A cloak of attentiveness spread over the Knesset plenum. MK Calderon is not just a Talmudic scholar but also an experienced professional. When she described the dramatic moment of this wonderful midrash, the Knesset seemed to hold its collective breath. It was no coincidence that within two days, the maiden speech given by MK Ruth Calderon registered 150,000 viewers on YouTube.

Over the years, the Orthodox world made Talmud study out of bounds for women. Boys learned Talmud, not girls. It was the non-Orthodox streams of Judaism, the Reform and Masorti/ Conservative movements, and now the secular Jews who have taken an interest in Jewish studies, as well as the reformist trend in Orthodoxy, that have challenged this male monopoly. But it has taken time for this revolution to come into its own as a political presence. And now it’s happened right here, in the Knesset. Here is an MK, who navigates naturally, confidently within the pages of the Mishnah and the Talmud, and uses them – like a full-fledged owner of their wisdom and knowledge – as a natural base for political argument.

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