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THE ANCIENT SYNAGOGUE
PART V
What Roles Did
Women Play in the
Synagogues of Antiquity?
[3rd century c.e.–7th century c.e.]
A conversation with LEE I. LEVINE,
professor of Jewish History and Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
What was the status of Jewish women in antiquity?
With some notable exceptions, the woman’s place was primarily in the home, and she
was often depicted in disparaging terms. The historian Josephus wrote in the first century
C.E.: “The woman, says the Law, is in all things inferior to the man. Let her accordingly
be submissive, not for her humiliation, but that she may be directed; for the authority has
been given by God to the man” (Against Apion 2, 201). Some Jewish women, such as the
Hasmonean Queen Salome and Queen Helena of Adiabene, reached the pinnacles of
political power and social recognition within Jewish society; however, such achievements
were clearly not the rule. At best, one can say that these exceptions proved the rule of
female marginality in the public sphere.
Did women attend religious services in the synagogue?
Women were regularly present in the synagogue. One early rabbinic tradition speaks of a
halachic ruling allowing a non-Jewish woman to help prepare the meal until the Jewish
woman of the household returned from the synagogue (Babylonian Talmud, Avodah
Zarah 38a-b). Another mentions the right of women and minors to be included among the
seven people called to read from the Torah on the Sabbath (Tosefta, Megillah 3, 11-12);
the obvious assumption here is that these participants were regular attendees. The
Jerusalem Talmud (Sotah 1, 4, 16d) tells of a woman in Tiberias who went to the
synagogue every Friday night to hear R. Meir’s sermons, and a late midrash (Yalqut
Shim’oni, Deuteronomy, 871) tells of an elderly woman who, when consulting with the
second-century R. Yose b. Halafta, mentioned that she went to the synagogue every
morning.
A Christian source also confirms the presence of women, albeit in a less flattering light.
Toward the end of the fourth century, John Chrysostom (later to become the Patriarch of
Constantinople) preached that synagogues were places of abomination, the proof of
which lay in the fact that men and women gathered there together. He also denounced
some of the women in his church as “judaizers,” an indication that they regularly
attended the synagogue (Discourse against Judaizing Christians).
When one also considers that women were regularly present in the Jerusalem Temple
until its destruction in 70 C.E., so much so that one of the Temple’s main courts was
called “the Women’s Court,” it comes as no surprise that women were recognized and
accepted as part of the synagogue community throughout Late Antiquity.
Did women play a ritual role in the synagogue?
One rabbinic source (Tosefta, Megillah 3:11-12) addresses this question, but
unfortunately it is both ambiguous and ambivalent:
[A] Everyone is included in the counting of seven [people to be called up to read from the
Torah on the Sabbath], even a woman, even a child.
[B] One does not bring a woman to read to the public.
[C] If a synagogue has only one person who is able to read, he stands, reads, and sits;
stands, reads, and sits; stands, reads, and sits—even seven times.
What are we to make of the apparent contradiction between statements [A] and [B]? Why
was a woman given carte blanche to participate [A] if the intention was to disqualify her
from doing so [B]? Perhaps statement [A] was intended to allow a woman to read, but
this permission was later withdrawn, as indicated in [B]. Statement [B] makes a
categorical declaration denying this possibility, but in doing so it seems to imply that
women were, in fact, called upon to read from the Torah at some time or place. It is at
this point, however, that we reach a dead end. In the absence of any additional evidence,
a firm determination remains elusive.
Did women contribute financially to the synagogue, and were they so recognized?
Absolutely. Names of women donors are inscribed in numerous synagogues throughout
the Empire, sometimes also noting what was donated—entire buildings, wall decorations,
mosaics, porticos, ablution basins, etc. Interestingly, the extent of women’s involvement
as donors varied from region to region. Whereas in Roman Palestine only 4–5% of
women are mentioned in inscriptions as synagogue benefactors, nearly 30% of the donors
cited in the Roman Diaspora were women. Since the Diaspora evidence is concentrated in
Greece and Asia Minor (today’s Turkey), where pagan and Christian women were also
prominent benefactors, Jewish women in their communities may have been influenced by
this prevalent regional practice.
Did women hold leadership positions in the synagogue?
Yes. Synagogue inscriptions from different locales identify women with the titles
archisynagogos/archisynagogissa (head of a synagogue), archegissa (leader), presbytera
(elder), mater or pateressa (mother), and priestess. The titles vary depending on the
region. For example, women are mentioned in the role of “archisynagogue” in only three
synagogues—Smyrna, Crete, and Myndos—all in the Aegean and Asia Minor. In
addition, a woman treasurer (gizbarit) is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat
62a), but no details are offered regarding her specific duties or where she performed
them. There is no reason to doubt that such titles referred to actual official positions and
were not necessarily honorific titles, as was assumed by earlier scholars. In contrast, there
is no evidence to suggest that women held defined communal positions in the First or
Second Temple periods (except for such charismatic biblical figures as Miriam and
Deborah). Once again, this phenomenon probably reflects the customs of the larger
society impacting on local Jewish communities.
