Geoffrey D. Miller, «Canonicity and Gender Roles: Tobit and Judith as Test Cases», Vol. 97 (2016) 199-221
Clues from rabbinic literature suggest that several factors were at play in establishing the early Jewish canon, including the dating, theology, and language of disputed texts. Another vital yet overlooked criterion is adherence to patriarchy, and a careful analysis of the Books of Judith and Tobit illustrates how these texts failed to meet rabbinic standards for gender roles. Most notably, the countercultural figures of Judith and Anna would have scandalized the rabbis by their encroachment on traditionally male spheres of activity, their freedom of movement inside and outside the home, and their ability to chastise male characters without repercussions.
CANoNICITY ANd GeNder roLeS 209
observes, “almost all the positive things said about women by the rabbis
are not about women as such, but rather about women as they are re-
lated to men, namely as wives” 29. Some of the kindest statements
about women include: “The world is darkened for him whose wife
has died in his days” (Sanh. 22a); and, “one must always observe the
honour due to his wife, because blessings rest on a man’s home only
on account of his wife” (B. Meṣ. 59a). Such comments temper the
more chauvinistic comments found elsewhere, but they still reflect a
mindset that is incapable of viewing women outside traditional mores.
The rabbis can only see women as “objects of male agency rather than
as subjects of their own lives” 30, and their attempts to compliment
women or express concern for their wellbeing simply reinforce these
biases. The same passage from Baba Meṣi‘a, for instance, implores a
man to “always be heedful of wronging his wife, for since her tears
are frequent she is quickly hurt”.
These delicate wives need their husband’s sympathy, but more im-
portantly they need to adhere to the roles their husbands allot to them.
A woman enters her marriage “unformed”, and she receives the proper
molding from her husband, “who transforms her [into] a [useful]
vessel” (Sanh. 22b). After her wedding she leaves the domain of her
father and comes under the domain of her husband (Ketub. 48a-b), and
her duties are carefully spelled out in the same tractate: “The follow-
ing are the kinds of work which a woman must perform for her hus-
band: grinding corn, baking, washing clothes, suckling her child, mak-
ing his bed, and working in wool” (Ketub. 59b). Gen. Rab. 8,12 seeks
to curtail a woman’s movements even further by confining her to the
home: a man “must master his wife, that she not go out into the market
place, for every woman who goes out into the market place will even-
tually come to grief”. A woman must defer to her husband’s authority
in all things and serve him as a “supportive, resourceful and self-sac-
rificing wife” 31. Advice and instruction flow in only one direction
within the marital relationship, and “he who follows his wife’s counsel
will descend into Gehenna” (B. Meṣ. 59a). If a woman transgresses
29
L. SWINdLer, Women in Judaism. The Status of Women in Formative
Judaism (Metuchen, NJ 1976) 73.
30
J. BASKIN, “rabbinic Judaism and the Creation of Woman”, Judaism since
Gender (eds. M. PeSKoWITz – L. LeVITT) (New York 1997) 125-130, here 126.
31
J. BASKIN, “The Separation of Women in rabbinic Judaism”, Women,
Religion, and Social Change (eds. Y.Y. HAddAd – e.B. FINdLY) (New York 1985)
3-18, here 5.