Once upon a time there was a poor farmer and his wife who lived in a little hut at the edge of the shtetl. Despite their poverty, they lived happy lives, except that they were childless. However, the farmer davened and davened and one day they found that they would soon have a daughter.
Next to the couple's little cottage there was a fine magnificent home in which lived a talmidat hakham, who was regarded with some suspicion by the other talmidim of the shtetl since she was a woman. Next to the home was a fine magnificent garden with some fine magnificent rampion. One night, the farmer's wife was seized with a terrible desire for rampion salad. Her distress was so severe that the farmer crept into the neighboring garden to fetch his wife some rampion. The talmidat hakham was horrified when she saw him and cried out: !לא תגנב If only you had asked me, I would gladly have given it to you! Horrified, the poor farmer asked how he could do teshuvah. Seeing a perfect opportunity to expand the ranks of talmidot hakham, she said that she would grant mechilah if the farmer would send his daughter to learn with her. The farmer gratefully agreed.
Not long after, the couple had a daughter, Chava, and when she reached the age of chinuch, the farmer sent her to learn with the talmidat hakham. Chava proved extremely bright, and before long, she and the talmidat hakham opened a girl's yeshivah in the shtetl. There, Chava shut herself in a high tower so that she could better focus on her learning. One day, she chanced to see her bashert from the tower, and she called after him to invite him for shabbos. Horrified, the bashert called back אל תרבה שיחה עם האשה and ran away. So Chava lived the rest of her life learning 17 hours a day.
Glossary:
Shtetl -- village, where Jews live
Davened -- prayed
Talmidat hakham -- (feminine) A student of a wise person
לא תגנב -- (Lo Signov) Thou shalt not steal (Exodus)
Teshuvah -- Repentance/making amends
Mechilah -- forgiveness
Chinuch -- education
Yeshivah -- place in which one studies Torah
Bashert -- one's fated spouse
Shabbos -- Jewish Sabbath
אל תרבה שיחה עם האשה -- (Al tarbeh sichah im haishah) Don't engage in idle conversation with women (Eruvin 53b)
'Learning' -- studying something Torah related
