The Madwoman in the Rabbi's Attic: Rereading the Women of the Talmud

by Gila Fine

Winner of the National Jewish Book Award and the Rabbi Sacks Book Prize

Women in the Talmud are generally marginal and almost always anonymous – the daughters, sisters, and wives of prominent rabbis. The Madwoman in the Rabbi’s Attic explores the stories of the exceptions, the six named heroines of the Yalta the shrew, Homa the femme fatale, Marta the prima donna, Heruta the madonna/whore, Beruria the overreacherix, and Ima Shalom the angel in the house. As their epithets suggest, every one of these women appears to embody an antifeminist archetype. Yet in each case, a careful rereading reveals that there is a lot more to the story than initially meets the eye; that the heroine is far more complex than she first seems; and that the rabbis had rather surprising – so as not to say proto-feminist – views of marriage, sex, childbirth, and what it means to be a woman in the world. In presenting us with archetypes that systematically break down, the Talmud imparts profound moral teachings about how to read the characters of a text and, ultimately, how to regard the people in our lives.

“Gila Fine is one of the great Talmud teachers of our time. It’s vitally important that the Jewish world hear what she has to say.” Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

“A fascinating look at the women who make their own way in the world of the rabbis. Fine masterfully peels away the patriarchal veneer of their stories to reveal their hidden light.” Rabbi Dr. Binyamin Lau

“A dazzling exploration of the portrayal of women throughout history – from Greek mythology to Hollywood movies – bringing the talmudic text to life for the contemporary reader.” Dr. Aliza Lavie

“Gila Fine’s sophisticated use of literary and cultural theory produces novel readings of talmudic stories. Her exquisite prose, profound analysis, and comprehensive knowledge of rabbinic texts make each chapter a delight to read.”& Professor Jeffrey Rubenstein

“In The Madwoman in the Rabbi's Attic, Gila Fine uses her considerable creativity, originality, and fine literary skills to elucidate talmudic tales, making them more poignant and meaningful.” Dr. Erica Brown

“An original feminine reading of the Talmud, restoring the lost voices of women to the great Jewish conversation.” Dr. Ruth Calderon

Genres: Jewish, Judaism, Nonfiction, Judaica, Book Club

374 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 23, 2024

Reviews

[Asher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've heard Gila Fine speak on many occasions. This book not only matches her speaking ability but maybe even surpasses it.

In "The Madwoman in the Rabbi's Attic," Gila manages to achieve two apparently contradictory tasks: she presents a re-reading of pieces of stories in the Gemara involving named women that presents modern insights without reading in modern values.

The detail she gives is a good warning for those of us who look at agadita as a light break without paying it the same detail we do to halachic discussions (mea culpa).

This is definitely a must-read for anyone who has heard of the heroines mentioned in the Gemara and wanted to know more (or should have though about) about why they were chosen to be mentioned.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gila Fine's deep dive into midrashim and aggadata illuminates the lives of women mentioned in the Gemara as well as the views of the Tannaim and Amoraim--the rabbis who composed the Mishnah and Gemars. Her storytelling and argumentation is so compelling and well-written, I zoomed right through.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most of the women who appear in the Talmud weren’t considered important enough to be named or given distinguishing features. In her fascinating “The Madwoman in the Rabbi’s Attic: Rereading the Women in the Talmud” (Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies/Maggie Books), Gila Fine notes that these women “are generally marginal and almost always anonymous, named after the important rabbi in their life; they are mothers of, daughters of, sisters of, wives of. In all of rabbinic literature, there are just fifty-two named women, as opposed to over a thousand named men. Of these fifty-two, only a half a dozen are heroines of their own talmudic narrative: Yalta, Homa, Marta, Heruta, Beruria, and Ima Shalom.”
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/book...

[Tova Liebert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and so innovative in its rereading of the women of the talmud! I don't usually engage with non-fuction but this was a thoroughly gripping and enjoyable read

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was entirely fascinating and enjoyable to read. The author is so knowledgeable and intelligent yet writes in an approachable style. I just wish the cover did the book’s contents better justice.

[BookishlyJewish]

This review originally appeared on my blog BookishlyJewish

As shown in my 2024 recap post, many of the books I cover on BookishlyJewish come to me from either the author or the publisher. Frequently the author (I especially love when it's the author) or the publicist will reach out. Sometimes, I hear of a book and I email the publisher with varying success. If I can't accomplish a copy that way, or the title is older than a few years and therefore the publisher is not actively promoting it, I'll place a hold at one of the many libraries where I am a proud member. Sometimes, I'll obtain titles at bookish events. Rarely do I buy them, because I funnel that budget into maintaining this website. I figure it benefits the largest numbers of Jewish authors and readers. So when I tell you that I slammed the buy button on Gila Fine's nonfiction work, The Madwoman in the Rabbi's Attic: Rereading the Women of the Talmud, it should tell you something about the quality of the work.

