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THE NEW ISRAELI FILM BERURIAH: BETWEEN RASHI AND TALMUD, BETWEEN ANTIQUITY AND MODERNITY, BETWEEN FEMINISM AND RELIGION Tal Ilan This short study, embedded in this book resulting from a conference devoted to gender, politics, and antiquity in cinema, stands at the inter- section of no fewer than four of my research interests. The first is antiq- uity, particularly the postbiblical or Greco-Roman period, and its impact on the Jews. The second is gender, particularly Jewish women and gen- der in antiquity.1 The third is Beruriah. Women studies requires that we identify women role models and inquire what they had done in the past, how they functioned within a world where the feminine was stereotyped and her position in society dictated by men, and how within these limita- tion, they achieved recognition and influenced the world they lived in. Beruriah was such a woman. In the Talmud, the book which the Jews hold sacred second only to the Bible, a book that recounts the deeds and words of hundreds of male scholars, Beruriah is the only woman repre- sented as wise and learned, and who also left a mark on the past. In 1999 I published a chapter in Integrating Women into Second Temple History devoted to Beruriah and her literary history.2 That study lies at the heart of this paper. The fourth, cinema, connects and focuses all three. Films tell good sto- ries, are often politically independent, are often shot on location in the land, and also, by a careful close reading, can serve as excellent tools for research and critique of the culture they represent. The following is an attempt at an innovative reading of an ancient text, intended to make it 1 Originally, Tal Ilan, Jewish Women in Greco-Roman Palestine: An Inquiry into Image and Status (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1995). Now I direct a research project devoted to producing a feminist commentary on the Babylonian Talmud; see Ilan, Tamara Or, Doro- thea M. Saltzer, Christiane Steuer and Irina Wandrey, eds., A Feminist Commentary to the Babylonian Talmud: Introduction and Studies (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007); Tal Ilan, A Feminist Commentary to the Babylonian Talmud, Volume II.9: Massekhet Ta‘anit (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008). 2 Tal Ilan, “Beruriah Has Spoken Well (tKelim Bava Metzia 1:6): The Historical Beru- riah and Her Transformation in the Rabbinic Corpora,” in Integrating Women into Second Temple History (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1999) 175–94. © Tal Ilan, 2013 | doi:10.1163/9789004241923_018 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license. Tal Ilan - 9789004241923 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 05:08:33PM via free access 310 tal ilan understood and relevant for the modern viewer.3 The innovate reading is that of Beruriah (2009) a new Israeli film directed by Avraham Kushnir, written by Baruch Brenner, Hadar Galron, Yuval Cohen, and Kushnir, and paralleling the story of the ancient Beruriah.4 At the outset it is important to point out that although the Jews have a long history, Israeli cinema seldom touches on it. Israeli cinema is often self-centered and contemporary. We seldom find films which, when refer- ring to the past, take place even five or ten years ago, let alone further in the past.5 Indeed, even films made based on books written in the past are often brought forward to represent the immediate present.6 One reason for this is, I suspect, very practical. Films retelling the past require a metic- ulous reconstruction of the spaces in which they took place, of the clothes people wore, of the modes of transportation used, even of the language that had once been spoken. These not only require thorough research but also a substantial budget. Israeli cinema is basically a low-budget cinema. The film about Beruriah is also a low-budget film, and it also takes place in the present. Yet, even though it occurs in the present, it is based squarely on the story of the talmudic Beruriah. Let us then begin with this story. The Talmudic Beruriah In an article published in 1991, Rachel Adler wrote the following summary of the story of Beruriah derived from all the available references. I use her 3 For the initiated talmudist, I would call it a new midrash. 4 The title is also transliterated as Bruriah. 