Women Leaders and Jewish Ethics

Rabbi Melanie Aron

June 7, 2003

I remember the day that Shifrah realized that only men played major league baseball. Growing up in California, where so many of her teenage babysitters were very athletic, and at a time when women filled almost every other role in society, she was shocked to find out that a girl couldn't grow up to become a major league baseball star.

Someone who had been attending our services during the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot, hearing me speak each week about what we learn from Pirke Avot, the Teachings of our Fathers, might have a similar perception of the role of women in classical Judaism.

Certainly, up until recently, women who were classical rabbis and teachers of Torah, in the sense that Hillel and Rabbi Akivah were teachers of Torah, were almost as scarce as female major league baseball players. However several years ago, when I did some research on this historical period, I uncovered enough evidence of women teachers to create a document that I called Pirke Imahot, the Teachings of our Mothers.

Where Pirke Avot opens with Moses, Joshua and the men of the great assembly, Pirke Imahot begins with Miriam, the daughters of Zelphechad - who secured for daughters the right to inherit land, and Hulda - a woman recognized in the book of Kings as a prophet.

Rabbi Gamliel taught Torah and so did his daughter, though the Talmud records her teachings without mentioning her name.

Rabbi Meir taught Torah, and so did his wife Beruriah, though our tradition was so uncomfortable with her learning, that later generations developed legends of her coming to a bad end.

It was interesting to me that the recorded teachings of women seemed especially concerned with ethics. The Kantian categorical imperative - act so good would be achieved if everyone acted in a similar manner - was introduced in the Talmud through the words of a young girl engaged in dialogue with Rabbi Joshua ben Haniniah. The Talmud tells the story through the word of the Rabbi: I was once on a journey, he said, and observing a path across a field, I made my way through it, when a little girl called out to me, "Master, is not this part of the field?" "I am walking on the path," I said, "Robbers like yourself", she retorted, "have trodden it down". (Eruvin 54a) From this the rabbi concluded that before we take a shortcut we must consider the consequences of everyone doing so.

Bruriah reminds us to draw a distinction between the wrong act and the actor. When robbers were bothering her husband Rabbi Meir he prayed that they die. She corrected him, reminding him that the Torah teaches: Let the wickedness of men be no more. If their sins cease, then they need not die in order for there to be no more wicked men. When their wicked deeds cease, we must look at our enemies in a different light.

Finally I am drawn to Queen Salome during whose days the rabbis tell us, rain fell only on the Sabbath, so as not to bother people while they worked, but fell regularly each week, very unusual in Israel, such that the corns of wheat were as large as kidneys, the barley corns as large as olives and the lentils like golden coins. She brought peace and prosperity to the land. Would that today's leaders could become our heroes, bringing peace and prosperity to our world.