Nicely said feivel.
A few bullet points for oomis:
You think this was hard for the girls to hear, Rav Shach knew who he was talking to, these were Israeli girls, they were not American
>>I believe R’ Shach Z”TL answered a legitimate question with a singularly offhanded response<<
You have no clue how the question was presented. R’ Yaakov Kaminetzky refused to answer questions when asked in a way that showed the asked just wanted to show how great a question they came up with. Maybe that is what the girls did here. You do not know. Maybe show some benefit of the doubt to Rav Shach?
>>Agree or disagree, a rov has a greater achrayus than the rest of us to choose his words carefully when someone wants to learn. To tell a Seminary girl she basically only needs to learn how be a good cook, and her inquisitive mind doesn’t need to be nurtured, is wrong, no matter who implies it.<<
Just because what he said does not fit into your type of Yiddishkeit does not mean he was wrong. He was nurturing young minds by giving them Hadracha and mussar.
>>Infallibility of one’s religious leaders is a Christian, not Jewish concept. <<
To call this a slippery slope would be an insult to the word slippery. Why is it that this card only gets played when someone has been seemingly beaten in an argument?
Personally, however, I am usually skeptical when I hear of a story. Especially for the reasons listed above (not knowing all details, personal projections, we become judgmental etc.) I did, however, open up my Mictavei U’Ma’amarei R’ Shach. In cheleck 1 & 2, page 134, he has an interesting piece which I thought would be fitting to add to this discussion.
He says that nowadays, it is an obligation to “educate girls in the spirit (ruach) of the Torah” just like it is a mitzva to educate the boys. For without this there is no way to protect them from the outside world.
R’ Shach adds that he believe that the money for sending daughters to Yeshiva is just like the money used for sons to Yeshiva (i.e. not included in the set amount determined on Rosh HaShana. He also adds the words ??? ?????? ?????? ????.