Between authority and autonomy: Women in the rabbinic courts. A study of rabbinic attitudes and perceptions

The Bavli contains 39 cases about "a certain woman" who appears, autonomously of any male relative or guardian, before a rabbi for a legal decision on a variety of civil, ritual, and other issues. These cases, identified by applying Isaiah Gafni's formulaic criteria for an "actual" case, grant women robust participation in the rabbinic legal system and greater interaction with the rabbinic class than is normally assumed, reflecting rabbinic perceptions of women significantly different than those in rabbinic prescriptive statements, particularly on women's learning and public activities. This thus supports Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza's theory that prescriptions of canon law are generally more restrictive than women's actual social-religious status. These cases reflect a rabbinic attitude that granted women in rabbinic society a greater degree of personal autonomy (as distinct from corporate, judicial, or familial autonomy) than has been generally assumed.;Wielding neither formal authority nor distaff influence through familial relationships, these anonymous women exercise autonomy. They are protagonists seeking to exert some control over the conditions of their lives, even as they remain subservient to familial and institutional male authority. Many win their cases, sometimes by successfully challenging a previous rabbinic decision, though such successes are not necessarily viewed positively in the rabbinic record.;Controlling for geography, chronology, and gender by comparing corpora of cases about "a certain woman" in the Bavli (hahe iteta ), Yerushalmi (hada ita), and tannaitic literature (isha ahat), as well as about "a certain man" (hahu gavra) in the Bavli's Bavot, allows this study to modify the theory of feminist historians Bonnie Anderson and Judith Zinsser on the commonality of unequal and disadvantaged treatment of women compared to men in any society or era. Geography and era are significant: In Palestine, women are largely restricted to roles of wife and "dutiful mother," though treated more empathetically than women in Babylonia, consistent with Richard Kalmin's findings about rabbinic attitudes towards non-rabbis. However, Bavli cases treat women even more harshly than men and both Talmuds' sugyot are more critical of these women than are the cases, themselves, supporting Anderson-Zinsser's larger thesis, while adding a gendered perspective to Kalmin's findings.