Sunday, 28 July 2024

When Beruria went missing

Beruria is one of the most colourful characters in the Talmud. An outstanding Torah scholar in her own right, she was the daughter of Rabbi Chanina ben Teradyon and the wife of Rabbi Meir, two towering figures in the age of the Tannaim. One of the best-known stories of Beruria is found in the Babylonian Talmud, at Berachot 10a:

There were once some outlaws in the neighbourhood of Rabbi Meir who caused him a great deal of trouble. Rabbi Meir accordingly prayed that they should die. His wife Beruria said to him: How can you establish [that such a prayer should be permitted]? Is it because it is written “Let hatta'im cease” [Tehillim 104:35]? But is it written hot'im [sinners]? It is written hatta'im [sins]! Now, look at the end of the verse: “and let the wicked men be no more”. Since the sins will cease, there will be no more sinners! Rather pray for them that they should repent, and then there will be no more wicked people. He did pray for them, and they repented.

What does this have to do with Pirkei Avot?

At Avot 4:24 Shmuel HaKatan teaches that we should not rejoice at the fall of our enemies.  In his Lev Avot, R’ Shlomo Toperoff quotes Chief Rabbi Dr Hertz as teaching that we are not even commanded to hate our enemies: our task as Jews is not to curse but to bless, to receive insults but not to deliver them. R’ Toperoff then brings the tale of Beruria to illustrate the correct Jewish response to evil behaviour in others.

But he doesn’t. Beruria is edited out of the text. Lev Avot reads like this (at p.258):

“Commenting on Ps.104:35, ‘Let the sins be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more’, the Rabbis point out that the text does not refer to ‘sinners’ but to ‘sins’. Thus with the eradication of sins, there will be no wicked on earth. For this reason R. Meir says, ‘One should not pray for the death of the wicked but that they should turn their hearts to God and repent of their wickedness’ [Ber.10a]”.

I’ve not (yet) found any early version of this tale that omits reference to Beruria and I’m quite mystified as to how it happened here. The passage in the Talmud to which R’ Toperoff refers is so well known that he is unlikely to have erred through ignorance, and he was not known to have a negative attitude towards women.

The advice and assistance of readers (both women and men) on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

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