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12th-century renaissance: Part 5 - more Jewish women
More about leaned Jewish women in the 11th-12th centuries. Rashi’s daughters weren’t the only women who studied Torah or carried on a profession. His granddaughters, Hannah, Miriam, and Alvina, were scholars as well. According to Shoshana Zolty’s “And All Your Children Shall Be Learned- Women and the Study of Toran in Jewish History,” other educated women of this time include: Miriam, wife of Rabbenu Tam [Joheved’s son]; Bella, sister of French scholar Isaac ben Menachem; the nameless wife of French Tosafist Samuel ben Natronai; Dulce, wife of Eleazar ben Judah of Worms and their daughter Bellette. Abraham ben Hayim of Falaise and Hayim ben Isaac of Vienne both decided issues of Jewish Law based on the testimony of their wives.
In “Written Out of History: Our Jewish Foremothers,” by Emily Taitz and Sondra Henry, we learn of noted women scholars such as: the daughter of Samuel ben Ali of Baghdad, who taught Torah and Talmud to her father’s students from behind a screen; Miriam Shapira Luria, who lectured in Talmud in Itally; Dulcie of Worms, plus Rashi’s daughters and granddaughters. We also learn of Jewish women doctors – Sarah of Giles and Rebecca of Prague. Jewish businesswomen apparently thrived in England, or at least their names were better recorded there: Mirabel of Goucester, Avigay of London, Belassez of Oxford, Henne of York, and Belia of Bedford. Of course there were countless other Jewish women merchants, financiers, doctors, and even scholars, whose names are lost to us.
Proof of Jewish women’s high status in medieval Ashkenaz is demonstrated by 3 takanot [edicts] of Rabbi Gershom that radically altered their position in marriage – for the better. First, despite what it says in the Torah and Talmud, a Jewish man may not have more than one wife at a time. Second, though the Torah states that a man may divorce his wife if he finds something unseemly in her [i.e. for any reason] and she has no recourse in the matter, Rabbi Gershom decreed that a man may not divorce his wife without her consent.
Third, and most extraordinary, Jewish women in this time were given a mechanism to divorce their husbands. Should this be her desire, the Jewish wife went to the bet din [Jewish court] and announced, “I find this man repulsive, I cannot live with him.” The court replied, “No one should have to share a basket with a snake [!]” and compelled the husband to write his wife a get [divorce decree] by threatening him with excommunication. Considering that most Jewish men earned their livelihood by trading with other Jews, excommunicating him essentially put him out of business. Which is why I never saw a case where a Jewish man refused his wife a divorce if she wanted one. Pretty amazing stuff considering the problems a woman has getting a divorce in Israel today.
In “Written Out of History: Our Jewish Foremothers,” by Emily Taitz and Sondra Henry, we learn of noted women scholars such as: the daughter of Samuel ben Ali of Baghdad, who taught Torah and Talmud to her father’s students from behind a screen; Miriam Shapira Luria, who lectured in Talmud in Itally; Dulcie of Worms, plus Rashi’s daughters and granddaughters. We also learn of Jewish women doctors – Sarah of Giles and Rebecca of Prague. Jewish businesswomen apparently thrived in England, or at least their names were better recorded there: Mirabel of Goucester, Avigay of London, Belassez of Oxford, Henne of York, and Belia of Bedford. Of course there were countless other Jewish women merchants, financiers, doctors, and even scholars, whose names are lost to us.
Proof of Jewish women’s high status in medieval Ashkenaz is demonstrated by 3 takanot [edicts] of Rabbi Gershom that radically altered their position in marriage – for the better. First, despite what it says in the Torah and Talmud, a Jewish man may not have more than one wife at a time. Second, though the Torah states that a man may divorce his wife if he finds something unseemly in her [i.e. for any reason] and she has no recourse in the matter, Rabbi Gershom decreed that a man may not divorce his wife without her consent.
Third, and most extraordinary, Jewish women in this time were given a mechanism to divorce their husbands. Should this be her desire, the Jewish wife went to the bet din [Jewish court] and announced, “I find this man repulsive, I cannot live with him.” The court replied, “No one should have to share a basket with a snake [!]” and compelled the husband to write his wife a get [divorce decree] by threatening him with excommunication. Considering that most Jewish men earned their livelihood by trading with other Jews, excommunicating him essentially put him out of business. Which is why I never saw a case where a Jewish man refused his wife a divorce if she wanted one. Pretty amazing stuff considering the problems a woman has getting a divorce in Israel today.
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