Eps 5. The Real Rayna Basia: The True Legacy of Rebbetzin Berlin

Join us as we listen closely to voices that still echo from our nation's past. Distant, even obscure, but all the more exciting for that mystery. It's where fascinating women discuss fascinating women's histories. I'm Tapora Weinberg and this is Veiled Reference. Let's take a deep dive into pockets of history preserved in our Torah sources. With each episode, we'll travel back in time to discover and recover stories of women who might have otherwise been lost to us. Piecing together the tales of these women of old can help us to understand periods of time that we've only hazily conceived of before. It's time to let these women's voices rise to the surface through the sources left to us and to learn about the lives they led and maybe draw inspiration and strength to empower each one of us on our own journeys. Imagine having an absolutely insatiable hunger for knowledge. just a mind that constantly races, constantly questions, and is always trying to connect the dots. And now imagine you're placed right in the epicenter of the greatest intellectual hub of your era, the absolute midpoint of the scholarly Torah universe. You're close enough to hear all the brilliant debates echoing down the hall, but you're always a step away from joining the conversation. And it's exactly that specific kind of intellectual isolation that we are exploring right now. So welcome if you're joining us. Today's podcast centers on Rebbitson Raina Basia Berlin, the wife of the nativaliti Yehuda Berlin. Rebbitson Berlin, a unique figure, the daughter and granddaughter of Torah giants. Rea Basia aroused enormous curiosity and she is a personality that has garnered a great deal of attention and about whom much is recorded and reflected in academic scholarship. To speak about Raina Basia is to speak about the Nativ is to speak about the yeshiva of Alajin. And as we hit the airwaves today, right before tough shin, what could be more relevant than to speak about the greatest center of Torah learning, valin, the mother of all yeshivos? Because the concept of yeshiva has accompanied our people throughout the generations all the way back to the times of the aos who studied at yeshiva's shame va as khazal explained. so evocatively from the days of our ancestors. Never did the yeshiva depart from them. When they were in Egypt, the yeshiva was with them. In the wilderness, the yeshiva was with them. Abraham in his old age sat in yeshiva, our father, old and sitting in the yeshiva. And the same with Yakovu. Yeshivos prevailed throughout as the system of Torah's transmission from generation to generation. The form of the yeshiva, the roles of those who taught within it, the curriculum, the methods of study, all of these morphed according to geographic and historical limitations. But one unifying thread ran through them across time and space. The aspiration to engage with Torah and its commandments at a remove from the bustle and distractions of the surrounding world. Up until this very moment, the yeshiva remains a way of life that expresses the sanctity of the spirit and the dedication to what is most essential. So as for the mother of all yeshivos, the yeshiva, it was called that amay yeshivos not because it was the first but because it became the symbol and model that all subsequent yeshivas sought to emulate. Around the year 1802, Tuffkov Zamakbaim the greatest talmet of the Vilaga established yeshiva in the small town of Alleian situated on the main road between Villna and Minsk. Rafaim founded the yeshiva with a crystalclear perspective on the impact the centrality of Torah study. In his major work, Nepheshim Rafaim ensconces his worldview that learning Torah sustains the universe, not metaphorically, but literally. Before Valin, yeshivas had almost always been community projects rooted in a specific town, funded by its residents, and led by the local RV. Students came to learn under their RV, to serve alongside him, and to prepare themselves for roles in Rabanas. These yeshivos were small, rarely more than a few dozen students. They didn't necessarily all study even in the same room or from the same text. And there was no fixed daily schedule that held it all together. But what Rafaim founded was something entirely different. His yeshiva would belong to no single community. would stand independent, sustained by a network of emissaries that he dispatched to every corner of the Russian Empire to raise funds on its behalf. And its guiding spirit was Torah, Torah for its own sake, not Torah as preparation for a career, but Torah study as an end in itself. The very form of learning was transformed. Talmid gathered in one great hall. They followed a shared daily schedule. Davin together learned the same as Saka and flowing through it all was a