신명기 11:19의 Halakhah

Nevertheless, women are exempt from the mitzva to study Torah, as it is written: “You shall teach them to your sons, to speak them [– words of Torah]” (Devarim 11:19). The Sages extrapolate: “Your sons and not your daughters” (Kiddushin 29b).

Education is frequently regarded as instrumental in nature, i.e., a process of acquiring knowledge and skills to be utilized for specific purposes. Judaism recognizes two distinct forms of religious education. One is ḥinnukh, a concept which is more accurately rendered as "training"; the second is study and acquisition of knowledge. The instrumental value of the latter is incontrovertible. A child who has not been instructed in the laws of tefillin will lack the knowledge necessary for proper performance of the mizvah. Nevertheless, the obligation to teach Torah to children is far more encompassing in nature. The verse "And you shall teach them to your sons" (Deuteronomy 11:19) establishes not simply an obligation to teach children so that they be enabled to perform mizvot, but is an intrinsic component of the mizvah of talmud Torah. A Jew is obligated to teach his son Torah just as he is obligated to study Torah himself. Just as one's own study of Torah is an end in itself, so also is the teaching of Torah to children an end in itself. Study of Torah is not merely a means to observance but in itself constitutes the greatest and most profound of mizvot. Thus the obligation of talmud Torah mandates the study and teaching of all aspects of Torah, including even the study of subject matter pertaining to mizvot which cannot be observed in our time.

This inference, however, seems to be contradicted by a statement recorded in Kiddushin 29a. The Gemara posits a number of responsibilities which a father must fulfill on behalf of his son: "A father is obligated vis-à-vis his son: to circumcise him, to redeem him, to teach him Torah, to arrange for his marriage and to teach him a trade. Some say that he is also [obligated] to teach him to swim in water." The Gemara seeks a scriptural source for each of the enumerated obligations. In establishing an obligation to teach a son Torah, the Gemara adduces the verse "And you shall teach them to your sons …" (Deuteronomy 11:19).