Beruriah

IIᵉ siècle

To pray for the end of evil rather than for the end of the wicked.

Who was Beruriah?

Daughter of a teacher put to death by the Romans for teaching the Law, and wife of Rabbi Meir, she is the only woman whose legal opinions the Talmud records and debates as it does those of the sages. Tradition credits her with learning equal to the masters', and with a way of correcting her husband that has crossed the centuries.

In their own words

Is it written: let sinners cease. It is written: let sins cease. Pray rather for them, that they may repent.

Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 10a (translated from the Aramaic by the Manna team)

If a pledge was entrusted to me and its owner comes to claim it, must I not give it back. Let us then return the pledge to the one to whom it belongs.

Midrash Mishlei 31 (on Prov 31:10), the text says “their mother”; tradition identifies her as Beruriah (translated from the Hebrew by the Manna team)

Is it not written: ordered in all things and sure. If the Law is ordered in all your limbs it will be kept; if not, it will not.

Babylonian Talmud, Eruvin 53b-54a (translated from the Aramaic by the Manna team)