OURtorah: Is there any special reason why gemara SPECIFICALLY) as opposed to any learning in general) is part of a man’s tafkid and not a woman’s? If that viewpoint were “oh, it’s a man’s tafkid to learn and a woman’s tafkid to raise a family/run errands/be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen etc.” (just examples), then okay, as much as I’d hate it I’d respect the consistency. But to limit it to just one element of study? What’s the point? What’s the difference?
bym: I agree with a lot of what you said (though none of my cousins would be stupid enough to say what yours said in front of me- they know me too well 🙂 ). SO MANY of the sentiments you express are things that I feel all the time as well. Also, I feel like, as I mentioned above, the reasoning for why women CAN’T do certain things doesn’t always satisfy me.
But, as others mentioned, just so far as I’M concerned, I can’t see why learning gemara would be more than a Band-Aid at best for the issue. Perhaps it’s different for you, but what do you think it would do?
Actually, rereading, it seems (correct me if I’m wrong) like you want to understand Judaism, because you feel like it was all spitback in school, and part of your path to that is learning gemara, learning all the “sources” they give you in high school (yeah, I always wondered why they would give out photocopies of gemara and that was okay but to learn it out of the real thing- ooh, shtuyot!) for yourself. Is that it? I get it a bit more, but honestly, while that may help you, I wonder if you would be as satisfied if you started that up and expected it to solve these issues. I’m honestly not sure it would. If you don’t expect it to then so far as I’m concerned gezunte heit, but the fact that all of your problems as far as this seem to be painted as symptoms of your lack of gemara or the holding back from you of gemara, it’s just a bit of a question to me. I’m sure it’s not like that- people aren’t that black and white- it’s just something I was wondering.
Personally, I have enough stuff I like that I don’t feel like I NEED gemara, but it would be nice if I knew that I could if I wanted.