The Talmud on Women in Synagogues

b. Avodah Zarah 38a–b|b. Megillah 23a

220–600

b. Avodah Zarah 38a–b

This is also taught [in a baraita]: A Jew may place meat on [hot] coals and [let] a gentile come and turn it over [as necessary] until the Jew comes [back] from the synagogue or from the study hall, and [the Jew need] not be concerned [for the prohibition of eating cooking of gentiles. Similarly, a Jewish] woman may set a pot upon the stove and [let] a gentile woman come and stir it until she comes [back] from the bathhouse or from the synagogue, and [she need] not be concerned.

b. Megillah 23a

The sages taught: All [people] count toward the quorum of seven [readers], even a minor and even a woman. However, the sages said [that] a woman should not read the Torah, out of respect for the congregation.

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