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Nidah 030: Baby being taught the Torah in the womb
Yehonasan Gefen asks:
The Gemara says how a baby boy learns all the Torah in the womb -
does this also apply at all to a female baby?
Yehonasan Gefen, Israel , Ramat Beit Shemesh
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The Kollel replies:
1. Rav Tzvi Yabrov, a talmid of Rav Chaim Kanievsky shlit'a, writes
in Kuntres Chanoch l'Na'ar (which deals with the Mitzvah of Chinuch),
page 29, that he asked Rav Kanievsky your question. Rav Chaim
answered that in one respect it is likely that the girl also is
taught Torah inside the womb since, after she is born, she will be
obligated to learn the Halachos that are relevant to her (see Beis
Yosef OC end of #47, cited by the Bi'ur Halachah 47:14, DH Nashim).
However, Rav Chaim added that, on the other hand, since women are not
commanded to learn Torah "l'Shem Limud" (to fulfil the Mitzvah of
learning Torah) but rather for the practical necessity of knowing how
to observe the Halachah, it is likely that women do not learn Torah
inside the womb.
2. Rav Chaim added that according to what people say that the
indentation above our lips is from the touch received by the Mal'ach
so that the baby will forget his learning, since women also possess
this mark it would seem that they also learned Torah inside the womb.
3. In seems that Rav Kanievsky is in doubt about this matter. I would
like to cite a source which appears to suggest that women do learn
Torah in the womb. I saw this source in Yalkut Me'am Lo'ez, in his
intoduction to the Book of Devarim (volume 1, page 28, DH v'De'u) in
the name of the Zohar, Parshas Shelach. The Zohar states that just as
men merit great levels in the World to Come as a reward for the
Mitzvos and good deeds that they perform in this world, women who
occupy themselves with Mitzvos and good deeds merit in Gan Eden, in
the places which are appropiate to them, that they can enjoy the
goodness of the World to Come. Batya, the daughter of Pharaoh, sits
and is occupied with words of Torah with all the women there. Serach,
the daughter of Asher, also dwells there and and sits and learns
Torah with all the woman there.
4. It seems to me that the fact that women learn Torah in the World
to Come suggests that they also learned Torah before they were born.
See the notes of the Ya'avetz (Rav Yakov Emden) to Nidah 30b, at the
back of the Gemara. He writes that because the baby learns Torah in
the womb, he receives Kedushah. This is the reason why a child who
died before he learned Torah in this world also merits the life of
Olam ha'Ba. Therefore, if women possess the Kedushah necessary to
learn Torah in the next World, it is likely that they need to learn
Torah in the womb. The reason why women should not learn Torah in
this world other than the Halachos necessary for them to know, is
that in this world the Yetzer ha'Ra rules over people and it can
cause women to use their Torah studies in the wrong way. In contrast,
in Olam ha'Ba there is no Yetzer ha'Ra, so women may learn Torah. It
is necessary for them to possess Kedushah to be capable of learning
Torah, and this Kedushah can be acquired only by their learning Torah
previously in the place where they are allowed to do so, namely the
womb. According to this argument, women are also taught Torah in the womb.
Kol Tuv,
Dovid Bloom
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