Q&A: Do the Sages, in passing, tell us that there were female judges?
Do the Sages, in passing, tell us that there were female judges?
Question
I saw that people cite from Aseh Lekha Rav by Rabbi Chaim David HaLevi, where he brings Kohelet Rabbah on the verse, “I made for myself fields and fields.” After speaking about the many study halls that Solomon established, it says: “Field” refers to male judges, and “fields” refers to female judges.
In other words, they are mentioning in passing that there were female judges, and therefore women are valid to judge, at least in cases where “they accepted them upon themselves.”
What does the Rabbi think about this?
Answer
The fact that they are valid in cases of “accepted them upon themselves” is not novel. So in any case, nothing else can be proven from here. Female judges in these two possibilities already appear in Tosafot on Deborah the prophetess. Especially since Solomon could also be speaking about judges in the king’s court and not in an ordinary religious court, in which case this has no connection at all to the question whether women are valid to judge (though it may be related to the question whether women can be appointed to positions of authority).
This is a dispute of Beit Shammai, who said: “All women are judges…,” as against Beit Hillel, who held that women can advance only “from clerk to clerk” 🙂
With blessings,
Shefatyahu Abu Shachadeh the Heferite