Contents:
1) The word “Matrona” in its uses
2) The importance attached to her by the Sages in the Midrashim
3) The two characters of Matrona
“Historic“ Matrona
1) The ways of the Sages to Matrona: Mutual intimacy as against suspicion and alienation
2) Where and when did Matrona presumably live
3) Legends and stories of historical character concerning Matrona
a) Matrona lends money to R’ Aqiva
b) Matrona and R’ Joshua
c) Matrona in Rome (The statesman and the voluptuous woman)
d) Matrona in Eretz Israel: Conversations with the Sages
e) The Conversations of Matrona with R’ Josi Ben Halafta
Abbreviations used in this work:
OT=Old Testament
NT=New Testament
TB=Talmud Bavli
TY=Talmud Yerushalmi
Cent..=Century
C.E. =Christian, or Common Era
OED= Oxford English Dictionary
A certain matrona asked Rabbi Josi: “It is written: ‘That your days and the days of your children may be multiplied etc. as long as the heavens are above the earth’ (Deuteronomy 11:21). You will only survive as long as the heaven and the earth survive. And heaven and earth are destined to wear out, for so says Isaiah: ‘Lift up your eyes on high and see’ (Isaiah 40:26) and it is written: ‘Lift up your eyes to the heavens and look (on the earth beneath. For the heavens will vanish like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die like gnats)’ “(Isaiah 51:6). He said to her: “With the (words of the) same prophet you have rebuked me I (shall) answer you, as it is written: ‘For as the new heavens and new earth which I will make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your descendants and your name remain’" (Isaiah 66:22).
Preface
îèøåðä ,îèøåðà, îèøåðéú, îèøåðéúà, îèøåðéúä – Matrona, matronit, matronita, in Hebrew or Aramaic spellings – those words appear in the several Midrashim and ancient Jewish writings, written and compiled during the ages, in 140 places, 28 books. Here is the proof of the character’s importance in the eyes of the Sages. The word may reappear in the same text several times, sometimes in several of its forms; the choice of the form depends on the linguistic usage of the speaker.
The source of the word is the Latin “mater,” mother. According to the Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi of Jastrow the word “matrona, matron,” mean a lady. It is used mostly of Roman women (of quality). The Latin derivation of the word itself hints at the lady’s being of foreign origins, as Rashi explains in several places (i. e. in TB Sabbath 81:2): “She was a foreigner.” S. Kraus in his Persia and Rome in the Talmud and the Midrashim, (Hebrew) p. 128 writes of her having been mentioned “uncountable times in the Talmud and the Midrash in its several forms,” rendering it unavoidable to relate a more extensive meaning than the one included in the Roman word (an elderly venerable housewife), or the meaning accepted also in modern languages, (matron) e.g. in the OED: “Married woman: woman managing domestic affairs of hospital, school, etc. (from Latin matrona, mater, mother).”
The meaning given by the OED is certainly also preserved in the midrashic character of Matrona, as we shall still have the opportunity to witness: but on the other hand she ascends to being the spouse of kings, “Augusta,” the wife of Caesar, or at least the wife of a king, and this king is the “hegmon” of the state, i. e. a “comis,” the procurator, the Governor of a (the) Roman Province (of Judea).
Matrona appears in the Midrashim in two different forms: In the first, the word “matrona” is accompanied by the word “mashal”, and is introduced by the expressions “to what may we compare this?” or “like,” or “as if.” As such, Matrona appears within a parable. In the second, she appears in “historic” form.
In both ways she usually is the heroine of the tale, and more rarely fulfils only a secondary role.
Nevertheless, one has to concede that she has no name, only an attribute: Matrona, matronita, and matronit.
There seems to be no difference whatever between a midrash mentioning “matrona” as a certain person well-known to the reader and between the expression “ a matrona,” being one of many such ladies.
This latter expression (“a matrona”) also appears in the stories of her conversations with R’ Josi. We may presume that she was always the same lady who conversed with him and that he recognized her after all and did not mention her every time as “a matrona.”
She appears both ways in “historic” as well as legendary tales in which she fulfills a stereotypic and ethereal role.
In the legends we find no express historic references: in “historic” tales matrona meets known personages, like R’ Josi Ben Halafta, her teacher and spiritual mentor.
