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Rivkah Bat Meir: Subtle Redefinition of Gender Roles Within the Confines of Traditional Jewish Society by Michaela Nakayama Shapiro, Northwestern University

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Rivkah Bat Meir: Subtle Redefinition of Gender Roles Within the Confines of Traditional Jewish Society by Michaela Nakayama Shapiro, Northwestern University Rivkah bat Meir: Subtle Redefinition of Gender Roles within the Confines of Traditional Jewish Society By Michaela Nakayama Shapiro, Northwestern University Conventional narratives of the Jews during the early modern of the time. Jews in Prague lived in ghettos that functioned more as period largely relegate women to marginalized positions.1 For his- protective sanctuaries than segregated communities. The boundar- torians, however, adhering solely to this perspective would risk ne- ies of the Jewish quarter were porous, which allowed for extensive glecting the various ways in which women used their subordinate interactions between Jews and Christians, a situation characteris- status to their advantage, altering or creating roles for themselves tic of early modern societies.5 Furthermore, because the Habsburg within the niche they were allowed to participate: their home. One Empire granted the Jews free trade, the marketplaces where both of the most remarkable examples was that of “Meneket Rivkah,” a men and women freely traded served as points of constant con- treatise by Rivkah bat Meir,2 the first Jewish text written by a Jewish tact between Jews and those outside their community.6 Prague, woman intended for Jewish women.3 Analysis of this momentous then under the rule of Rudolph II, experienced vast economic and primary source document, its contextual information, as well as its cultural expansion,7 and the Emperor invited Jews into the city to role among other contemporary sources, provides a new perspective exploit their financial capital through obligatory loans in exchange on women’s roles in Ashkenazi Jewish society.4 Rivkah bat Meir was for privileges.8 Jews historically had a positive relationship with remarkable for her ability to advance women’s importance in the religious community, while carefully working within the confines of the limitations imposed upon women by the Jewish religious 5 Early Modern Istanbul, Venice, and Amsterdam were home authorities. In this way, the example of her work sheds light on how to Jewish communities that constantly interacted with those Jewish women, contrary to popular belief, managed to circumvent outside of the community. Rethinking European Jewish History and sometimes even subvert restrictions placed upon them in order includes a chapter entitled “Jewish Cultural History in early to attain more voice in the community. modern Europe, which describes in detail the elements of the Rivkah bat Meir wrote in 16th century Prague, the city home to early modern period that included mobility and social mixing. one of the largest and most vibrant Ashkenazi Jewish communities For specific communities: Please see Yaron Ben-Naeh Jews in the Realm of the Sultans (19-51) for more information on Jews in Istanbul, Robert C. David & Benjamin Ravid’s The Jews of Early Modern Venice (3-30) for more information on Early Modern 1 The early modern period considered in this paper is roughly the Venice, and David Biale Cultures of the Jews (641-666) for more time period between the Spanish expulsion of Jews from Spain information on Early Modern Amsterdam. Greenblatt, 23. in 1492 and the French revolution in 1789. “Christians, be they residents or travelers, could enter the Jewish 2 Rivkah bat Meir was an educated woman in 16th century quarter and interact with its inhabitants.” Greenblatt describes Prague who wrote Meneket Rivkah, the most prominent Yiddish how court painters entered the Quarter, travelers spoke freely text written by a Yiddish woman. Fluent in both Yiddish and with the Jewish inhabitants, and all were allowed to enter their Hebrew, Rivkah worked as a writer and preacher on Jewish synagogues during services. ethics. These works provide insight into the lives of early modern 6 Greenblatt, 31. Describes how the market place served as a Jewish women. For more information on Rivkah bat Meir, see constant point of interaction between Jews and gentiles in Frauke Von. Rohden’s introduction to the 2008 edition of Prague. Meneket Rivkah. For more information on Jewish women and Petrovsky-Shtern, Yohanan. “Early Modern Jewish Communities Jewish communities in the Early Modern period, see Greenblatt’s (Four): Prague.” Northwestern University. Evanston, IL. 5 To Tell Their Children: Jewish Communal Memory,Ellen M. November 2015. Court painters entered, travelers spoke freely Umansky and Dianne Ashton’s Four Centuries of Jewish Women’s with them, and all were allowed to enter their synagogues during Spirituality, and Chava Weissler’s Voices of the Matriarchs: services. Listening to the Prayers of Early Modern Jewish Women. Greenblatt, 23. “Christians, be they residents or travelers, could enter 3 Prayer books written by women existed at the time, but these the Jewish quarter and interact with its inhabitants.” For more books lacked the didactic nature of Meneket Rivkah. For more information on Jews and the Habsburg monarchy, please see information on tkhines and Jewish women’s devotional literature, Jewish Money by Joshua Teplitsky. see Weissler. 