I've noted before that I'm in my rediscovering Jewish learning years. I had a very good grounding in Tanach (written tradition) as a child, but as a person assigned female at birth I was not allowed to study the written tradition including mishnah and Talmud. Now, with the burgeoning women's movement within even Orthodox Judaism, there are so many more resources and safe spaces for me to do that. It has been truly life altering, but one cannot help but notice how much of our tradition is written by men, about men, for men. As Fine points out, women are typically mentioned tangentially and often derogatorily. They aren't given names, but are instead known by their relation to men - "wife of so-and-so man" or "mother of so-and so man." However, there are six named women, each with their own chapter in the book, and they are often held up as stereotypes of everything that is wrong with women. Bruriah in particular has suffered a smear campaign by the later male patriarchy misinterpreting the Talmud that is so vile it make ones blood boil, so I was very glad to se Fine coming forward to set the record straight.

In addition, Fine focuses on a concept often ignored in traditional scholarship. The Rabbi's of the Talmud were not just focused on transmission of law. They deserve more credit than that. They were also master story crafters, and they used those tales to caution those who would use the letter of the law to disenfranchise the "other" - particularly women who were not allowed to participate in the legal system. There are numerous tales of women who after being dealt with unfairly, and without kindness, by Rabbinic courts resorted to a woman's last weapon - pleas to God. Indeed, the very last character of Fine's book - Ima Shalom - and her story show just how disastrous the consequences are of such actions. She makes an impassioned case for realizing that The Rabbi's actually had surprisingly kind and liberal views towards women, we've simply been too lazy to properly delve into these stories and glean their true meaning. It doesn't help that years of male scholars with derogatory opinions of women influenced by the outside secular world and it's inherent misogyny were the only ones interpreting these stories for a long time.

Most people likely think I would gravitate to Bruriah for her scholarly nature - and indeed I was very gratified at what came out in her chapter - but for me the most meaningful analysis was of the very first character- Yalta. It is a chapter dealing with reproductive issues, but also the right of women to be angry without being deemed 'hysterical' or 'overreacting.' If you have ever identified as a woman in your life, I guarantee you've been there and the urge to literally murder the person gaslighting you in this way is real. However, Fine does not give in to that rage, and she shows that neither did Yalta. The moves made in this story were calculated lessons and they hit with a force. I had to pause reading and just bask in the cleverness of it all.

Reconciling traditional Orthodox and textual Judaism with a feminist outlook on life can be an uphill battle. With The Madwoman in the Rabbi's Attic, Fine lends a guiding hand. It should be required reading for men and women Torah scholars alike. Who cares if I blew the entire gift card I had to spend on myself by purchasing it because I couldn't find it in the library and I wasn't sure the publisher would send me a copy? I'd do it again. In fact - I eagerly await her next book so that I have the chance to do so.

[Ben Rothke · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most mysterious people in the world is Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin. With a personal net worth of over $70 billion, many people would like to identify him or her.

It's rumored that the US National Security Agency knows Satoshi Nakamoto's identity based on stylometry, which is writing analysis based on sentence structure, syntax, punctuation, word choice, and more. Experiments identified 80% of users with a 5,000-word writing sample.

Stylometry has been used to question or confirm the authorship of Shakespeare's plays, Homer's Illiad and Odyssey, and Pauline epistles. With the deep packet inspection and near unlimited storage, the NSA has massive amounts of stylometry data at its fingertips.

If the NSA were to perform stylometry on a fascinating new book The Madwoman in the Rabbi's Attic: Rereading the Women of the Talmud (Maggid Books), odds are they might identify the author as Rav Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev. The Berditchever was known as the spiritual defender of the Jewish Nation.

However, the author of this remarkable book is not an 18th-century disciple of the Maggid of Mezritch. Rather, it is Gila Fine, a lecturer in rabbinic literature at Jerusalem's Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies.

The Berditchever was known to take a seemingly guilty person and show how they were, in fact, correct and righteous. Here, Fine unleashes her inner Berditchever to analyze six women in the Talmud, whose stories initially do not paint them necessarily in the best light.

Cursory glances at Talmudic texts are prone to misunderstanding and misreading, which is why many view the Talmudic rabbis as misogynists. Fine is a close and astute reader of these Talmudic texts and shows how many initial Aggadic impressions of these women can often be misread.

