritual realm of Torah study

During school years, a Charedi girl is enveloped in an atmosphere of Yiddishkeit, which provides a warm embrace and a spiritual anchor. Once the school years are over, however, this anchor fades away, and a painful split is created between the Charedi woman’s lifestyle and the spiritual realm of Torah study. It is far easier for an ordinary woman to develop in secular studies and vocations than in Torah study, creating an all-too-familiar imbalance between the sacred and the profane.

I should note that this is not true for everybody. Many women are able to maintain a close connection to Hashem, to spiritual growth, and even to those elements of Torah available to them – Tanach, Tehillim, insights in Emunah, and so on – without serious engagement in Torah study. Many others, however are not as fortunate.

Creativity and the Importance of Personal Connection

Although I find the spiritual and intellectual experience in Torah classes at Bais Yaakov schools lacking, I must concede that the extensive theoretical knowledge of graduates is often impressive and should not be taken lightly. Girls’ knowledge in areas such as Tanach and halacha often exceed that of boys, and it is symbolic of our commitment to preserving the heritage and passing it on from generation to generation. Teachers, I would add, are often righteous and knowledgeable women.

However, for this legacy to take proper root among students, it needs to have an element of personal connection. The importance of this connection, which involves engagement and creativity, is apparent in the introduction of the Sochatchov Rebbe in the introduction to his book “Iglei Tal”:

I have heard some claiming in the matter of Torah study that the one who learns and innovates, and thus delights in his study, is not on the same level as study for the Torah’s sake as somebody who studies on a simplistic level… but this is a mistake. On the contrary, the main element of the mitzvah of Torah study is to delight in the study, for only thus are the words of the Torah absorbed in his blood. By enjoying Torah study, the student becomes attached to the Torah.

Our connection to Torah is forged by positive experiences, which depend on an atmosphere of engagement and innovation. We don’t need Maria Montessori to teach us this principle; it has been part of the Torah study tradition for multiple generations, producing impressive results of Torah scholarship that our nation thrives upon. This, too, is what we need in our girls’ education.

Regretfully, however, they often don’t, leaving many with a greater appetite for secular studies and literature – for Amos Oz and Brene Brown – than for the great works of our Torah tradition

If teaching girls is to form a spiritual anchor for their future, as the Chafetz Chaim writes, the anchor must be fastened to the ground of our social reality. I don’t know about the boys, but the Sochatchover’s statement certainly resonates concerning girls: personal connection is everything. If we want the Torah to be “absorbed into their blood,” the lessons must include engagement, delight, and creativity. They need to arouse passion. Regretfully, however, they often don’t, leaving many with a greater appetite for secular studies and literature – for Amos Oz and Brene Brown – than for the great works of our Torah tradition.

I do not pretend to have all the answers. Certainly, I don’t think that we can or should copy-paste the Yeshiva method of Torah study onto Bais Yaakov institutions. However, it is important to raise the issue of the qualities that Yeshiva study include and import them, in a manner appropriate for girls’ study, to Bais Yaakov. We, too, need to taste the sweetness of Torah study. We, too, need to gain some of the skills and methods that enable in-depth study even after school years are over. This is not happening – at least, not to the degree we need it – today.

I end with the famous words of the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh on the verse, “And you rejoice in all the goodness”:

If people would know and feel the sweetness and goodness of the Torah, they would become crazy and passionate about it, and an entire world of silver and gold would count as nothing in their eyes because the Torah includes all the good things in the world.

This sweetness ensures the absorption of Torah words in our girls’ souls. In a society that sees supreme value in building their spiritual stature, the principle should not be taken lightly. We must enable an inviting learning space that will inspire the connection we desire. I don’t think a radical change is required; it is more of a shift in approach, which I see as crucial and profoundly substantial. In a society that places the Torah at the center of the fountain of life, the sweetness of its waters is not a privilege but a necessity.

[1] Likkutei Halachos, Sotah Chap. 3.

[2] Orot HaTorah 11:4.