ah's mental poise, and make her voice
heard and heeded in the councils of the teachers of the Law, and that
the rabbis considered her sayings and doings worthy of record, would of
itself, without the evidence of numerous other learned women of Talmud
fame, prove, were proof necessary, the honorable position occupied by
Jewish women in those days. Long before Schiller, the Talmud said:[28]
"Honor women, because they bring blessing." Of Abraham it is said: "It
was well with him, because of his wife Sarah." Again: "More glorious is
the promise made to women, than that to men: In Isaiah (xxxii. 9) we
read: 'Ye women that are at ease, hear my voice!' for, with women it
lies to inspire their husbands and sons with zeal for the study of the
Law, the most meritorious of deeds." Everywhere the Talmud sounds the
praise of the virtuous woman of Proverbs and of the blessings of a happy
family life.

A single Talmudic sentence, namely, "He who teaches his daughter the
Law, teaches her what is unworthy," torn from its context, and falsely
interpreted, has given rise to most absurd theories with regard to the
views of Talmudic times on the matter of woman's education. It should be
taken into consideration that its author, who is responsible also for
the sentiment that "woman's place is at the distaff," was the husband of
Ima Shalom, a clever, highly cultured, but irascible woman, who was on
intimate terms with Jewish Christians, and was wont to interfere in the
disputations carried on by men--in short, a representative Talmudic
blue-stocking, with all the attributes with which fancy would be prone
to invest such a one.[29]

Elsewhere the Talmud tells about Rabbi Nachman's wife Yaltha, the proud
and learned daughter of a princely line. Her guest, the poor itinerant
preacher Rabbi Ulla, expressed the opinion that according to the Law it
was not necessary to pass the wine-cup over which the blessing has been
said to women. The opinion, surely not the withheld wine, so angered his
hostess, that she shivered four hundred wine-pitchers, letting their
contents flow over the ground.[30] If the rabbis had such incidents in
mind, crabbed utterances were not unjustifiable. Perhaps every
rabbinical antagonist to woman's higher education was himself the victim
of a learned wife, who regaled him, after his toilsome research at the
academy, with unpalatable soup, or, worse still, with Talmudic
discussions. Instances are abundant of erudite rabbis t