Traditionally, there was a great deal of respect for Talmudic scholarship in Jewish communities. This respect expressed itself in that being book smart got you

Traditionally, there was a great deal of respect for Talmudic scholarship in Jewish communities. This respect expressed itself in that being book smart got you engaged to one the rich merchant’s daughters (bringing a dowry). So, marriage of book smarts with money smarts, producing lots of kids. Compare this with the European Christian pre-Enlightenment tradition of putting your smartest kids in monasteries (or nunneries) where they became….monks, therefore non reproductive almost by definition.