Toras Avigdor
Rav Avigdor Miller on Bas Mitzvahs and Holy Women
Q:
Why don't we make a bas-mitzvah for a girl, the same way we make a bar-mitzvah for a boy?
A:
I will tell you one of the reasons. And this is an important reason. The derech ha'Torah is to keep women undercover. The idea that women should come out in public more than required and be on display - even a young girl - is not the derech ha'Torah. It can't be helped. We will not be foolish and ignore human nature. The nations of the world are doing their best to ignore human nature and they're suffering terribly because of that. There must be a separation between the two genders. להתרחק מן הנשים, to keep separate from women, is an ideal. Not because of any chisaron, chas v'shalom, in women. Women can be even greater than men in the eyes of Hashem. And often they are! But they have to keep away from men. And men have to keep away from women.
So at a boy's bar-mitzvah, he comes to shul, everybody's listening to him, looking at him. He's on display. It's not good for a girl to be looked at too much. The less they see of her, the better we off we all are. It can't be helped. Men have a drive which women don't have. Men are more easily excited than women are. That's why men have to be especially careful not to have women around them.
Any woman who walks in the street with her body exposed is going to pay a very big price for that. She's going to be punished terribly for what she has done to men. If she walks in the street exposing her body to men a great punishment will fall upon her. She doesn't realize how expensive that outfit really was. And that's because men are sensitive. It can't be helped. That's their nature. And therefore Hakodosh Boruch Hu says that there should be a great mechitza between men and women forever and ever. And that's the kedusha of the Am Yisroel. We are separate.
That doesn't in any way, chas ve'shalom, reflect anything about the Jewish women. Jewish women are kodosh kodoshim just like the Jewish men are kodesh kodoshim. And the Gemara says that in a certain sense women are more fortunate than men. Why? Because they sit at home and don't look for kavod like men. They don't fight about who gets shishi. They're at home and because of their nature it's easier for them to avoid many things that cause men nisyonos.
And therefore the Jewish woman is just as holy as the Jewish man. No question about it. And in Gan Eden they are considered no less than men. No less than men at all! Only that in this world we have to separate because that is the derech ha'Torah. That is the Am Yisroel. That is the Holy Nation.
TAPE E-191