5 See, for example, the recent collection of articles that treat specifically historical memory, Raz Yosef, ed., “History and Memory in Israeli Cinema,” in Israel: Studies in Zion- ism and the State of Israel 14 (2008) (Hebrew) where the films discussed, which are sup- posed to represent memory, all relate to very recent memory. In the introduction (2–8) Yosef discusses “Waltz with Bashir,” an animated film produced in 2008 and taking place in 2008 with flashbacks to the events of 1982. In Sandra Meiri’s article, “Memory, Trauma and Ethics in Judd Ne’eman’s Feature Films,” (32–69), she discusses films that deal with Jewish memory, but take place between 1983 and 1989, when they were produced. In the article by Raya Morag, “Sound, Image and forms of Remembrance: Israeli narrative Cinema during the Second Intifada,” (71–88) she discusses films made in 2004–2005 about events that had taken place in the years 2000–2003, etc. Does not) לא שם זין See, for example, the film made based on Dan Ben Amotz’s book 6 Give a Damn) in 1987. The original book was written about the endless skirmishes between the Israelis and Egyptians on the Suez Canal between 1967 and 1973 on the Egyptian front, but was moved by the scriptwriter (Shmuel Imberman) to the Lebanon war which raged between Israel and Lebanon as of 1982 for 20 years. Tal Ilan - 9789004241923 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 05:08:33PM via free access the new israeli film beruriah 311 description because I think she rightly sensed the power of this story, and, at the same time, that it is only a story:7 Once there was a woman named Beruriah, and she was a great talmudic scholar. She was the daughter of the great Palestinian rabbi Hananya ben Teradyon, who was martyred by the Romans (1). Even as a young girl she far outstripped her brother as a scholar (2). It was said she had learned three hundred laws from three hundred teachers in one day (3). She married Rabbi Meir, the miracle worker and great Mishnaic sage. One time, when Rabbi Meir prayed for some robbers to die, Beruriah taught him to pray that their sin would die, that they repent (4). She also taught Meir resigna- tion when their two sons died (5). Loving and gentle as she was with Meir, Beruriah could also be arrogant and biting. She ridiculed a Sadducee (4), derided an erring student and made a fool of Yose the Galilean when he met her on the road (6). Finally, she mocked the sages’ dictum that women are easily seduced, and she came to a shameful end. Rabbi Meir set one of his students to seduce her. After long denial she yielded to him. When the plot was revealed, she strangled herself, and Rabbi Meir fled to Babylonia, because of the disgrace (7). What this story, as told by Adler, fails to do is alert the reader that a com- plete version is found nowhere in the sources. It is a narrative stitched together from various separate episodes, told by various scholars in various periods over time, beginning almost in the days of Beruriah herself, in the second century and ending with what the eleventh-century French talmu- dic commentator Rashi added to it. In my study of Beruriah, I attempted to conduct an archaeological excavation into the story, removing one nar- rative layer after the other, in order to try to arrive at its historical ker- nel. I will here summarize as briefly as possible the results of my study. I claimed that in the earliest layer of the Beruriah story, recorded in a text known as the Tosefta, she is presented, like all other sages in the academy, as making a statement pertaining to Jewish law (tKelim Bava Metzia 1:6). The Tosefta, however, never attained canonical status in Judaism. In fact, it contains many traditions that were intentionally rejected by the authorita- tive text of the Mishnah. The statement Beruriah makes in the Tosefta is one such tradition. I was able to show that Beruriah’s teaching was con- sidered sound, and thus the Mishnah presents it, transforming it into the opinion of a male sage (mKelim 11:4), effectively silencing Beruriah. 7 Rachel Adler, “The Virgin in the Brothel and Other Anomalies: Character and Con- text in the Legend of Beruriah,” Tikkun 3/6 (1988) 28, referring to (1) bAvodah Zarah 18b; (2) tKelim Bava Qama 4:17; (3) bPesahim 62b; (4) bBerakhot 10a; (5) Midrash Mishlei 31; (6) bEruvin 53a; (7) Rashi to bAvodah Zarah 18b. Tal Ilan - 9789004241923 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 05:08:33PM via free access 312 tal ilan Next, the Babylonian Talmud takes issue with this woman. I think the Babylonians knew about Beruriah because, although the Mishnah attempted to write her out of its law-code, the scholars in Babylonia knew most of the traditions found in the Tosefta. Although they never refer to Beruriah’s specific ruling, they tell numerous episodes about her, making her exceedingly wise, and supplying her with a noteworthy pedigree and husband (e.g. bPesahim 62b). I explained this interest of the Babylonians as academic.

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