“Historic” Matrona, full of intellectual zeal, frequenting the company of the Sages, as if sitting at their feet and drinking in their words, lives alone, as against her alter-ego in the texts marked as “parables,” “Meshalim,” who enjoys a (more or less…) happy marital life with her husband, the King.
One of these Matronae – the one enjoying her sometimes happy, sometimes tortuous marital status – is dealt with in a separate article: “Matrona in the parables”: the other one in “The ‘Historic’ Matrona.
Of the historicity of Matrona’s character we have no evidence apart from what we find written about her in the Midrashim. She has no name and we have no written proofs of her existence. The word “matrona” is a general description, which may designate in that age any woman of some stature. We may deem her as merely a literary construction, built of dim and uncertain historical reminiscences, a literary type and peg on which the Sages hang various unrelated tales, intellectual or other yearnings, scraps of stray memories fed by the world of their ideas and needs and endeavors to spread the word of the Torah to the surrounding non-Jews, the people surrounding them, and to explain themselves to foreigners.
Where and when did then she live, if she did live at all, and existed also outside of the Sages’ aforementioned imagination? Put alternatively, what historical inferences may we draw from the legends told of her? After all, the Sages themselves talked of her in several veins, and as we saw they used her image as the vehicle of their parables, without earthly substance. But if they turned her, the foreign woman into the symbol of their inmost interests and world of myth – she stood in their tales for the mate of God, the Shechina, or Knesseth Israel, or the Torah, even as Moshe, Miriam or the Ark of the Covenant, even the Holy Implements of the Tabernacle etc., they knew her also as a flesh-and-blood character, living alongside them in the same community. She acted as any person in the inhabited world. She lived with the Sages and was interested in them as well as in their values. She also showed interest in Biblical literary characters. We should not accept the thesis that legendary tales diminish the possibility of her having existed at all. Nevertheless, she could be many persons – a composite character - and therefore no one really. She has not, as a Sage from another world said, “an earthly habitation and a name.”
We can’t divine what image stood before the inner eyes of the Sages who spoke of her, or later collected her stories. Despite her character being unknown and historically unverifiable, we may specify some of her character traits. We can even build her image from the written material, reconstruct the main parts of her life and learn the story of her life. We can hear her voice, experience her uninhibited and straight ways of expressing herself, learn of her status between the Sages as well as in court: learn of her opinions and interests, spiritual as well as financial, as if she stood here before us. We can experience her ways of thought: share the anguish of her spiritual thirst and search. All this and more.
The character of Matrona we deal with here is historical in several ways. First of all, she does not appear in the tales about her as part of a parable, marked by the indicators “mashal,” “what it is like to…?” etc. Accordingly, she does not serve as a symbol to abstract entities like the Sabbath, Knesseth Israel, or literary characters like Moses, Miriam etc. As a rule, she constitutes no part of tales involving the supernatural: the tales about her bear a historical character, purporting to tell tales of real events. These events are taken from everyday life: but at the same time they reflect moods of the secular or religious thought of the times, giving evidence of tremendous historical events in the religious or philosophical life of the ancient world. They also give evidence of the situation in which the Jewish people found itself among the nations in the Roman Commonwealth.
Secondly, if she herself has no name, the Sages with whom she met with have names, and they are well known historical characters, who lived in the 2nd Cent. C.E., usually in Galilee.
In what way is Matrona presented in the Midrashim? What real historical materials are woven into her character? What is her relationship with the Roman authorities, to which she belonged, and what is the character of her relationship with the Sages, with whom she had daily contact, as the stories told of her indicate? What are the historical trends of her age demonstrated by these stories? And if she did drink in their words concerning the Bible and the Jewish faith, her words do not testify her being constantly devoid of criticism: she was curious, intelligent, understanding, but also aloof, frank and critical. She did not conceal her opinion and sentiments: she was a keen observer who knew how to give vent to her feelings: as we can witness in her words to the Rabbis in the well-known story commenting on their obesity:
When R’ Ishmael the son of R’ Josi and R’ Elazar the son of R’ Shimeon met, an ox could pass between their legs – [i. e. between their protruding bellies] and it would not touch them. A certain matron said to them: “Your children are not yours.” They said: “Theirs are bigger than ours.” “If that is the case, even more so!” There are those who said to her: “As the man, so his virility.” And there are those who say that thus did they say to her: “Love compresses the flesh.” (TB Bava Metzia 84:1: see also Yalkut Shimeoni 26 Hint after 961).