It is said that when giving public lectures on Aggadah, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik would work especially hard on them. He felt the effects would not be devastating if an attendee misunderstood his Talmudic lectures. However, given the nature of Aggadic texts, if an attendee misunderstood the lecture, they could leave with heretical ideas or think that the rabbis of the Talmud were buffoons.

The nature of Aggadic texts is that they contain ideas that are quite deep but prone to misinterpretation. Often called rabbinic tales, Aggadah is far from simple anecdotes. They explore deep, metaphysical concepts hidden deep in the text. Furthermore, misunderstanding these narratives could lead one to believe in God's corporeality, polytheism, or other heretical concepts. Thus, Rabbi Soloveitchik made an effort to ensure they were understood with crystal clarity.
With the goal of understanding the deep meaning within these stories, Fine's approach is to reach each story twice. The initial read determines its primary meaning. The second read uncovered the more profound truth that lies between the lines.

For example, in the story of Yalta, the wife of Rav Nachman, the Gemara says she broke four hundred jugs of wine after a rabbinic guest offended her. While coming across in an initial read as a shrew, as Fine calls her; her rereading shows Yalta not to be an ill-tempered woman—instead, an extremely intelligent and sophisticated individual.

In the narrative of Bruriah, Rabbi Meir's wife, she is said to have learned 300 laws from the rabbis in a single day. The Gemara in Avodah Zarah tells of "the Beruriah incident" without detailing exactly what it is. Rashi famously comments that Beruriah committed suicide out of shame from the incident.

Fine shows convincingly, using some aspects of stylometry, that the comments attributed to Rashi were not from him. She indicates that the Beruriah incident isn't a real Rashi. It is known as a pseudo-Rashi, a latter comment mistakenly copied into Rashi and misattributed to him.

Fine has written a sophisticated and highly original approach to understanding these stories. This is an intellectually engaging and occasionally quite provocative read, much like the protagonists of this superb book.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got to hear Gila Fine teach in person during her United States tour this June, and she is an engaging, brilliant teacher. And I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book with my Talmud study group this summer and have learned so much from it. The woman knows her Talmud and presents her knowledge and her insightful readings so well.

At the same time, parts of the book read like an undergraduate senior thesis in literature -- her entire premise about female archetypes didn't work for anyone in my reading group, and her surveys of sexism in the Western literary tradition were the weakest part of each chapter and could have been fruitfully dropped so that she could focus on the Talmudic readings that are the book's strengths. But she's young, and I think she felt the need for this scaffolding because it was a concrete addition to the critical tradition, whereas just chiming in with her own Talmudic arguments might have felt too brash for a young woman. I hope that the success of this book will give her a well-earned self-confidence so that she boldly writes more books of Talmudic scholarship without needing to hedge her bets in this way.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gila Fine is excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the way she told these stories.
My biggest frustration, I suppose, is that I was not entirely sold on the stereotypes at the beginning. It occasionally felt like Fine had the conceit of the stereotypes and needed to present the stories as ever so slightly more one dimensional than they are.
The richness of the story and her use of literary techniques to think about the stories as capable of making meaning was absolutely wonderfully done. She also makes much of this conversation extremely accessible by bringing some of the more obscure scholarship into a book that is written to be more narratively engaging.

I also find her tendency/willingness to take the works of Boyarin in particular, but others as well, and accept their analysis while still rejecting the direction such work goes. Fine often reads spaces for women into places that academics are more likely to read rabbinic situation of themselves as both self and other in a way that leaves no room for actual women. It's not an argument that lends itself to truth claims, though it does fascinate me how the Torah continues to make itself into what we need it to be.

[Bonni.Goldberg]

Gila Fine has created an eye-opening and accessible experience that’s exciting and delightful even for readers outside those studying and interpreting Talmud. Focused on the stories of the only six women named in the Talmud– Yalta, Homa, Marta, Heruta, Beruria, and Ima Shalom – Fine begins by presenting a systematic approach for the close reading of the characters and text. In the rest of the book, she uses the system to demonstrate how the archetypes these women represent are embedded with Talmudic challenges that reveal more complex views and teachings about how to understand and treat women. Fascinating, refreshing, and enlightening, whether or not one embraces Fine’s interpretations, they merit a place in every person's Jewish study from b'nai mitzvah to ordination and from secular to religious.

[Jessica Sacks · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very deserving Jewish Book Award winner. Classical rabbinic narrative is among the most under-tapped reserves of Jewish culture, largely overlooked, in different ways, by religious and secular readers alike. For this reason I found the introduction alone to be worth reading the book for – something I’d want everyone to have as a way in to a form both deceptive in its simplicity and dauntingly obscure to the uninitiated.

