Jen Van Amerongen: Rav Kahn, The Most Influentional Figure in Empowering Womens Gemara in the U.S

 

Jen Van Amerongen

נפלה עטרת ראשנו

I believe that after Rav Soloveitchik, Rav Kahn z”l was the most influential figure in empowering women’s Gemara learning in the United States. Rav Kahn taught generations of students at Stern College for Women, and was the primary Gemara teacher for 40 years after Rav Soloveitchik instituted the class in the 1970s. Rav Kahn was battling cancer for the past few years and taught up until this past semester.

Rav Kahn was one of the largest influences in my own Gemara learning and my learning and teaching would not be what it is if not for my time in his shiur. As I usually explain to people when describing my time in Rav Kahn’s shiur, which I was in all my 3 years of Stern, Rav Kahn didn’t have a ‘mehalach’ to shiur. He didn’t have any grand chiddushim of how to understand the Sugya, his primary goal was to make sure we understood what we were reading 100%. I remember, especially the semesters when the class was smaller, the fear of showing up to shiur and getting called on to read the text. Rav Kahn always insisted and expected that we arrived to shiur knowing how to read and punctuate the sources exactly. It is funny to think that for such a soft spoken and modest man, he had such an awe-inspiring presence in the classroom. A line of Rav Kahn’s which has stuck with me, and I have repeated to my own students is, “If you want to be a Talmid Chacham, you have to sound like a Talmid Chacham”. Rav Kahn taught us to understand every word, look up every reference in Tosfot, don’t ever assume anything.

״משה אמת ותורתו אמת״

“וְהָאִישׁ מֹשֶׁה עָנָיו מְאֹד מִכֹּל הָאָדָם”

One of my favorite things about Rav Kahn was how simple and straightforward he was. He spoke up for what he believed in, even if it wasn’t accepted widely, like his famous article on birth control in Halakha. When shiur would occasionally go off topic and we would start discussing current events and issues in the Modern Orthodox community, I was always taken aback by how Rav Kahn approached things. I remember in one of those side discussions a student asked Rav Kahn what to do if boys didn’t want to date her because she learned Gemara, Rav Kahn could not even wrap his head around the idea that someone would be opposed to such a thing. When in shiur the students with newer editions of the Gemara would share the Girsa their Gemara had, Rav Kahn usually refused to accept it, relying on what his older print had written.

Rav Kahn also had a deep appreciation for the Ramban. I remember how often we learned “Milchames”s and how at the Shiur Shabbaton Rav Kahn shared an Dvar Torah based on the Ramban Al Hatorah with such passion. On that same Shabbaton we learned that Rav Kahn baked the Challah we had at the meal.

These are just a few reflections of the many hours I spent in Rav Kahn’s presence, but I know that every single time I learn and teach Gemara it is b’zchut the tools I received in his shiur.

I am saddened that we will have to go on without him, but I am also confident that the many women who have learned from him will continue his legacy.

(Jen is currently studying in Keren Ariel, the Yoatzot Halakha program at Nishmat.)

יהי זכרו ברוך