"The law according to (the daughters of) Israel": Revisiting Rabbinic and Other Late Antique Sources

• In Event: New Readings of Talmudic Phrases

Abstract

Rabbinic marriage and divorce documents employ the formula “according to the law of Moses and Israel,” but the phrase “the law of the daughters of Israel” also appears in rabbinic and non-rabbinic sources. In fact, a late antique Jewish incantation bowl from Babylonia claims to have released demons through a document of divorce issued according to the law of the daughters of Israel. Who are the daughters of Israel and what is their law?

In this paper we investigate the origins of the phrase “the daughters of Israel” and related phrases (e.g. “dat benot yisrael,” “derekh benot yisrael,” “halakhah de-benot yisrael,” and “taqanat benot yisrael”). We ask: How did the meaning and use of these terms develop over time? Is the phrase a rabbinic construction or might the law of the daughters of Israel point to rules, customs, or norms beyond rabbinic circles? For what legal, rhetorical, and literary purposes was this designation employed in rabbinic literature and elsewhere? Building on previous work on nomenclature, gender, and identity by Judith Wegner, Charlotte Fonrobert, Cynthia Baker, Yaakov Elman, Tal Ilan and others, this paper systematically analyzes the term “daughters of Israel” and its various iterations in tannaitic and amoraic texts, incantation bowls, and other ancient Jewish sources.

Beyond constructing a genealogy of BENOT YISRAEL, we demonstrate how non-rabbinic sources help us contextualize rabbinic terminology, and we reflect on the challenges of rigorous and neutral translation and its impact on our reconstruction of Jewish history. While the rabbis did not have the language to discuss female subjects without the designations of daughter/mother/wife, the possibility that female subjects stand just beyond the texts’ boundaries remains. We foreground this possibility and its implications for our reading of the sources, and we conclude with a snapshot of the afterlife of the phrase in medieval sources.

authors

• Sarit Kattan Gribetz, Fordham University

• Mika Ahuvia, University of Washington