An Arab Woman Accused of Licentiousness

Rabbah bar Bar Ḥanah said: One time I was walking behind R. Ukva. I saw an Arab woman who was sitting, casting her spindle, and spinning a red [thread] opposite her face. Once she saw us, she tore the spindle [from the thread] and threw it down. She said to me, “Young man, give me [the] spindle.” R. Ukva made a comment about her, [noting that she provided an example of one of the types of promiscuity mentioned in the Mishnah.] What did he say about her? [Which one of the cases in the Mishnah did he mention?] Ravina said: He said about her [that she was an example of a woman who licentiously] spins in the marketplace. The rabbis said: He said about her [that she was an example of a woman who licentiously] speaks with every man.

Translation adapted from the Noé Edition of the Koren Talmud Bavli.

Notes

Words in brackets appear in the original translation.

Credits

From Koren Talmud Bavli, Noé Edition, trans. Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz (Jerusalem: Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2019). Accessed via the William Davidson digital edition, sefaria.org. Adapted with permission of Koren Publishers Ltd.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.

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