In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

204 Notes Introduction 1. This concept, called “intertextuality,” is discussed at length in Daniel Boyarin, Intertextuality and the Reading of Midrash (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1994). 2. There are other later versions of the midrash on “Eishet Chayil.” One is called Midrash Mishlei (Midrash on Proverbs), probably edited after the final editing of the Babylonian Talmud, the most significant editions in print being a Constantinople version from 1517, a Venice version from 1547, and a Prague version from 1613. The other is called Midrash Eishet Chayil (Midrash Woman of Valor,) a collection based on Midrash HaGadol, also Yemenite, from 1428. They include other women such as Zipporah (wife of Moses), Tamar (consort of Judah), Bruriah (respected teacher in the Talmud and wife of Rabbi Meir), and Rachel, wife of Rabbi Akiba. Yael Levine Katz wrote her dissertation,“MidresheiEshetHayil”(PhDdiss.,UniversityofBar-Ilan,1992), on these midrashim. 3. Arlene Agus, “This Month Is for You” in Elizabeth Koltun, ed., The Jewish Woman: New Perspectives (New York: Schocken, 1976), 84-93. 4. Penina Adelman, “A Drink from Miriam’s Cup: Invention of Tradition among Jewish Women” in Maurie Sacks, ed., Active Voices: Women in Jewish Culture (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1995), 109-124. 5. See Richard Handler and Jocelyn Linnekin, “Tradition, Genuine or Spurious ,” Journal of American Folklore 97, no. 385 (1984): 287; and Allan Handon, “The Making of the Maori: Culture Invention and Its Logic,” American Anthropologist 91 (1989), 895. Chapter  Wife of Noah 1. Author’s translation. 205 2. Tillie Olsen, Silences (New York: Dell Publishing, 1978; The Feminist Press, 2003), 35. Chapter 3 Rebekah 1. For more on Lilith, see Louis Ginzberg’s Legends of the Jews (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1938), 1:65. Chapter 5 Rachel 1. Athalya Brenner, ed., “Female Social Behavior: Two Descriptive Patterns within ‘The Birth of a Hero’ Paradigm,” in The Feminist Companion to the Bible (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993), 203–221. 2. Ibid. 3. Rabbi Yitzchak Arma, in Nechama Leibovitz, Commentaries on Genesis [in Hebrew] (Jerusalem: World Zionist Organization, 1967), 223. Chapter 6 Batya 1. A reference to God’s outstretched arm mentioned several times in the Maggid section of the Haggadah. 2. I would like to thank Dr. Steven Copeland, professor of Jewish Thought and Education at Hebrew College, Brookline, MA, for an imaginative discussion on the theme of redemption and these three scarcely-mentioned women. 3. Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1938), 2:271, n. 61. Chapter 8 Miriam 1. According to Rashi, when Zipporah hears that some of the men will gain prophetic status, she exclaims that she pities their wives because the husbands will separate them just as Moses separated from her. Miriam overhears Zipporah’s statement and recognizes that Zipporah is being treated poorly. Also in Beha’aloscha 738, in the Babylonian Talmud, Zipporah tells Miriam that she feels sorry for the wives of the newly appointed elders because the elders will separate from them. And in Habbukuk 3:7 it says that it’s likely that Kushite means from Kushan, another word for Midean, pointing to Zipporah as the Kushite woman. 2. I would like to thank Alan Shapiro for this idea. 3. For more on the legend of Miriam’s Well, see Eliahu Kitov, The Book of our Heritage (New York: Feldheim, 1978), 2:157–162. 206 Chapter 9 Hannah 1. Author’s translation. 2. “Compassion” here is rachamim in Hebrew, which is from the same root as rechem. Chapter 0 Yael 1. Also spelled “Jael.” Chapter  Widow from Tzarephath 1. Author’s translation. 2. It is noteworthy that the father-and-son trial in Genesis 22 (Abraham and Isaac) is preceded by a parallel mother-and-son trial in Genesis 21 (Hagar and Ishamel). These two chapters are thus assigned as reading for the first and second days of Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year), respectively. For more on this, see Gail Twersky Reimer and Judith A. Kates, eds., Beginning Anew: A Woman’s Companion to the High Holidays, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997), 32–34, 44–54. Moreover, the absence of Sarah from this sequence gave rise to later constructs of her Pietà, in midrash, modern literature, and art. See David Sperber and Anat Chen, “‘But the Weeping of the Mother will be for Evermore,’ The Appearance of Sarah in the Akedah Narrative in Israeli Art” [in Hebrew] (Israel: Bar Ilan University, 1997). See also Rachel Ofer, “No Games of Hide-and-Seek with Moms...

Share