Women Teaching from Behind a Curtain
About twenty years ago, there was some controversy in Israel regarding Nechama Leibowitz teaching male students at R. Shlomo Riskin’s yeshivah. If my memory and the reports are correct, R. Shach opposed it entirely, and R. Ovadiah Yosef said that she could continue to teach, just that it would have to be from behind a curtain. A woman teaching men from behind a curtain is described in a number of places in Jewish literature. [1] In his travel-journal, R. Petahiah of Regensburg had this to say about the daughter of R. Shmuel ha-Levi ben Eli (12th c.), the head of the yeshivah in Baghdad.
“ור’ שמואל אין לו בנים אלא בת אחת והיא בקיאה בתלמוד והיא מלמדת הקריאה לבחורים, והיא סגורה בבנין דרך חלון אחד, והתלמידים בחוץ ולמטה ואינם
רואים אותה”
R. Shmuel did not have any sons, but he had a daughter and she was learned in Talmud. She would teach the reading (in Talmud?) to boys, through a window, while she was confined to a building and the students were outside and below and they would not see her. (Greenhot ed., p. 8-9)
A similar description is found regarding Miriam Shapiro, the daughter of R. Shlomo Spiro and the grandmother of the Maharshal, R. Shlomo Luria. [2] About her it is written,”הרבנית מרת מרים נ”ע, תפסה ישיבה כמה ימים ושנים, וישבה באוהל, וילון לפני’, ואמרה הלכה לפני בחורים מופלגים”.
The Rebbetzin Miriam may she rest in peace, ran a yeshiva for a few days and years. She sat in a tent, a curtain was before her, and she recited halakhah before knowledgeable students.
There has been some debate about the veracity of these descriptions, [3] and I would like to draw attention to a literary parallel that describes a non-Jewish woman in a similar manner. Giovanni d’Andrea was an important legal scholar who lived in 13th/14th c. Bologna. He had a daughter Novella who was described by Christine de Pizan in her Book of the City of Ladies in a manner similar to the sources that we saw above.
Similarly, to speak of more recent times, without searching for examples in ancient history, Giovanni Andrea, a solemn law professor in Bologna not quite sixty years ago, was not of the opinion that it was bad for women to be educated. He had a fair and good daughter, named Novella, who was educated in the law to such an advanced degree that when he was occupied by some task and not at leisure to present his lectures to his students, he would send Novella, his daughter, in his place to lecture to the students from his chair. And to prevent her beauty from distracting the concentration of her audience, she had a little curtain drawn in front of her. In this manner she could on occasion supplement and lighten her father’s occupation. (The Book of the City of Ladies
, II:36, trans. Richards)
Novella is also described as once giving an all-day lecture with “seventy propositions.” The description of women teaching men, and one of them is behind a curtain, listening through a window, etc., is also found in other contexts such as Christian missionaries in China and 19th c. Iran. I was also able to find a dissertation with the title, “‘From Behind the Curtain’: A Study of a Girls’ Madrasa in India.” I found the following quote in this work,
Many women acquired Deeni knowledge [i.e. knowledge pertaining to faith, M.W.] from great Muhadditheen [narrators of Prophetic traditions, M.W.] from behind the curtain, and they in turn taught these sciences to other men from behind the curtain.’ (p. 95)
While it seems safe to say that there are actual historical instances of women teaching men from behind a curtain, it might be possible that the description of a woman teaching men from behind a curtain is also a literary motif which attempts to describe how a pious, yet very knowledgeable women, attempts to balance her modesty and intellect.
[1] See Shlomo Ashkenazi, Ha-Isha Be-Aspeklariah Yehudit, pp. 121-122 for the following sources and additional ones. Also see R. David Golinkin, Nashim ke-Poskot Halakhah and here.
[2] This description appears in a number of source. In the Lemberg ed. (1859) and as it does in the Jerusalem (1969) edition of the Maharshal’s responsa it appears as a note to no. 29, as a supplement to a responsa on the geneology of the sages. (In Halichot Bat Yisrael, p. 122, n. 16., it incorrectly cites this comment as a note to no. 30. The English translation makes it even worse by saying that it is in no. 3.) In the Jerusalem edition it points out that this was added by the printer of the Fürth (1768) edition of the Maharshal’s responsa and is found on the title page of that edition. In the Lemberg edition it does not mention from where this is taken.
[3] See Avraham Grossman, Hasidot ve-Mordot, pp. 283-284. At the most recent WCJS Avraham Grossman spoke about the superiority of women over men in the thought of R. Gedaliah ibn Yehiyah, but I can’t remember if he mentioned any of these sources.
March 11th, 2008 at 12:26 am
And your point is? Could it possibly be at the great lengths some Rabbis went to preserve the male ego, or is it the male libido. I am just wondering if the Woman is behind a curtain does she still have to wear a wig and cover her arms and legs??????