Neither does she conceal her opinion of R’ Jehouda Berabbi Alay’s face: “A matrona said to him [i.e. to R’ Jehouda Berabbi Ilay]: ‘Your face is like a hog’s and to a moneylender’s. ”’
This is not intended to prove that she fell in love with him, but to indicate her daily dealings with the Sages and a measure of her familiarity with them. As a member of the ruling class in Israel, she permits herself to use straightforward language in her dealings with them, and her tone may be of condescension and reserve.
We conclude from the above that Matrona lived in the 2nd Cent. in Zippori.
Zippori served for a while the capital of Galilee and presumably this status of the city induced many members of the Roman upper classes to settle in it. The town was ever loyal to the Romans, and it was apparently settled by many foreigners, as the archeological finds testify. The generally peaceful atmosphere of the town made it dear to the hearts of the Romans and its other inhabitants too. Agrippas II did not let the town join the revolt against Rome and it opened its gates before Vespasianus, minting coins in his honor. Many sages are known to have lived in Zippori during the Mishnaic and Talmudic period (2nd to 4th Cent. C. E.), the most famous of them being Rabbi Halafta, Rabbi Elazar Ben Azarya, Rabbi Josi Ben Halafta, Rabbi Jochanan, Resh Lakish etc. After the revolt of Bar Kuseiba Hadrian transferred the municipal rule to the foreigners. It is possible that the woman whom the Sages called “Matrona,” the Matrona, lived among these foreigners. That is one possibility. However, a second, and opposite possibility exists, supported by the fact that Matrona, according to the aggada, had some financial transactions with R’ Aqiva, who certainly had no transactions after the Bar Kuseiba Revolt. There was neither time nor zeal to hold intellectual discussions with Romans after the horrible slaughter that followed the revolt. Aqiva and the other sages were sentenced to death or went into hiding. It does not seem to have been the right time for intellectual exchanges.
The stories in which Matrona takes such a prominent part indicate a period of life in Israel when the Romans feel safe in their rule and peace reigns. These all takes place before the revolt of 135. Since all the Sages she talks with lived in the 2nd Cent., we can confine the time Matrona lives in Zippori to the years 100-135, a period of 35 years. However, as the edicts of Hadrian concerning circumcision, for example, were issued in 130 and delegations went to Rome to plead for the annulment of the edict, and these delegations already meet Matrona in Rome, we can limit the time-span of her presence in Zippori to the years 120-130 approximately. This is nothing more than an approximation, open to debate as the very fact of Matrona’s existence is a matter of supposition.
Zippori is also the place where we have written intimations of R’ Elazar’s having undergone severe trials of religious seductions, i. e. to Christianity, according to R’ Aqiva’s testimony.
An interesting encounter between cultures took place between the pagan world demonstrating interest in Jewish lore, to which we shall attest, Jewish values as represented by the Sages and between budding Christianity. In general, this era is one of discussions and deliberations between the representatives of these worlds, in debates and discussions, such as between Vespasianus and R’ Jochanan Ben Zakkai, R’ Aqiva and Tineius Rufus, R’ Joshua and the Sages of Athens, and Matrona and R’ Josi, etc.
Since the leader of the people has always been the dominant factor in inducing common interest, we should acknowledge the part Hadrian played in creating the cultural atmosphere of these times. In the elitist circles under his rule there spread an intellectual interest in the various religions and ways of life of the several peoples co-existing under the Roman aegis: Hadrian was known as a man who liked to discuss matters of wisdom.
Tales of historic background concerning Matrona
As already mentioned, Matrona appears in these tales as a single person. Pierre Grimal writes: “Historians praise the purity of the ancient customs [of the institution of marriage in Rome] and the times when a widow would never remarry.” We assert that Matrona belonged to the higher echelons of the Roman society, to a patrician culture, in which the change of status from widowhood to a remarried state was socially unacceptable.
Matrona is a sociable person, who uses her time (and wealth) to furthering her interests in trends of thought and religion: she puts the Jewish lore to test, a faith new to her but to which she already adheres. She also puts the Sages to a test, living nearby to them, with them, commenting on their looks, lending them money, not always with the most sufficient warranty. She heals them, because she is a doctor. She argues with them, insults them, vents her dissenting opinion: advises their delegations to Rome, becomes their political counselor: she is a true adviser. She delves into the precepts of the Jewish religion as a source of Christianity, and many of her words disclose her inclination to the new religion.
