The Talmud's Women in Law and Narrative

Abstract

The author argues that women in rabbinic families in the talmudic period did learn halakhah, despite talmudic teachings to the contrary. They were taught established rules by their mothers and other family members, and new rules by their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons. Such learning was possible because halakhic discussions often took place at a rabbi’s home and around his table. The author then asserts that women did not just labor domestically, as was expected of them, but also fulfilled for themselves and, even more surprisingly, for the head of household, significant religious rituals, such as baking matzah for Passover and setting the courtyard ‘eruv . To perform these rituals according to the rules that men had established, women had to be informed of these rules. Finally, the author suggests that when women implemented the new rules that emerged from the study house, they occasionally tweaked them to adapt them to real-life circumstances. In sum, although women in the talmudic period were subordinate to men in a patriarchally configured society, their knowledge of ritual law and the religious roles they played were more extensive than scholars have generally suggested.