writersoul, the Bais Yaakov movement never permitted teaching girls Gemora or anything else that Chazal forbid us to teach them. And not all Gedolim agreed with the BY movement; the Hungarians objected to the teaching of Rashi to girls (and certainly Rambans and Maharals) on the grounds that that constitutes Torah shebal peh. Others said that since Rashi merely explains the pshuto shel mikrah – the simple meaning of the text, it would be considered Torah shebiksav in this sense. However, even the Litvishe Gedolim have mentioned that the BY movement has often overstepped their bounds in the emphasis on Meforshim, sometimes crossing the line into things that may not be learned. Rav Shach zt’l writes in one of his letters that teaching girls Meforshim in depth would be assur because of this, (the problem is quantifying “in depth”, which makes it easy to rationalize) and when a couple of seminary girls came to him to ask him to explain a Ramban or something to them, he replied that they should better spend their time delving into domestic arts.
Menu