She has her spiritual and intellectual as well as her material side. She is a wealthy woman, the proud owner of 1000 slaves of both genders, whose life she rules to life and death, as it is wont in Rome.
She also enters into financial transactions with the Sages. R' Nissim Ben Reuben of Girondi puts in his exegesis to Nedarim a tale of her:
Once R' Aqiva and his pupils needed money and went to Matrona. She said to R' Aqiva: "I am going to lend you and you'll be the borrower: and God and the Sea will stand as guarantors. She appointed the time of payment, and when it arrived she went to the seashore. She said: "It is well known to you that R' Aqiva fell ill and can't pay his debt; look and behold, because you are the guarantor." At once the daughter of Caesar went mad and she took a chest full of precious stones and golden denars and threw it to the sea: and the sea brought it to the place where this matrona was sitting on the seashore. At once she took the chest and went her way. After a while R' Aqiva became well and came to that matrona and the money in his hands. She said to him: "I went to the guarantor and he paid the debt. Take the rest of what he overpaid me." And from this wealth that she returned him he became rich. (Ra"n, TB Nedarim 50.1).
Only two of Matrona's stories are of a folkloristic character, and this is one of them.
This is a story of a miracle, of the supernatural. True, not the matter of the guarantors makes the story belong to the world of miracles, in which princesses go mad and throw riches into the sea which brings them in the right time to the right place. The true essence of the tale deals with the return of a debt at the appointed time so as not to bring the debtor into shame. This matter of the guarantors has time-old sources in the Mesopotamian an
and Middle-Eastern world of contracts, as well as in the Bible, by the use made of the legalistic formula in the tale ("I am creditor and you are the debtor," etc.) indicates.
This story resembles another one concerning witnesses who are to warrant the repayment of the debt at the appointed time, namely the story of Nakdimon Ben Gurion in TB Ta'anit 19:2. Here the clouds and Heaven itself behave in the same way as in our story above, and pay the debt at the appointed time. The pagan precepts are mitigated by the fact that the miracle comes about only as an answer to a prayer.
The other story of a folkloristic character involves no miracles. The story concerning R' Joshua and Matrona are of the kind of the miraculous, impossible and seemingly misleading choice of the Master. He has a famulus who wonders about the meaning of his strange decisions, and the Rabbi explains them to him.
In our next story the behavior of the Rabbi seem strange, but the way in which his deeds gain meaning differs. His helpers do not express wonder at his behavior, as it perhaps is not appropriate for them to do openly. They suggest the solution to these deeds voluntarily, and the Rabbi happily accepts their explanation.
Our Rabbis taught: The scholars were once in need of something from a noblewoman where all the great men of Rome were to be found. Said they,"'Who will go?" "I will go," replied R' Joshua. So R' Joshua and his disciples went. When he reached the door of her house, he removed his phylacteries (Tefillin) at a distance of four cubits, entered, and shut the door in front of them. After he came out he descended, had a ritual bath, and learnt with his disciples. Said he to them, "When I removed my tefillin. of what did you suspect me?" "We thought, our Master reasons, 'Let not sacred words enter a place of uncleanness.'" "When I shut [the door], of of what did you suspect me?" "We thought, perhaps he has [to discuss] an affair of State with her." "When I descended and had a ritual bath, of what did you suspect me?" "We thought, perhaps some spittle spurted from her mouth upon the Rabbi's garments.'' "By the [Temple] Service!' exclaimed he to them,"it was even so; and just as you judged me favorably, so may the Omnipresent judge you favourably."
Let us state here that in that story, although in a negative way, Matrona seems once again to be connected with deeds sexual in nature. Where one sees "no"' there one can sometimes surmise "yes:" there is no smoke without fire. If there is a referer, there is a referee. And we shall yet see that in spite of all she does not leave Rome unscathed in her character. Even in this story we see the revulsion the Sages feel at Matrona's physical presence.
We do not deem it a good policy to turn a blind eye on our Matrona's open displays of her physical nature.
Matrona, besides her spiritual interests is interested also in the various works of the human body. It was stated already above that she is a doctor, a healer of illnesses.