The writing throughout is engaging, fluid and beautiful. The readings are always fresh and almost always persuasive. The book leaves you feeling educated, energized, and curious to learn more. Fresh and new for the seasoned aggada reader, and for others, the perfect entry point to contemporary aggada scholarship and to gender-conscious reading of the Talmud.

[Darlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deep dive into the women of the Talmud, turning our perspective on some very old stories and some characters who incorporate tropes from classic tales: the seductress, the shrew (I have a whole new appreciation for Yalta and her axe), the femme fatale, the woman who rebels, and the "angel in the house." Aggada--tales from the rabbinic period--bring these characters forward, but they deserve a fresh look and Fine brings that to us while remaining true to the source material.

Highly recommended to anyone wanting to know more about the roles of women in classical Judaism and how these tales shape our lives and perceptions today.

[Chava · Rating 3 out of 5]

Admittedly, I am not a big fan of "Bible as Literature," or comparing modern literary structures and motifs to the Talmud. But the author did extensive research and study and presented well-organized and cogent arguments for her opinions.

It is refreshing to read a new take on old interpretations, and I enjoy reading when it is obvious the author is passionate about the subject. A little scholarly for me (with words like "solipsistic"); overall a good read.

[Emily Ledger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for my synagogue’s book club. The first 3 chapters, her argument through revisiting language and context makes sense. The last 2 chapters get caught up in too many excerpts from the Talmud, she stops reviewing the language closely, and the conclusions are different and don’t always make sense. Overall I liked the book but in her haste to make a symmetrical structure for each chapter, the last 2 chapters fall too long and convoluted to fit.

[Marcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deep dive into the few women mentioned in the Talmud. The author uses her novel approach to revisionize the stories so they are understandable to both the novice and seminary graduate. One negative however; there are pictures that are hard to see because they are black and white and would have been served better if they were in color.

[Shari (Shira) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gila Fine identifies six prototypes for women in the Talmud. Then she takes is a deep dive into each prototype from not only the Talmud, but also mythology and literature. There so much to think about. I have to go back and read it again.

[Tammie Rapps · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love when a book teaches me something new--especially when one compels me to think about familiar stories and texts in new ways. This fascinating exploration of six women in the Talmud does just that.

[Steve Gross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brilliant readings of Talmudic stories. However, too many scholarly footnotes that should have gone at the end of the chapter. Plus, "overreacherix" is a horrible coinage. Why wouldn't "overreacher" have worked?

[Estee Silberberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an absolute masterpiece.
Gila is very intellectually honest, not forcing her rereading to submit to a particular agenda.
Her analysis is both stimulating as well as captivating, reading like a story.
I highly recommend this book.

[Diana Lazar · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Mad woman in the Rabbits Attic

I enjoyed this book when I first started it, but by the third story I could no wait for it to be over. My favorite story was the last though. Although that one is always one of my favorites.

[Lsilberman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A close reading of the aggadot (rabbinic tales) regarding the six woman *mentioned by name* in the Talmud, a rarity for women in rabbinic literature. The sages of old were certainly not feminists, but they had some surprising things to say.

[K C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and insightful "rereading" of six women and their stories as presented in the Talmud. Much to contemplate.

[Yitzchok · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary!

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I liked about this book was the strong authorial voice and energetic pacing. I also appreciated the summaries of the Talmudic passages, particularly her reading of the Oven of Akhnai.

[Ilana · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute must for all who love reading, stories and Talmud.

[Yehudit Levinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not a big fan of Talmudic literature but this alternative (feminist) take on the few women there are in the Talmud was excellant

[Miriam Smirnov · Rating 5 out of 5]

EXCELLENT. One of the best books I've read this year. Strongly recommend!

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept was interesting but I thought the logic required a bit too much wishful thinking and I also thought the structure was a bit too repetitive.

[Suzanne Hess · Rating 5 out of 5]

More than I anticipated. A work of scholarship and deep meaning.

[Lisa Feld · Rating 5 out of 5]

There has been a lot of buzz about this book, but it definitely lives up to the hype. Fine highlights six named women from the Talmud and shows how each fits a particular negative stereotype of women: the shrew, the femme fatale, the diva, even the angel in the house. But then she complicates that vision: is the shrew really a shrew? Do the editors of the Talmud see her that way? Or is something more going on there?

In the second half of the book, Fine breaks the pattern: the diva is indeed a diva, for example, but she’s not being used to criticize women, she’s being used as a warning for men to stop being so fussy and losing sight of what’s important.

This book is great to read solo, but I’ve also used it for book groups or learning circles that want to learn more about how storytelling functions in the Talmud, as well as those interested in recovering women’s stories from Jewish tradition. This book is a compelling master class in Jewish feminist scholarship.