Shabbos 54
“Rav Naḥman said to him: If so, you turned the animal into Yalta, my wife, who descended from the house of the Exilarch. That is treatment fit for her, not for an animal.”
So many wonderful animals grace today’s portion of the Talmud. And surprise! Yalta returns!
It must have not been a wonderful life for domestic animals 1500 years ago, who were mostly in service to their households. I do not get the sense that there were a lot of dogs and cats lazily sleeping on their beds during the day while their humans were out working in order to afford fancy pet food. But there is a demonstrated connection between the Rabbis in the Talmud and their animals as evidenced by the attention to detail. And there is expressed concern for the suffering of animals, who were allowed to rest on the Shabbos along with their humans.
The following is prohibited, as described in today’s reading from entering the public domain on Shabbat: she-goats with udders bound to preserve their milk supply; camels tied to one another; a donkey with a saddlecloth tied to its back or a bell or ladder around its neck; roosters with strings; rams with small wagons under their tails; a cow with the skin of a hedgehog or a strap between its horns.
We are provided with an example of care that is given to domestic animals when they are experiencing some discomfort. This includes soaking a soft swatch of wool on the forehead of a sheared animal in order to keep him warm or on the womb of an animal giving birth.
And surprise! There is a mention of Yalta in today’s text (along with a brief mention of Ulla). Rav Nahman is exasperated with all the talk of soaking animal’s foreheads in order to offer them comfort and protests that this has gone too far: “If so, you turned the animal into Yalta, my wife, who descended from the house of the Exilarch. That is treatment fit for her, not for an animal.”
Yalta is the strong woman who protested being treated like a second-class citizen in Berakhot 51 by the arrogant Ulla. She had what I imagined was a “marriage of true minds” with the great Rav Nahman. Here is my analysis of the tale of Yalta which gave me great hope that even 2000 years ago a woman could have a voice: