Bruriah stands alone in the Gemara as a paradigm of the ultimate Jewish woman, exhibiting an almost exhaustive list of ideal traits. Bruriah shows towering faith when her father is brutally executed; and when her two sons pass away on Shabbos, displays wisdom in how she prepares her husband to cope with the loss. Bruriah radiates self-control in waiting to tell R’ Meir the crushing news, gratitude to Hashem for lending them their sons, and a trust in Hashem which defies anger or questioning. Chazal sometimes pasken by her over tannaim, and she was said to be an even greater scholar than her brother. Indeed, Bruriah is used by R’ Yochanan as the paradigm of one who can grasp and retain phenomenal amounts of Torah information at a time, which speaks to both her genius and her wealth of knowledge.
Bruriah is touted as a daughter of one talmid chacham and wife of another, yet her mothering or wifely duties are never described or lauded. It’s clear that her value to Klal Yisrael as an individual and as a role model was distinct from the classic womanly roles she played.
Hence it’s painful that this shining role-model so threatened the accepted role of Jewish woman that a story-came about suggesting that her knowledge ultimately led her to give in to a student’s advances (and commit suicide from guilt). Bearing in mind Bruriah’s reproof of R’ Yosi for saying an extra word to a woman, this midrash seems cruel and almost farcical, twisting the image of such a rare and magnificent female role-model. Leave Bruriah unclouded and awe-inspiring, as she clearly was. We need all the strong, brilliant, holy and tough-as-nails role-models we can get!
