During the generation leading up to the Churban, the wickedness of women was even more pronounced than that of men. What could explain such a drastic shift?
At first glance, this connection seems puzzling. What could women possibly have done to contribute to the destruction of the First Temple, given their renowned loyalty to Hashem throughout previous eras of Jewish history? Let’s carefully examine the words of the Neviim to uncover this connection.
About six years before the Temple was destroyed (the Churban), God brought the prophet Yechezkel, who was living in exile in Babylonia, back to the Beit Hamikdash in Jerusalem in a powerful vision. He wanted Yechezkel to witness the horrifying acts taking place right inside the Temple grounds. Yechezkel described what he saw, including this startling scene: “Then he brought me to the door of the gate of Hashem’s house which was toward the north; and see, there sat the women weeping for Tammuz…” (Ezekiel 8:14).
Da’at Mikra explains that “Tammuz” was the pagan god of vegetation, believed to be reborn each spring and to perish in the hot month of Tammuz as plants withered. The women’s act of lamenting was a specific part of their ritual worship of this god. It’s important to remember that lamenting and crying constituted an ancient profession, primarily performed by women. In fact, Mishna Ketubot (4:4) stipulates: “Even the poorest person in Israel should have no fewer than two flutes and a female lamenter/מקוננת.”
This Mishna highlights the profound importance placed on honoring the dead and fostering an atmosphere of dignified mourning and farewell. So much so, that even for a pauper, it was obligatory to provide musical accompaniment and a professional female mourner. These female lamenters were an integral part of ancient mourning rituals, tasked with eliciting weeping and eulogies. And yet, tragically, during the time of Yechezkel, these very same talents were channeled towards the worship of idols.
The women’s sinful activity is not an isolated event. To the contrary, approximately twenty-five years earlier, the prophet Yirmiyahu describes King Yoshiyahu’s religious reform, which included the following:
And he [Yoshiyahu] broke down the houses of the prostitutes that were in the house
of Hashem, where the women wove coverings for the Asherah(II Kings 23:7)
Here women are involved in the worship of the foreign god, Asherah, through the weaving of coverings. While the exact nature of these coverings is unclear, Daat Mikra suggests that Asherah worship involved prostitution, and these “coverings” may have served as partitions for those engaged in such practices. It’s striking how these actions contrast sharply with the actions of women during the construction of the Mishkan. Sefer Shemot describes:
And every woman who was wise-hearted spun with her hands, and they brought what they had spun: the blue and the purple, the worm-scarlet, and the linen. And all the women whose heart inspired them with wisdom spun the goat hair (Exod. 35: 25-26)
In the desert, the women eagerly volunteered their expertise, spinning the precise fabrics needed for the Mishkan. The Gemara (Shabbat 74b) even explains they were so skilled that they spun the goat hair while it was still on the goat’s body! Strikingly, while the women of the desert period showed their devotion to Hashem by donating their spinning and weaving talents to glorify Him and His Mishkan, in the period leading up to the Churban, those same talents were channeled towards idol worship.
Women’s culinary skills were also used for evil purposes, as described by Yirmiyahu:
Don’t you see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The
children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough,
to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that
they may provoke Me to anger (Jer. 7:17-18).
Shockingly, even after the destruction of the city of Yerushalyim and the Temple, the Jewish remnant that had fled to Egypt, continues with its idolatrous practices with women in the forefront:
Then all the men who knew that their wives burned incense to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, even all the people who lived in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying, “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of Hashem, we will not listen to you. (Jer. 44: 15-16).
The women’s idolatrous practices stand in sharp contrast to the loyalty of the desert-era women, who refused to participate in the sin of the Golden Calf (see Pirkei D’Rebbi Eliezer 45).
All the above demonstrates that female involvement in idolatry was not an isolated incident, but rather an ongoing occurrence. The Ramban believes this female spiritual breakdown was even anticipated in the Torah. In Parshat Ha’azinu, Moses describes God’s anger as being “because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters” (Deuteronomy 32:20). Why does the text specifically mention “daughters?” After all, women are generally subsumed under the generic term “sons.” He explains:
But this phrase is among his [Moses’] allusions, for, in the generation of the destruction [of the First Temple], the wickedness of the women and their sin would be very great because they provoked G-d. They were especially attached to the idols, and it was they who enticed the men to worship them…
During the generation leading up to the Churban, the wickedness of women was even more pronounced than that of men. They were involved in weaving, lamenting, baking, and burning incense for foreign gods, even enticing their husbands to sin. Domestic activities traditionally associated with nurturing and sustenance became instruments of sin against God.
What could explain such a drastic shift? The unwavering loyalty to Hashem, once the hallmark of Jewish women in the desert, had been tragically replaced by sin. This is a very difficult question to answer. Perhaps, in the desert, the Mishkan’s immediate presence instilled in them a continuous feeling of spirituality and gave them vital purpose through its construction. Later, during the Temple era, the greater distances meant less frequent interaction with the Temple, and their unique skills were no longer in demand.
Still, this doesn’t fully account for why women were drawn to sin more than men. Perhaps we can learn a crucial lesson from this negative trend: women possess an inherently profound spirituality and a deep-rooted desire to connect with the Divine. When this connection isn’t fostered in a pure and righteous manner, then, God forbid, this powerful yearning can tragically manifest through sinful acts.
As we enter the month of Tammuz, which historically precedes the Churban, let us, as women, be mindful of our spiritual essence. By consciously channeling this spiritual power towards positive endeavors, may we be instrumental in transforming this time of historical destruction into an era of redemption.
Dr. Lisa Fredman is in the second cohort of the Kitvuni Fellowship. She will be writing on Rashi’s holistic approach to books of the Ketuvim. Lisa has a Ph.D in Bible from Bar Ilan University and has published a Critical Edition of Rashi’s Commentary to Proverbs as well as articles on Rashi’s methodology. She teaches in Efrata College and other prominent women’s Torah institutions.
