Orthodox Conundrum with Scott Kahn
ORTHODOX WOMEN & TALMUD STUDY: SETTING HIGHER STANDARDS AND GOALS
Should Gemara learning be a mandatory part of the high school curriculum for girls, as it generally is for boys? Regardless of whether Talmud classes for young women should be optional or mandatory, should they be modeled on the standard yeshiva styles of learning, or should Gemara be taught differently with a different emphasis depending on gender? Was the fact that women were generally discouraged or even prohibited from learning for two millennia a necessary accommodation to reality or, in hindsight, a mistake? Are there still areas of scholarship that, for political or religious reasons, should remain the exclusive province of men? Do we need new methodologies of teaching Gemara to both boys and girls? How should a Talmud teacher address texts that likely won’t resonate with that teacher’s audience, such as a statement that teaching one’s daughter Torah is similar to teaching her “tiflut” – that is, something trivial or even obscene?
The Orthodox Conundrum is a forum that looks honestly at the Orthodox Jewish community, identifying what works well and what does not, so that, through an honest accounting, we can find solutions that will be successful. The podcast examines some of the major issues that affect the Orthodox world, without exaggeration, whitewashing, or pretending that they don’t exist.
