Commentary on Sotah: On the Education of Girls

The rabbis wrote that this refers only to the Oral Torah; but the Written Torah—even though one should not teach it to her in the first place, if one does so, it is not teaching her indecency. Even within the Oral Torah, she is obligated to learn the laws pertaining to feminine matters. It seems that all this applies only to previous times, when everyone dwelled in the place of his forefathers [avot], and the tradition of the ancestors [avot] was held very strongly by everyone, to conduct himself in the ways that his predecessors [avot] observed, in accordance with the verse, Ask your father, and he will tell you (Deuteronomy 32:7). In such a situation, one could say that the girl need not study Torah, but could rely on the conduct of her upright parents. But now, on account of our many sins, the ancestral tradition has greatly weakened and girls do not often dwell in their parents’ home, and some even regularly study the alphabet and language of the gentiles. Certainly under these circumstances it is a great merit [mitzvah] to teach them the Hebrew Bible—Torah, Prophets, and Writings—and the ethical teachings of the sages, such as Mishnah Avot, Menorat ha-maor, and the like, to instill in them the truths of our holy faith. Without this, they are likely to stray altogether from the ways of God and (heaven forbid) transgress all the fundamental precepts of our religion.