In her superbly written and deeply engaging book, Gila Fine takes us on a journey exploring talmudic stories, in particular those that feature six of the few named women who appear in Bavli aggadot. Although, as the author points out, a number of studies have examined women as characters in talmudic narrative, this book is noteworthy for the wide and diverse range of interpretive approaches from which it draws. Fine naturally considers how each story stands in relation to other rabbinic and biblical texts, but also offers keen insights drawing on scholarship from literary and film studies and feminist theory. The result is a unique mode of critical analysis, combining the author’s close (re)readings with reflections on the religious and moral resonances of the various tales. This is all presented in a clear and relatable manner that will be accessible to readers of varying levels and backgrounds.
The book begins by recounting how Fine, as a girl on the cusp of her bat mitzvah, first encountered some of these narratives (and other aggadic pronouncements regarding women) and how their negative depictions were deeply hurtful and alienating. The book, therefore, is not simply a scholastic endeavor, but the culmination of the author’s personal journey of contending with these stories, learning to read them in ways that see beneath the surface, and developing a relationship of ongoing negotiation with texts that speak to us from places and cultural milieus that are rather different from our own, but that nonetheless remain central to our religious lives.
The introduction proceeds with a very useful overview of the corpus of classical rabbinic literature, a summary of the different approaches to the study of Aggadah— from traditional interpretation to contemporary literarycritical readings—and then outlines the author’s methodology, which includes the necessary qualification that talmudic stories are indeed literary works that were never intended as historical records of the events described therein. Fine’s approach proceeds from the idea that a hallmark of aggadic storytelling is that tales are constructed so as to present a “false front”; in other words, the understanding and impression that one will come away with after a first cursory reading is at odds with the deeper meaning that emerges after a second, closer look at the text.
Each of the following six chapters centers on a single Bavli narrative with a female protagonist, who is presented as corresponding to a different archetypal female character that reappears in “narratives throughout history and across cultures.” In each chapter Fine provides descriptions and colorful examples of each archetype from biblical and rabbinic texts, ancient and classical mythology, historical personae, and a diverse selection of modern literature, theater, ballet, and film. Many are accompanied by pictures: Miss Piggy, Scarlett O’Hara, and Yentl all make appearances. Also included are short discussions of halakhic texts in which archetypal women are referenced. She then examines the aggadic narrative in question and suggests a “primary” reading in which the female protagonist conforms to the archetype and its negative connotations.
Fine then “zooms out” to reconsider each narrative’s context, whether in terms of the local talmudic discussion in which the story appears, other references to the female character elsewhere in rabbinic texts, or broader thematic elements. This is accompanied by a literary analysis proceeding from several contemporary approaches that allows for, borrowing a term from Adrienne Rich, a “revisioning” of the story and a reassessment of the female character. What emerges is a more complex, nuanced, and sympathetic understanding of the protagonists that stands in contrast to the dominant archetype. By examining the context in which each story appears in a talmudic sugya and subjecting the text to literary and structural
analyses, Fine’s readings reveal the story’s subtle, deeper meaning and its function within the wider (typically halakhic) discourse—an approach to Aggadah advanced in academic Talmud study by Jeffrey Rubenstein, whom Fine credits throughout the book.
Fine’s readings are compelling, enjoyable, and wise.
By their nature, aggadic narratives admit to many different and competing interpretations, and, as Fine acknowledges, hers are not the only interpretations. But Fine’s readings are compelling, enjoyable, and wise— the work of someone who is not only a careful reader of texts, but a skilled teacher who can take the student or reader along on a journey that is at turns insightful and delightful. Apart from its contribution to the literary study of Aggadah and our understanding of how women are positioned within classical rabbinic literature, this is a book that I suspect will strongly resonate with many women who share the same sentiments that are so beautifully and eloquently expressed in the introduction. It would also be a fitting gift for a recent bat mitzvah, who one day may turn to this book to begin her own process of rereading the women of the Talmud.