continuous stream of teaching from the rashisha himself. From across the empire, hundreds of young men made the journey to legends spread of the extraordinary diligence and love of Torah that filled its walls. And a famous poet pondered, "Is this it? the workshop that crafts the nation's soul. The Lushian became the model, the template and the symbol for every yeshiva that came after it. Others refined it, developed it, gave it new forms in new places. But the was the foundation. Today, when dominant yeshivas are woven so deeply into the fabric of our lives, it can be difficult to imagine the world that came before. But it was Rafaim of Alajin who planted the roots and from those roots grew a revolution across the Jewish people. When Reva was nif in 1821 his son the Gun of Yetsk succeeded him at Velian's helm in 1849 after Yetskiner passed away. Two sons-in-law took his place. Raviark Freed who had married his daughter Rifka was designated as Rashashiva and the younger son-in-law Rabalit Yehuda Berlin who had married Raina Basia became the Scan Rashiva. Tragically, Rebel Yzk did not live long. He passed away just four years later. The younger son-in-law the nitiv found himself in a turn of events no one had anticipated as rashisha of there are many stories and traditions about the nativ in his youth the fame magaladron related that as a child the nativ struggled with his studies and his father considered sending him to learn a trade. The young boy wept at length until his parents relented and allowed him to continue in the world of Torah study. His son Ravme mayor Barilan wrote that even during his years in Belgian and even after his marriage, the Nitsv's particular greatness was not widely recognized owing to his great modesty. There were those who questioned his capacity to lead the yeshiva. But the natsiv rose to the challenge and proved beyond any doubt that he was the best suited, most capable leader the yeshiva could have. He earned a claim and fame as one of the greatest and most important rabbitical authorities in Russia and Lithuania. He authored works of great significance and under his leadership, the yeshiva reached its peak with an enrollment that jumped from 100 to over 500 tidim. But our story as we said is about the nativity's wife Rabbitson rea she was positioned at the very heart of the liti yesa world herself a scion of the Lithuanian rabbitic aristocracy daughter of ravietk granddaughter of ravkaim and wife of the nits in later generations she would become the grandmother of ravim salvichek and the ancestrus of the entire brisker dynasty her husband served as rashisha of the most important yeshiva in the Jewish world the center and joy of his existence and under his leadership it achieved its fullest glory the rea's era was the greatest Torah center of the age magnet drawing the finest Torah scholars from across the Russian Lithuanian study sphere about 20 years into the tenure of the Nitsiv around 1873 a very young man named Barak Epstein arrived to study at the yeshiva. Barak was the son of Rail Mikl Epstein of Narduk, the celebrated author of the arrohan. He was also the natsiv's nephew as his father was married to the Nativ's sister. It is no surprise then that his uncle the Nativ and his aunt Rebson Rebasia opened the doors of their home to the young man and drew him close. Ravbar Epstein never held an official position in Rabanas, but over the course of his life, he authored a number of books while working as an accountant and bank manager. The best known of these is oral. As you might be able to tell from that title alone, Rav Epstein's works are characterized by intellectual prowess, though they have also attracted scholarly criticism, which we will not enter into here. In 1928, RV Epstein published a substantial memoir entitled Macar Baruk. The scope of the book in its four volumes encompasses an entire world. The history of my ancestors lives in my own life together with my recollections of the previous generation, of its rabbanim and scholars, its writers and preachers, its community leaders and men of means, the state of Torah and wisdom, and the life of the nation as a whole. The book contains an enormous number of anecdotes and personal descriptions and since its publication has been reprinted only a handful of times yet many of its hundreds of stories have become classics of Jewish rabbitic literature. The fourth volume of Macar Barak contains descriptions from Rav Epstein's youthful years as a student in Vaginian and he speaks at length and in admiration of his great uncle the nitiv in whose home he was a frequent and welcome guest often dining at his table on Shabas and Khag. But he also recorded his conversations with Rabbits and Rain Abasia which he says took place during that same period while he was still a young student at the Yeshiva. As