Prohibiting women from Jewish education is chilul hashem. Please ignore this "psak".

This is pure nonsense and arachiac at best.

How can learning of any kind be bad for anyone, male or female?? And with all due respect, how can a mere mortal know the soul of another human being, when most of us can't figure out our own souls? If Gemara is another part of the Talmud, why is it ok for women to study one half, but not the other??? Somebody help me out here.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe always encouraged women to learn gemara. The time for equality is now!

This is the famous Jewish sense of humor at work, isn't it? Is it Purim already?

lest they become bearded simpletons like Rabbi Eliyahu.

Someone needs to tell Rabbi Eliyahu that he need not worry about "gender obscuring" because there are these things called penises and vaginas and those make wonderful defining characteristics for both sexes.

Oh, how I long for the good old days of the 8th Century.

... in order to learn about Jews and Judaism probably already hates Jews and Judaism anyway. It's like asking Shinui what they think about Heter Mechira.

Rabbi Eliyahu, Rabbi Aviner and others who hold these views - with all due respect should wake up - if we do not accept that life in the 21st century has to change from the past then we are doomed and the only result is that more and more of our youth will abandon observance. We cannot, should not, and will not go back to the ghetto, the shtetl, and these close minded views - they do not help us - they only bring us down. Women's role is not just to educate - nor is it to support their family while their husband "learns" - women have a brain - it should be used to its fullest and they should not and cannot be ignored as people of marginal importance.

I suppose chadors & veils are not far away.

If this is his attitude to half the Jewish community, how can we respect anything he has to say?

secular Jews. Religious Jews wouldn't have a problem with the Rabbi's rulings. "Whenever women violated this ruling… their god-fearing, mitzvot observance and respect for the Torah dropped, instead of rising."

Chillul Hashem is the desecration of Hashem's name. When someone is spiteful against G-d and goes against His laws, like the abomination parade - that's a chillul Hashem and that's a terrible Chillul Hashem. Rulings of an orthodox Rabbi is not a chillul Hashem. If anything, just the opposite, it enhance G-d's laws. Talking against the Rabbi - that's a chillul Hashem.

Why do we shake our heads in wonderment that Israel is the target of terrorists, has the most corrupt and inept government in its existance and is hated by the world? If you are Jewish and posted a disrespectful reply here, you shoud do tshuvah. If you are goyim, go back to your pagan news sites! Gemarah in its ENTIRETY and women studying with other women is NOT prohibited!!! But IF you were in Torah study, you would know that.

Most of the contributors are sonei Yisrael and are disrespectful to Torah and sages.

The nice Muslim lady living up the street from me, has told me where I can buy one of those fatwas - guaranteed to work better than the little voodoo dolls from New Orleans - for $25 via email. She did, however, suggest that I adopt a Muslim name to get that good deal. She obviously has intimate knowledge of my social life, because when I asked her for a fitting Muslim name for me, she suggested, "Seldum bin Laid."

When Adam, though he had tried desperately, simply could no longer answer most of Eve’s endless questions, he cried out to God and wanted to know why He had made woman 1. so beautiful, but yet, 2. so dumb. The answer came fast: 1. so you’ll love her and 2. so she’ll love you. :-)

You're so quick to criticize about a subject you know nothing about. How many of you know what the Gemarah actually contains? Maybe the Gemarah is just not relevant to women. Have you thought of that? Maybe it has nothing to do with equality and everything to do with relevance. If a man is told not to read in its entirety the famous book "what to expect when you're expecting" is that because he is inferior to women? Since you know nothing about what is in the Gemarah, my TBers, how are you so sure that the same thing doesn't apply?

The man is a fool...an idiot...

Old men shouldn't make stupid comments.

It seems from the comments, that women want to learn Gemara, which would mean that you respect the Torah and the Rabbis. yet, the same Jewish laws that you want to study, states that respected rabbis of every generation can issue a psak related to the times but you who don't know halacha can argue and vilify Rabbi and Psak. I won't even print what the Talmud says about one who disparages Rabbis.

G-d created man & woman in his image ("b'selem elokim") & endowed both genders w/ the creative capacity to master/subdue the enviroment w/ their intellect in both the secular & religious realm. Furthermore, there is no Halachic gender distinction or restriction on getting close to G-d through more intense Torah/gemarah study.

I think the proper response of liberal Jews is to require all women in their movements to become experts in Gemorrah. Reform and Conservative Jews should pull their daughters out of public school and send them to schools where they learn Gemorrah daily. Israel should require all secular girls to study gemorrah in school and female soldiers should all be enrolled in hesder type arrangements where they learn Gemorrah

Assimilation due to lack of education, ignorant of the answer to life's tough questions and competing religions, isn't enough? Now we need to dumb-down girls to provide them suitable marriage prospects? Perhaps some girls are willing to dumb-down to improve their marriage prospects to a "religious" man. The young Orthodox woman who becomes educated with advanced degrees in the hard sciences and can answer life's tough questions from cosmology and philosophy as well as Torah indeed finds it much tougher to find an Orthodox young man at her level. I have great respect for former Chief Rabbi Mordekhai Eliyahu. But on this issue, we need more Orthodox young men at that level, not less Orthodox young women. PS: the most popular Israeli Jewish newspaper not publishing candlelighting times on Yom Shishi in its on-line counterpart is a disgrace to Israel and Jewish readers. Even ha-Aretz publishes candlelighting times on Yom Shishi. Paqid Yirmeyahu Israeli Orthodox Jew Advancing Logic as Halakhic Authority Welcoming Jews & non-Jews www.netzarim.co.il

I do not see how learning Torah can bring one to abandon Mitzvah observance, but there is a point to be made for not learning Gemara with men since woman have the quality of Bina more developed and tend to understand it faster, it is a secret that should be well kept so that men don't loose face.

They should befriend the Egyptian Muslim misogynist screwballs who recently issued breastfeeding fatwas.

Has this Rav declared it , yes or no ? Certainly yes , so do you want this to be censored ? So you want that the concerned women should not know this , and continue to study Gemara ? That's a contradiction , no ? This has nothing to do with hate of Judaism , but a dislike of retrograde medieval Judaism , and those Rabbis who are the "brains" of it .