Footnote

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.