• What Is the Torah?
    Bible Questions Answered

    • Misconception: Women should not be taught the Torah.

      Fact: The Mosaic Law included a regulation that the entire Law be read to all the people of Israel, including the women and children. Why? “In order that they may listen and learn about and fear Jehovah [their] God and take care to carry out all the words of [the] Law.”​—Deuteronomy 31:10-​12.c

  • What Is the Torah?
    Bible Questions Answered

    • c In contrast to what the Torah itself teaches, Jewish legal tradition often prohibited women from studying the Torah. For example, the Mishnah quotes Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus as saying: “Whoever teaches his daughter Torah, it is as though he teaches her obscenity.” (Sotah 3:4) The Jerusalem Talmud includes his statement: “Let the words of the Torah rather be destroyed by fire than imparted to women.”​—Sotah 3:​19a.