There's a gemara that the entire Torah is taught to a child just before he's born. Question is, suppose it's a girl, does she also learn the entire Torah?
ANSWER:
She is taught the Torah of a girl. There is a big Torah for a girl to learn, a tremendous Torah. A girl doesn't learn technicalities that are not l'maase, but the things that she has to know are endless. You have to know the Torah of good character, of midos tovos, is a tremendous subject. The Torah of emunah, of daas Hashem, is an endless subject; the malochim are never finished: Tomid mesaprim kvod Keil. Now malochim have very good heads, in one minute they can see more than we see in our whole lifetime, and they are always busy talking about the glory of Hashem, that everybody has to study.
Men and women have to know that it's one of their life functions, to recognize Hakadosh Baruch Hu in this world, the kvod Hashem; there's so much to learn about that. The Gra used to say to his daughters, they should always learn mussar seforim;all the mussar seforim are available to girls. If a girl learns all these things, then she is a gaon, she's considered the same as if she would be a gadol hador. She has learned her Torah, she is a success.
Therefore, absolutely, the Torah is taught to boys and to girls, each one according to what he needs to know.
Good Shabbos To All
Question #71
QUESTION:
How could you prove to a small believer that the Torah was Divinely given and wasn't man made?
ANSWER:
Once a Rosh Yeshiva was sitting in his house, in America - this story is about 50 years ago. He was a European Rosh Yeshiva; he was on Henry Street sitting in his room where he was staying in America. A man came in with his son. The son brought his father, and the father said to the Rosh Yeshiva; "How do I know that the Torah was given at Sinai"? So the Rosh Yeshiva said, “Do you believe there was a Napoleon?”
“Oh yes,” said the man, “certainly.”
The Rosh Yeshiva said, “Did you see Napoleon?”
“No, never saw him.”
“Did you see anybody that saw him?”
“No.”
“How do you know that there was a Napoleon?”
“Everybody said so!”
So he said, “You know, there a lot of people in this world who never heard of Napoleon, a lot of people. Millions in India, millions, never heard of Napoleon. Millions!”
There are more people that heard about giving the Torah at Sinai, than heard of Napoleon. So if you believe what everybody says, that there was a Napoleon, means you're going after a great number of witnesses, or people who are handing over traditions. There's a still greater number, because all the Mohammedan's say that Hashem gave the Torah to the Jewish people at Sinai; there are millions and millions of Mohammedan's.
All the Christians say that Hashem gave the Torah to the Jewish people at Har Sinai, and the Jewish people surely say that. So you have so many witnesses. So therefore unless you stop believing in Napoleon or you stop believing in George Washington, then you have to believe in the Torah. Nobody saw George Washington today. Nobody saw anybody that saw George Washington, and still when Washington's Birthday comes they talk about George Washington all the time. They are convinced that he was there.
Oh, there are books of George Washington, you say.
There are books about Moshe Rabbeinu, certainly. There's the whole Torah that talks about Moshe Rabbeinu. Shmos and Vayikra and Bamidbar and Devorim, and Sefer Yehoshua, and Sefer Shoftim, they all talk about Moshe Rabbeinu constantly. Shmuel Aleph and Shmuel Bais, “you should walk in the ways of the Toras Moshe”, and Melachim Aleph and Melochim Bais, and then comes Yeshaya and Yirmaya, many books speak about him So we have books upon books, besides the books of the gentiles. So therefore, how can you prove to a non-believer that there was a Napoleon? If you'll prove to him that there is Napoleon, then Al Achas Kama V'kama, you can tell him he can safely believe there was a Moshe Rabbeinu and a Matan Torah.
This is transcribed from questions that were posed to Harav Miller by the audience at the Thursday night lectures. To listen to the audio of this Q & A please dial: 201-676-3210
Important Numbers