part of his memoirs about his uncle, Ravarak dedicated a special chapter volume 4 chapter 46 entitled Nashim the wisdom of women to the native's wife his aunt Rebbitson Rain Abasia. It is a particularly remarkable chapter consisting primarily of theological and philosophical debates between the young Barstein and his aunt. Rabar conveys these debates writing his memoirs decades after the fact with astonishing precision. From his account there emerges a figure of exceptional intellectual intensity. A figure whom recent scholars have read has a kind of proto feminist voice. a rabbitson who is deeply wounded by her status and her gender. Rabbar begins with a description of the natsiv's straightened financial circumstances. His salary was small and insufficient and there was really no one to look after his needs adequately. because his first wife, Rebbitson Rain Abasia, was a righteous and wise woman, modest, extraordinarily learned, of the caliber, he writes, of the finest men, and she certainly cared deeply about her husband's health and well-being. But in practice she was unable to oversee the management of the household and its provisions because she was quote weak and of fragile nerves barely able to maintain herself in her own body as long as her soul remained within her end quote. Rabar portrays a physically frail, exhausted and deeply sensitive woman. Someone who has simply lacked the capacity of a bala habias. So what does a weak woman do? A woman who finds it difficult to respond robustly to life's daily demands. She sits also was always to sit beside the winter stove in the dining room even in summer with a table of books spread before her. Her book list will astound you. Mishna, various midrash, minor kavayashar, seam yehuda and many more books of this nature and volumes of agada. All of her attention, all of her focus with every sense and feeling and emotion within the books. According to his account, Reabasia barely moved from those books. And whatever concerned the running of the household, she scarcely attended to it all. Rainabasia was immersed in study but also miserable. She complained often and her complaints strikingly were not about her health but about the status of women in Judaism. Ravarak describes hearing her lament more than once. Low, bitter, inconsolable. She grieved over what women had been denied. Tillin, sitsus, suka, lulav, and so many mitzvah. decides her words were saturated with suppressed frustration, a silent protest, a spiritual jealousy of men who carried 248 mitzvah, while women, depressed and disgraced, had been given only three. But what pained Raabasia most was what she felt was the degradation of women's honor and the lowering of their worth, the prohibition against teaching women Torah. If Kava had been cursed with 10 curses, she told the young Barak, "This curse surpassed them all combined, there was no end to the sorrow." By Rabbarak's account, this subject took on a permanent presence at the table. Her deep unresolved inner pain. And then Rabarak begins to describe a series of charged debates and confrontations between the two of them. The first thing he tried to do in the face of Rayabasia's proclamations of grievance was to blame the victim. It's not the men's fault that women aren't allowed to learn. Aostabin ruled that Torah may only be taught to the humble and the Talmudi states that women are boastful and bala. Case closed. Rayabasio was taken aback. Then she turned on him. Have you already finished the entire Talmud Bavi that now you're bringing proofs from Urus Shalmi? He admitted he hadn't actually seen the passage himself. She rebuked him for failing to credit his source and then demanded he show her the Aostasan directly. He did and walked straight into her trap. The text read Shama says one may only teach the humble. But Basil says you're supposed to teach everybody because there are many sinners amongst Ben who drew close to Torah and became righteous, pious and worthy. Rea raised her voice in fury. How could you bring me a proof from B Shami? Every child knows how Rabbar tried to recover. Rebasia savored her victory. She pressed on. She cited women renowned as Torah scholars, Burya, Yelsa, and others. What was wrong with their Torah wisdom? She asked. Rabbarak countered that Bruya herself had ultimately fallen, disputing Kazal's teachings that women's minds are capricious, and in the end proved it true. Rain Abasia familiar with these proofs was unmoved. Did Kakame hold all men responsible for a who turned to heresy? She asked and as for Burya she had an error in her assessment of women as kos daas. She simply hadn't believed the premise to begin with. In one riveting passage, Raarak recounts a list of learned women he shared with Rayabasia to prove that there were many women who achieved high levels of Torah