Episode 121: Gila Fine "The Madwoman in the Rabbi's Attic"

How are women really portrayed in the Talmud—and what happens when we look beyond the surface? In this episode, we speak with Gila Fine about her groundbreaking book, The Madwoman in the Rabbi’s Attic, where she takes us deep into the stories of the six named heroines of the Talmud: Yalta the shrew, Homa the femme fatale, Marta the prima donna, Heruta the madonna/whore, Beruria the overreachrix, and Ima Shalom the angel in the house. As their labels suggest, each woman seems to embody an antifeminist stereotype—but Gila shows that with a careful, layered reading, there’s a lot more going on. She shares her intuitive and compelling methodology of reading each story twice: once for its plain meaning, and again to uncover the deeper, often unexpected truth. We dive into the story of Yalta—the so-called shrew—where Gila’s approach cracks open new ways of thinking, and once you hear it, you’ll never look at aggadah the same way again.

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*This episode is dedicated to the refua shelema of our dear friend Yaakov ben Haya Sarah Malakh and to the neshama of Meir ben Moshe a'h — Abdolrahim Ilian, the late father of our dear friend, Rod Ilian.

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• Bio: How are women really portrayed in the Talmud—and what happens when we look beyond the surface? In this episode, we speak with Gila Fine, winner of the National Jewish Book Award and the Rabbi Sacks Book Prize, about her groundbreaking book, The Madwoman in the Rabbi’s Attic, where she takes us deep into the stories of the six named heroines of the Talmud: Yalta the shrew, Homa the femme fatale, Marta the prima donna, Heruta the madonna/wh*re, Beruria the overreachrix, and Ima Shalom the angel in the house. As their labels suggest, each woman seems to embody an antifeminist stereotype—but Gila shows that with a careful, layered reading, there’s a lot more going on. She shares her intuitive and compelling methodology of reading each story twice: once for its plain meaning, and again to uncover the deeper, often unexpected truth. We dive into the story of Yalta—the so-called shrew—where Gila’s approach cracks open new ways of thinking, and once you hear it, you’ll never look at aggadah the same way again.

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• Get her book here: https://korenpub.com/products/the-madwoman-in-the-rabbis-attic?handle=kgsd0

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