In Parshat Yitro, Shmot 19:3 we read: “Moshe went up to the
Presence of God and God called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Ko tomar
liveit Yaakov v’tagid livnei Yisrael’, This is what you shall say to Beit
Yaakov (the house of Yaakov) and tell to B’nai Yisrael.”
Rashi comments that Beit Yaakov refers to the women. Moshe
was asked to speak to the women (before the men) in a gentle voice.
How do we know that “beit”, “the house of” refers to the
women?
In Vayikra 16:17 we read: “He shall atone for himself and
for “beito”, “his wife”.
How do we know that the word ‘tomar’ refers to a more gentle
voice?
Rashi explains in Bamidbar 12:1 when he comments on the
words “Vatidaber Miriam”, where Miriam spoke negatively about Moshe: “Dibur
(the pronunciation of the words) always connotes harshness but amira (the ideas
underlying speech) connotes softness and pleading.”
In Yishayahu 2:5 we read: “Beit Yaakov, come and let us walk
in the light of God.”
The “Beit Yaakov” school system which was founded by Sara
Schenirer in
in 1918 got its name based on the fact that the words “Beit Yaakov” in the
TaNaCh referred to the women.
How was Sara Schenirer able to institute formal religious
and secular education for girls?
At that time, the boys were only receiving a Torah education
while the girls were only receiving a Polish education. Many of the girls
started moving away from their Jewish roots. Sara Schenirer realized that
something needed to be done to save these young women.
Shoshana Pantel Zolty in her book And All Your Children
Shall Be Learned (1993 Aronson p.67) quotes the Chafetz Chayim (Rabbi
Israel Meir HaKohen Kagen) in his Likutei Halachot:
“Nowadays, when parental tradition has weakened and we find
girls who do not live close to the parental environment, and especially that
there are those who have been given a secular education, certainly it is
required to teach them the TaNaCh and the ethical instructions of our sages as
in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers)… so that the principles of our holy
faith will be strong for them. Otherwise they may stray from the path of God
and transgress all the precepts of our religion.”
Today there are hundreds of Beit Yaakov schools in
throughout the world.
Many girl’s as well as boy’s schools including Yavneh and
the Telshe Yeshiva were founded around the same time as Beit Yaakov and
followed the Beit Yaakov model of combining a secular and religious education.
The Day School movement today is also an offshoot of the
great work that Sara Schenirer began almost 100 years ago.
Just as at Har Sinai, the women were spoken to before the
men, so too the women were the trailblazers in setting up a formal education
system which was later replicated by the men as well.
