Women’s Wisdom

There was an eminent woman in town, from a good family, who would read Scripture and review Mishnah and Midrash, the laws and lore, and engage in give-and-take with learned men in the study house. Some took pride in her and sang her praises. Others were jealous, and said, “Torah study is not fitting for women – their sole purpose is to have sons, and their only acumen is at the spinning wheel.”

Now since a person’s knowledge extends only as far as the books at their disposal, she frequently came to the study house to delve into the books. Its denizens grumbled about her and said, “What is the woman doing in our midst?”, because she would tell them off for their singsong Torah practice, simulating study to trick people into thinking they were engrossed in Torah. They even fooled themselves, but couldn’t fool her, and came up with a stupid idea for taking revenge.

With their Torah knowledge they were incapable of doing anything, for her strength in the thrust and parry of Torah discourse was like a man’s. Even though a woman, her feats were those of men, and when they debated, she had the upper hand. So they got together and devised the idiotic plan of embezzling from the book-repair kitty, intended for repairing and buying books so as to increase Torah study among the children of Israel (whose holy ones donate money there when called to the Torah reading). Anyway, off they went and bought themselves ninety-nine folios of paper....