OP: The old add supporting African American education that ended with “a mind is a terrible thing to waste” was a universal mussar schmooze. It matters not whether that the abode of that mind is fueled by estrogen or not. We, and BY in particular have for a long time not handled this ‘what if’ very well. Our history is peppered with legends real and not, of gifted and inquisitive women that pursued and earned vast Torah knowledge. The astute analysis in the essay Destruction and Reconstruction of Rav Soloveittzic sheds a great light on this. We have moved from mimetic (don’t treif up my kitchen with your shulchan aruch!) to textual, but BYA and others want it both ways, textual and ignorant. Do not say the doors are all practically closed. I know of one yeshiva where the women would attend the hashkafa shiur (with the men) and aishes chaver k’chaver has real meaning. You can start on you own, or find a mentor. If your are BY literate, you can comb through the Medrashim, ALL the Neviim, the great works of Haskafa of the Rishonim, and, as we are now textual based, there is no limit of study aids and secondary adjuncts to Talmud study. Be matzliach, enjoy and inspire the whizbangs that will follow after you.
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