Imma Shalom

Imma Shalom, who lived in the second century of the Common Era was the wife of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, one of R. Yochanan ben Zakkai’s five disciples and incredibly influential in his own right, and the sister of Rabbi Gamliel who was in charge of the rabbinic academy at Yavneh. She is one of the few women mentioned by name in the Babylonian Talmud. Unlike Beruriah, the famed wife of Rabbi Meir, she is not cited as a legal authority in her own right. Nonetheless, the Talmud does record several stories about her which show her to have a fiercely independent spirit.

Imma Shalom grew up in a very wealthy family. She was the daughter of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, who was the Nasi (literally prince but probably better translated as either head or leader) of the Sanhedrin or court of Jewish law. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel was the great-grandson of Hillel (110 B.C.E.-10 C.E.), who was the founder of the house of Hillel (beit Hillel) one of the two major schools of Jewish legal thought during the Tannaitic era—the other being beit Shamai—the house of Shamai. The Tannaitic era refers to the first several centuries of the Common Era when the sages whose teachings are recorded in the Mishnah, the corpus of rabbinic oral law lived.

Having grown up in such an environment steeped in Jewish learning, Imma Shalom no doubt learned much from her father and brother, although her opinion is not ever recorded as authoritative. She married Rabbi Eliezer, one of the most prominent of the Tannaim and one of R. Yochanan ben Zakkai’s disciples.

While Imma Shalom is not mentioned frequently in the Talmud, there are several noteworthy agadic stories about her. Agadah refers to rabbinic tales or legends which are often employed to convey a moral lesson or teaching, although there are many humorous anecdotes as well. In one such instance, Imma Shalom contests the laws surrounding inheritance rights for women which is found in Tractate Shabbat, 116 A and B. Along with her brother, she goes before a local judge whom the community believes is upstanding of character but whom she knows to be corrupt and presents him with a law suit which revolved around her inheritance rights to her father’s estate which he is to have divided with her brother. Before presenting her side of the argument, Imma Shalom sends the judge a gift of a golden lamp which results in his giving her a favorable ruling. However, the next day when her brother brings him a donkey, the judge overturns his ruling. While this case in one sense is poignantly illustrating this particular judge’s complete lack of ethics, in another, it is an apt illustration of how Imma Shalom is seeking to change the laws surrounding women’s rights to their father’s property.

Imma Shalom experienced a fair amount of familial turmoil throughout her life as her husband was excommunicated from the rabbinic academy overseen by her brother. In the Talmud’s rendering of this no doubt extremely emotionally difficult incident, found in Tractate Bava Metzia 59B, Imma Shalom implores Rabbi Eliezer not to prostrate during Tachanun, the series of prayers of supplication that are said on weekdays immediately following the Amidah or standing prayer in both the Shacharit (morning) and Minchah (afternoon) services. She feared that if he did so, he would henceforth be praying for his humiliation which would result in the punishment of those who excommunicated him—namely, her brother, Rabbi Gamliel and his colleagues. Once, she did find that Rabbi Eliezer was prostrating during Tachanun and, upon finding him this way exclaimed that he had killed her brother. Soon thereafter, the announcement was made that Rabbi Gamliel had indeed passed away. When Rabbi Eliezer asks Imma Shalom where she had this prophetic ability or sense, she told him that she has a tradition, passed down to her from her paternal grandfather that all gates are locked save for that of wounded feelings, a fairly perplexing statement on its face.

Although next to nothing is known of the trajectory of her life aside from the scant mentions in the Talmud, Imma Shalom was most certainly a very independent woman, and her challenge of rabbinic authority, even if done in such a way as to lay bear the complete lack of morality in a local judge was a very courageous act for a woman of her time and position.