Beruriah: A Woman of Wisdom in the Talmud

b. Eruvin 53b–54a|b. Pesaḥim 62b

220–600

b. Eruvin 53b–54a

Rabbi Yose the Galilean was walking along the road. He met Beruriah. He said to her: By which road shall we go to Lod? She said to him: Galilean fool! Did not the Sages say: “Do not talk too much with a woman” (m. Avot 1:5)? You should have said: By which to Lod? [ . . . ] 

Beruriah met a student who was studying silently. She…

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In late antiquity, rabbinic culture was largely male, yet the Talmud preserves traces of women’s learning through its occasional mention of female figures like Beruriah. Described as the wife of Rabbi Meir and daughter of Rabbi Ḥananiah ben Teradyon, she is portrayed as a woman of sharp intellect who corrected sages and mastered Torah. In b. Eruvin 53b–54a, she rebukes Rabbi Yose and a careless student; in b. Pesaḥim 62b, her vast learning is praised. Whether historical or composite, Beruriah’s story challenges assumptions of male-only authority and reveals how wisdom could transcend gender in the rabbinic world.