learning. Roberto refers to Glickl as Harabonis beer bayers and among Donagratzia Gracia Aguilar and others we find Lea Akrona Haisha Emma Lazarus who translated the poetry of Hina into English. We cannot reproduce the full exchange here but the spirit of their conversation is clear. Rea Basia refused with every fiber of her being to accept the inferior status of women and felt it most acutely in the prohibition on Torah study. What she could not bear, what was simply inconceivable to her, was this, that any ignoramis, any man who in ordinary life wouldn't even dare to enter her home without humbly asking permission could stand before her in pride and recite in a loud voice, Baruk Shalom Asani is. And she was expected to answer, "Amen." But the most dramatic moment was still to come. And it is this episode that stands at the center of our podcast today. For it is precisely this story that undermines Rabarak's credibility and calls the entire account into question. One day according to Rabarak Reabasio greeted him with uncharacteristic excitement. She held out a book to him, turned to the right page and placed it before him to read. Raarak understood that she had lain in wait for him with this passage ready at her fingertips. She had found something that confirmed her views. The book as Rabarak later revealed was Maayan Ganim by the Italian Rav Schmool Archivalti. Rabarak describes it as a book of respons and letters Shiloh Such printed in Venice in the year 1553 and extremely rare. The passage that so delighted Rayabasia reads as follows. a letter from the author to a certain wise woman. In the course of the letter, the Rav writes regarding women's Torah study, and that which sages have decrieded a daughter study vain must needs apply when she is young. But then must she abstain, since most women are flighty, and do not in logic train, they dabble but in trifles, swift and oft do they complain. But those few who discern themselves and choose to rise above and blaze their gaze on God's own work with purpose and with love, it is they that with their heads held high on God's own mountain rise. And each one of our sages must their efforts recognize to praise them, to raise them, exalt them to the skies, to bolster arms and gird them as they reach the fairest climbs. For from them Torah will come forth as in the best of times. And men submerged in pleasures with indulgences replete will learn from their example and their true duties complete. May you find your way in this golden task. Heaven help your goal to meet. Rabar Epstein describes the scene. When I had finished reading, she said to me, "In my opinion, each and every one of these words deserves to be said in gold, like precious stones and pearls, and the whole book is like bands of silver. And what do you say to them?" The young Barak refused to join the party. He replied carefully. The Italian Rub's words were beautiful, even precious, but they lacked genuine legal authority. One cannot nullify an explicit Talmudic prohibition on the strength of elegant sentiments. Reabasia erupted of this author. It is rightly said, "A good man among thousand I have found." Adamf Matasi, and you are mean-spirited like all men. She turned her face from him and fixed her eyes on the book before her. Ravarak left rebuked and ashamed. Years later, Rabbar Epstein reflected with guilt. Why hadn't he simply stayed silent? Reabasia would have taken his silence as acquiescence and her rare fleeting moment of happiness would have been complete. Barak appeared to have learned his lesson. He recounts that once on the evening after tom gdadalia rabbitson reabbasia invited him to the meal that broke the fast. On that occasion she shared with him with evident satisfaction a discovery. There had been in fact Rabanim who shared in women's pain over the denial of Torah study and not only permitted women to study but actually obligated their fathers to teach them. This was the position of Ben Azai who stated a man is obligated to teach his daughter Torah. Raarak himself privately believed that Ben Azai's ruling was not mentioned in a context flattering to women. But this time he held his tongue and stayed silent, letting her understand that he was granting legitimacy to her words. But the silence weighed on him. Upon leaving the house together with a friend, Barak quipped to his companion that one could well understand why Benazi had refused to marry throughout his entire life. If in his view a woman was obligated to learn Torah, then any wife he took would be a talid kama. And Benazi apparently concluded it was better not to marry at all than to marry a learned rabbitson. It was a sharp and painful jab. In the tense days between Rashashan and Yum Kipper, Barak continued to visit the Nitsv's home each day as he usually did. But now Rabbit and Raabasia ignored