7 Rohden, Meneket Rivkah, 3. 4 Ashkenazi Jews were Jews of central and eastern European 8 Petrovsky-Shtern, Yohanan; Rohden, 3. Jews were welcome descent. by the Habsburgs as a source of financial exploitation, which Cohen & Rosman, Rethinking European Jewish History, 24. Ashkenazi through cooperation with loans to the emperor gained the Jews were constantly in motion, migrating in search of better privilege of engaging in crafts otherwise prohibited in other economic conditions. They held fluid political affiliations, spoke European countries. Greenblatt, 24. “Under Rudolf, Jews were their own language (Yiddish), and had their own laws customs, allowed to take up some trades often forbidden to them in collection of autonomous Jewish administrative and social Europe, as, for example, embroiderers, shoemakers, and other institutions, and civil educational intellectual religious networks. crafts related to textiles, and as musicians, some of whom even 15 the Habsburg monarchy, both benefitting from its protection and community.13 Women were supposed to be “house makers, moth- depending legally upon it to renew privileges.9 Resentment from ers and unobtrusive submissive facilitators of spiritual and material burghers (Christian landowners) who suffered from Jewish com- accomplishments of husbands and sons,” and to help men fulfill petition led to sporadic expulsions of Jews from the city, but these their duties women needed rudimentary spiritual and religious edu- expulsions were largely symbolic and as a result, Jews continued to cation.14 reside in the city.10 Ashkenazi Jews overall held fluid political affilia- Women’s general absence in the public sphere had its basis in the tions because of their constant migration over the European conti- rabbinical authorities’ fears fostered by stereotypes about women nent. They spoke their own language (Yiddish), lived by their own and their sexual allure.15 Synagogues’ original architecture thus did laws and customs, and enjoyed a degree of autonomy in adminis- not provide space for women; instead, they sat in a gallery formed tration, social institutions, as well as civil, kinship, intellectual, and from an external addition to the building.16 Another reason women religious networks.11 Jewish community leaders both represented were banned from participation was that they were expected to the community’s affairs before external authorities, and oversaw focus on the family and their duties within the domestic sphere. all internal affairs, including enforcingHalakhah -Jewish laws that While faith for women amounted to no more than prayers and regulated the community. 12 charitable deeds, faith for men encompassed that in business prac- Women in this time period faced various limitations under tice, charity, and regular attendance of synagogue.17 A woman Jewish law, but were allotted almost complete free reign in the should not lose herself in worship for the sake of her family’s well- household. An ideal woman was to be pure, modest, pious, chari- being, as this would compromise the duty God set for women.18 table, and supportive. The ideal of a supportive woman centered Jewish women were essentially bred for marriage, the purpose of on women’s role at home: their diligence in the household allowed which was to connect wealthy and scholarly families. This, on the their husbands to turn attention to fulfill their duties in the religious other hand, provided them with easy access to Jewish education, al- beit a limited one.19 Women’s education, with the exception of that of the wealthiest Jewish women, consisted of learning the mechan- ics of reading with little emphasis on comprehension, while others played at court.” had no formal education at all. However, the knowledge explosion Klein, The 1603 Assembly in Frankfurt, 119. “Accordingly, Emperor thanks to the emergence of the printed book gave women easier Rudolf II firmly believed that the Jews had to be aware that access to knowledge previously unavailable to them. The fear that they had been ‘granted’ neither a territory nor the ‘seigniorage of a superior status, high authority or sphere’; rather, they were tolerated ‘allein precario’ (until revoked, temporarily] in the empire and therefore they ‘remain obliged to continuous 13 Greenblatt, 53. displays of gratitude, subjection and deference’. Each action on 14 Rosman, Poland: Early Modern (1500-1795) the part of the Jews is only possible owing to privileges previously 15 Fine, Judaism in Practice, 101. granted
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