In what ways did Jewish synagogue practices differ from those of other religions or
cultures?
One significant difference relates to male-female seating arrangements. For the first
seven centuries of the Common Era, women and men in both Palestine and the Diaspora
sat together in the synagogue. This practice was in stark contrast to that of Roman
society, which regularly instituted segregation in the public realm along class, ethnic, or
gender lines; and that of the early church, which by and large separated men and women
as well.
Given the long-held Orthodox insistence on separate seating, it’s surprising to hear that
there was mixed seating in the ancient synagogue.
The physical separation of men and women in the synagogue developed at a later time.
There is no archaeological evidence from antiquity of a women’s section in any
synagogue, nor a single inscription noting such a separation. The absence of epigraphical
evidence is significant, given the fact that many synagogue inscriptions of the time do, in
fact, name various areas within the building. The majority of these edifices had only a
single prayer hall where the congregation gathered, but no balcony. And even when a
building did have one, there is no reason to assume that it served as a women’s gallery. It
might have functioned as a space for meetings, court sessions, festive meals, study, or the
hazzan’s (cantor’s) living quarters; according to rabbinic sources, the synagogue balcony
was used for all these purposes.
Also notably absent from rabbinic sources is any discussion of separate seating for
women. Four hundred or so traditions in rabbinic literature address the synagogue and its
functions, and not one mentions a special women’s section. One rabbinic source does
attest to the separation of men and women, but this was in the Jerusalem Temple, when a
special balcony was constructed around the “Women’s Court” to separate the sexes
during the frivolous Water Drawing Festival on Sukkot (Mishnah, Middot 2, 5; Tosefta,
Sukkah 4,1). Notably, this stated exception to the rule makes it clear that on the other
fifty-one weeks of the year, there was no such separation of men and women in the
Temple precincts.
The sum of the evidence leaves little doubt that throughout Late Antiquity, whenever
Jews gathered in the synagogue for ritual purposes, there were no gender distinctions in
seating arrangements.
When did separate seating emerge?
We know from Maimonides and the Cairo Genizah that this custom, in Egypt at least,
was well in place by the eleventh and twelfth centuries, as these sources explicitly note a
separation or partition (mehitzah). Thus, at some point between the seventh and eighth
centuries (our last-dated archaeological and literary sources for Late Antiquity) and the
eleventh century (the above-noted sources from Egypt), this division was adopted by
Jewish communities, likely because of Islamic or Christian influence, newly developing
religious stringencies within Judaism regarding the impurity of women, or perhaps both
of these considerations.
Were there any other notable differences between the practices in synagogues and those
of the surrounding cultures?
Yes, there were differences in the area of liturgical responsibilities. Perhaps because of
the plethora of gods and goddesses in the Greco-Roman pantheon, pagan women were
accorded prominent roles in many facets of the temple cult: they served as priests,
guarded and maintained the premises, offered sacrifices on a regular basis on behalf of a
wide variety of deities, and sometimes organized the major festivals. Similarly, women
played important roles within early Christianity. Over time, however, as Christianity
developed, and as its many sects disappeared (or were eliminated), women’s roles in
communal liturgy largely disappeared. With the rise of Islam, investiture of religious
leadership exclusively in the hands of males became the accepted pattern.
Why were Jewish women liturgically marginalized?
The reasons have yet to be fully explored. It is possible that Jews looked askance upon
women’s cultic participation because of the monotheistic nature of Judaism: at the center
is one God, who was perceived to be of masculine gender; or perhaps women’s
involvement was associated with temple prostitution in the pagan world. Whatever the
reasons, an official liturgical role for women in Judaism remained almost negligible until
the twentieth century in America, when Reform and Conservative Judaism eliminated
this age-old discrimination.
Series To Be Continued...
There is no archaeological evidence of a women’s section in any ancient synagogue.
And even when a building had a separate section, it might have been used for
meetings, court sessions, festive meals, study, or living quarters.
Names of women donors were inscribed in numerous synagogues throughout the
Empire. Nearly 30% of them in the Roman Diaspora were women.
The Capernaum synagogue overlooking the Sea of Galilee was once believed to have had
a second-floor women’s gallery.
Reconstruction of the Capernaum synagogue interior. A small room with stairs led to the
second-floor gallery, which scholars now think may not have been a women’s gallery
after all.
Mosaic floor of a synagogue in Naro, Tunisia. The Latin inscription reads: “Thy
servant…Juliana…at her expense paved with mosaic the holy…synagogue of
Naro for her salvation….”