him completely. She neither spoke to him nor asked after his welfare as she had always done. Baruk in his innocence assumed that she was simply withdrawing into the solemn spirit of the yamim noim. But on Aravium Kipper after the prefast meal at which he was again a guest at her table, Rabbitson Ray Nabasia called him over to her usual place near her and said to him passionately, "You're lucky that today is eriper, a day on which it is an obligation and a mitzvah to forgive whatever wrong and pain lies between one person and another. And because you are dear to me, I forgive you completely for the harsh words you said." Barak was stunned. He had no idea what she meant. She let him understand that his friend had reported his words back to her. Rabbitson Rain Abasia forgave him, but a tense and oppressive silence settled between them. For several months he felt chasened, waiting for the right moment to make amends. When at last Rabbitson Reaio returned to the subject, Baruk arrived prepared. This time he came with full and detailed arguments. The obligation of Torah study, he explained, carries an immense burden. It demands total devotion like the demands of warfare. Just as women are not conscripted into an army, so too women are exempt from Torah study. Khazal, he mentioned, took pity on women and their strength. And if both husband and wife devote themselves completely to Torah, who would care for the family and the children? The world itself would be desolate with no one to nurture it. As Bar describes it, this time his presentation had an effect. When he finished, the Rebbitson reflected for a long while, and at last, in a response that carried the anguish of final resignation, she said, "What can be done? Yes. Yes, thus it is. Turn to the right. Turn to the left. In the end, it is for us oppressed and disgraced women to bend our heads beneath our evil fortune. Righteous are you, Hashem, for all that has been decreed concerning us. Your Torah is certainly true, and your judgments are of massive depth. There is no speech, nor are there words. And then she turned to him and said, "Just as everything has an end and a limit, so let there come an end and a limit to this painful matter." From that time on, she never spoke with him on this subject again. This is a wonderful story. The problem is that it never happened. The figure of Raina Batya has aroused great interest among scholars. Her anguished and tormented voice at times sounds like a fierce proto feminist cry from within the heart of the Russian Empire only in the language of 150 years ago. The only problem is that no independent documentation of any of this survives. The sole source is Macarak and that source is to put it gently somewhat problematic. In 1928, more than 50 years after these events are said to have taken place, Rav Barak Ebstein published his book and in it, as we noted, an apparently meticulous record of those conversations which have understandably attracted a great deal of attention. We saw how Rabbitson Reabasia cited with joy and excitement from the book Mayan Ganim by Ravul Archavolti. Ravmul Archavolti lived most of his life in Padwa where he served as Russashiva community secretary and head of the rabbitical court. He died in 1611. His book Mayan Ganim was printed in Venice in 1553. It contains five model letters designed to serve as stylistic examples for students of this literary form. Many scholars have already noted that this is not a work in any sense. It is a rhetorical manual, a linguistic primmer, not a volume of responsibly inaccurate. The deeper question is, how did this extraordinarily rare volume printed in Venice some three centuries earlier come into Rain Abasia's hands? How did she know exactly what to look for in it? It's very difficult to imagine the Rebbitson sitting in a simply happening upon such a rare volume on her husband's bookshelf. The scholar and researcher Rava Munchin proved in a demonstration that precludes alternative explanations that not only had Ray Nabasia never laid eyes on the book, Rav Burk Epstein himself had never seen it either. The relevant passage was published in the Hebrew newspaper Hatsvira on September 25th, 1895 in a section called Tavlin or spice. The paper noted that in an old and ancient book, a letter had been found worthy of publication on account of its views on women's education. The letter was quoted in the newspaper, but with certain key words omitted from the original. In the original, the passage reads, The sages of their generation should glorify them, exalt them, support them, strengthen their hands, and brace their arms, gird their loins, tighten their belts. But in the newspaper, these last phrases about bracing their arms, and girding their loins were omitted. Similarly, the original reads, but in the newspaper, the word was omitted