Reading Rayna Batya: The Rebellious Rebbetzin as Self-Reflection

This paper seeks to examine the life and contemporary afterlife of the nineteenth-century Rebbetzin Rayna Batya Berlin. Although there are no surviving writings by Berlin, and only one extant source written about her by any of her peers, she has recently become a touchstone for discussions of Jewish women and Torah scholarship. According to the memoir of her nephew, Barukh Epstein, Rebbetzin Berlin was not only learned, but also consumed with questions regarding women’s role in traditional Judaism. A juxtaposition of verifiable facts about Berlin, and analysis of the major source about her, with examples of recent academic treatments of her will show that while at times acknowledging the problematic nature of the sources, contemporary academics have nonetheless co-opted the Rebbetzin as an exemplar of their own divergent points of view. While this is an attractive and useful proposition, the historical Rayna Batya Berlin remains beyond our grasp.