Episode Details

Does the Torah belong to every woman?

This week, I host a roundtable with two women who've built their lives around Torah: Annie Nagel, who left a thriving law career for the classroom and a PhD in Tanakh, and Hadassah Shemtov, founder of Batsheva Learning Center.

We trace the halachic sources on women's Torah study, where the historic hesitation came from, and the Lubavitcher Rebbe's radical reframe: that women's learning isn't damage control, but the direction history was always moving towards.

We also talk about the practical experience of Torah study for women: How do you keep Torah alive when you're working eighty hours a week with three babies? What does learning look like in a season when deep scholarship simply isn't possible? And what would it take for the next generation of girls to believe, without question, that no Jewish book on the shelf is off-limits to them?

EPISODE SPONSOR: This week's episode was sponsored by a woman who wants to empower other women to learn and take ownership of their birthright within Torah.

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Hadassah Shemtov is the founding director of Batsheva Learning Center, an organization that offers text-based Torah learning opportunities for women. She runs a chavrusa-based track at Ohel Chana High School and is the junior Rebbetzin at Young Israel of Los Angeles.

Annie Nagel is a PhD candidate at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies and teaches Chumash at YULA Girls High School. She holds a JD from UCLA School of Law and practiced real estate law in Los Angeles.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 "The Torah belongs to every woman" — who this episode is for

02:19 Annie's story: from law to a classroom and a PhD in Tanakh

04:42 Hadassah's story: the year in Israel that set her trajectory

07:32 "I'm not making the time I want to for my own learning"

09:26 What the pivot cost Annie: trade-offs and peers making partner

13:55 Framing the sources: were we all really at Sinai?

16:07 The halacha, plainly: are women obligated in Torah study?

21:33 Why the hesitation was about an era, not about women's minds

22:03 Moshe waits a day: Hashem holds back the Shechinah until every woman is there

24:14 Do women feel the Torah is theirs?

28:03 How Annie kept Torah alive when life was consuming

33:08 The Lubavitcher Rebbe's reframe: not a concession to the times, but the trajectory toward Moshiach

38:19 The common language of the house is Torah

42:54 The "living Torah" — when your whole life is already an offering

47:00 "Listen to what stirs your neshama" — Torah study without pressure or guilt

50:01 Why reading it yourself is irreplaceable

53:35 What would it take for the next generation to know the Torah is theirs?

54:08 Ending the split between text and hashkafa

58:00 "No sefer on the shelf is off-limits to you"

01:00:13 Rapid fire: one text to start with, the woman who lost her practice, where to begin from zero

01:06:18 One message, soul to soul

01:07:00 Closing