and only remained. And here's the remarkable thing. Raarak Ebstein citation in Marak matches the newspaper version exactly with both of these omissions and not the original text of the book. There can be no doubt that Rev. Epstein copied from the newspaper and that he never had the book in front of him. This also explains why he mistakenly described it as a book of hakic respans which he also did in Torah Tamima. And the newspaper of course was printed in 1895 years after Raina Basia's death. So this episode never took place. Rain Abasia never held the book Mayan Ganim in her hands, never studied it, never exalted at its words, and certainly never confronted Rabarak Epstein over them. Rabarak himself learned of the relevant passage from reading Hatsra and he placed it in Rain Abasia's mouth. So if this story didn't happen, did anything happen at all? Is it possible that the conversations Rabar Epstein recorded with such meticulous detail are in the end no more than beautiful literature? Rev. Epstein was not only a Torah scholar but a man of broad education and knowledge. It is possible that he was echoing arguments that circulated in his generation regarding the status of women in Judaism. arguments he placed as if the rebbitson had spoken them, staging himself as the young man defending the traditional view against those who challenged it. Rabarpstein was born in 1860 and came to the at the age of 13. The exact date of Rebbitson reabbasia's death is uncertain. The encyclopedia marks her passing in 1871. But if that is correct, young Barak who was 11 at the time and had not yet arrived in Vaginian never met her at all. On the basis of Rav Epstein's own account, the date of Raabasia's death would need to be pushed forward by several years. Even so, he was a very young man during his time in Vaginian and it is genuinely difficult to know what degree of authenticity predominates in his narrative. And yet all is not lost. Despite everything, it is very likely that there was a kernel of truth within the stories. Rev. Epstein published his book at a time when people who had known the Rebbitson were still alive. He could not have invented everything from whole cloth. The background is almost certainly accurate. The Rebbitson was genuinely a seeker of knowledge, a lover of learning with a fiery and independent intellectual capacity. How could it have been otherwise when she was the daughter of Ravitk of Alajin and the wife of the Nativ? We know from other sources that Ravitzk's daughters were distinguished for their wisdom. Everything beyond that Reabasia's aspirations, her dreams, her inner life, we cannot know, not yet and perhaps not ever. It is reasonable to suppose that the Rebbitson's personality, her intellect, her love of Torah made a deep impression on the young Rabarak and planted within him a lasting doubt regarding the status and dignity of women in Jewish life at the time. At the same time, he also witnessed her physical frailty and her daily struggle to manage her household responsibilities. The internal conflict he experienced he immortalized in the form of a dialogue between himself and his aunt in sconcing his own perceptions and reflections on a woman's struggles, ambitions, and achievements. So now we take back Rainabasia's story and remind ourselves and the world that we don't know what she actually said or what she truly felt. What we do know is that Rabbitson Rebasia's brilliance and commitment to Torah were a matter of public record and her support for Torah, her love of Torah live on forever in her descendants and in the world she helped to fabricate. In honor of Shabuis, I will close with the beautiful interpretation offered by the Nativ himself, Raina Basia's husband Anapuk from Shir Hashiran Bami. The usual interpretation of the Puk is that the beloved is ailing, debilitated, sick because of love. She is so deeply immersed in her longing foreshu that she is unable to attend to anything else. But the in his commentary offers a strikingly different path. The prayer he says is the opposite. I am sick because I do not feel love toward you. I am ill because I am not reaching the wondrous pleasure the rapture that is love for Hashem. The nitiv out of his own passionate love for Torah is saying one who does not feel love for Torah is sick. His emotions are blocked and he needs to dav into Hashem to open his heart so that he too can experience that awe and that love. This episode is dedicated in honor of Kaya Basrael Lafua Shalma. May this of this as the Torah she enabled and embodied bring Rafuos and Yeshua to everyone. Thank you for listening to Veiled Reference. Enjoy this episode and share it with your friends. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, we'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Veiled Reference, a Mishbaka podcast.