Jewish Women You Should Know - Yalta

The Babylonian Talmud mentions very few women by name. Although Bruriah, the wife of Rabbi Meir may be the most well known today, another woman of tremendous import is Yalta, the wife of Rav Nachman, a 3rd generation Amora and a scholar in her own right.

Yalta grew up in great wealth and privilege in the Babylonian city of Nehardea. The area referred to as Babylonia is today Iraq. Her father, Raba Bar Avuha was a preeminent scholar and Reish Sidra—head of the academy in Nehardea, as well as the Reish Galuta or Exilarch, the governor of the Babylonian Jewish community in exile.

Yalta married Rav Nachman, her father’s favored student. Yalta is mentioned or quoted some eight times in the Babylonian Talmud. The instances in which she is mentioned or directly quoted show her to be a woman possessed of a very formidable personality and unwavering in her opinions and feelings. Several stories concerning her illustrate this.

One of Yalta’s most famous assertions is that although the Torah may forbid one thing, it permits something quite similar. By way of example, although the Torah forbids the eating of the fat from a cow, it does permit the eating of deer fat. Although the consumption and cooking of milk and meat together is not permitted, Yalta asked Rav Nachman to prepare a dish for her that would mimic the taste of milk and meat together and thus he prepared a dish made of cow udders for her, something that the vast majority of his colleagues would have categorically forbidden.

One of the more famous incidents involving Yalta centers on whether or not a woman may drink from the cup of wine upon which a blessing was made following Birkat HaMazon or Grace after the Meal. Ulla, another famed Talmudic rabbi was an honored guest at the home of Rav Nachman and Ulla and, after Birkat Hamazon, gave Rav Nachman the cup of wine over which he had just made the blessing so that the latter could drink. When Rav Nachman asked Ulla to give the cup to Yalta as well in accordance with the custom in his home, Ulla refused, saying that the fruit of a woman’s body is blessed only by the fruit of a man’s. Yalta, overhearing this slight, got up and hastily went down to the wine store where upon she proceeded to smash some 400 jars of wine. Afterwards, Rav Nachman asked Ulla to send her another cup of wine which he did with the message that all of the wine could be counted as a benediction. Yalta retorted with an insult of her own, saying that gossip comes from peddlers and vermin from rags. It is exceedingly clear from this particular example that Yalta was not going to allow herself, her station in her home or in life to be belittled or dishonored.

Yalta stands her ground in another famous incident, in which she is able to influence the rabbinic legal opinion regarding niddah or family purity. Not satisfied with the first opinion she receives, she takes her question to a second rabbi who rules in a manner which is more satisfying to her.

Yalta is also noteworthy owing to the fact that she was carried on a special chair on Shabbat, an act normally not permitted owing to the fact that you are not supposed to carry objects from a private to a public domain and vice versa on Shabbat. Exceptions were apparently made for those of high status and Yalta was one such person owing to her privileged position.

Yalta is a feisty personality that many of us can deeply relate to today. Not satisfied with the system as it was, she sought to change it and was not going to allow others to impede her or stand in her way.