Matrona Essay

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MATRONA Historic Matrona Contents: 1) The word “Matrona” in its uses 2) The importance attached to her by the Sages in the Midrashim 3) The two characters of Matrona “Historic“ Matrona 1) The ways of the Sages to Matrona: Mutual intimacy as against suspicion and alienation 2) Where and when did Matrona presumably live 3) Legends and stories of historical character concerning Matrona a) Matrona lends money to R’ Aqiva b) Matrona and R’ Joshua c) Matrona in Rome (The statesman and the voluptuous woman) d) Matrona in Eretz Israel: Conversations with the Sages e) The Conversations of Matrona with R’ Josi Ben Halafta f) Abbreviations used in this work: OT=Old Testament NT=New Testament TB=Talmud Bavli TY=Talmud Yerushalmi Cent..=Century C.E. =Christian, or Common Era OED= Oxford English Dictionary A certain matrona asked Rabbi Josi: “It is written: ‘That your days and the days of your children may be multiplied etc. as long as the heavens are above the earth’ (Deuteronomy 11:21). You will only survive as long as the heaven and the earth survive. And heaven and earth are destined to wear out, for so says Isaiah: ‘Lift up your eyes on high and see’ (Isaiah 40:26) and it is written: ‘Lift up your eyes to the heavens and look (on the earth beneath. For the heavens will vanish like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die like gnats)’ “(Isaiah 51:6). He said to her: “With the (words of the) same prophet you have rebuked me I (shall) answer you, as it is written: ‘For as the new heavens and new earth which I will make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your descendants and your name remain’" (Isaiah 66:22). Preface מטרונה ,מטרונא, מטרונית, מטרוניתא, מטרוניתה – Matrona, matronit, matronita, in Hebrew or Aramaic spellings – those words appear in the several
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