Chuldah: One of the 7 Great Female Neviot By: Sarah Hanian 5781

§ The Gemara asks with regard to the prophetesses recorded in the baraita: Who were the seven prophetesses? The Gemara answers: Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Huldah, and Esther. The Gemara offers textual support: Sarah, as it is written: “Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah” (Genesis 11:29). And Rabbi Yitzḥak said: Iscah is in fact Sarah. And why was she called Iscah? For she saw [sakhta] by means of divine inspiration, as it is stated: “In all that Sarah has said to you, hearken to her voice” (Genesis 21:12). Alternatively, Sarah was also called Iscah, for all gazed [sokhin] upon her beauty.

To Chuldoh. Our Rabbis said that because a woman is more merciful than a man, he, therefore, did not send to Yirmiyohu [to inquire]. Others say that Yirmiyohu was not there because he went to bring back the ten tribes.

(14) So the priest Hilkiah, and Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the prophetess Huldah—the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah son of Harhas, the keeper of the wardrobe—who was living in Jerusalem in the Mishneh, and they spoke to her.

An additional point is mentioned with regard to the prophetesses. Rav Naḥman said: Haughtiness is not befitting a woman. And a proof to this is that there were two haughty women, whose names were identical to the names of loathsome creatures. One, Deborah, was called a hornet, as her Hebrew name, Devorah, means hornet; and one, Huldah, was called a marten, as her name is the Hebrew term for that creature. From where is it known that they were haughty? With regard to Deborah, the hornet, it is written: “And she sent and called Barak” (Judges 4:6), but she herself did not go to him. And with regard to Huldah, the marten, it is written: “Say to the man that sent you to me” (II Kings 22:15), but she did not say: Say to the king.

and she was sitting in Jerusalem in the study-hall - Heb. בַּמִּשֶׁנֶה. The city had two walls, and she lived between the two walls. The Targum renders: in the study-hall. The meaning is: in the place of Torah, for Huldah had a chamber adjacent to the Chamber of Hewn Stone. The Chamber of Huldah was open to the outside and closed toward the Sanhedrin in the Chamber of Hewn Stone. So it is written in Tractate Middoth (unknown) because of modesty.

Rabbi Azariah said: Know thou the efficacy of charity. Come and see from the instance of Shallum, son of Tikvah, who was one of the important men of his generation, giving charity every day. What did he do? He filled the bottle with water, and sat at the entrance of the city, and he would give water to every person who came on the way, restoring his soul to him. On account of the charity which he did, the Holy Spirit rested upon his wife, as it is said, "So Hilkiah the priest… went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tikvah" (2 Kings 22:14). Originally his name was "the son of Sachrah"; just as thou dost say, "Merchandise is better than the circulation of money" (Prov. 3:14). One Scripture text || says, "The son of Sachrah." When her husband died, the charitable deeds of her husband ceased, and all Israel went forth to show loving-kindness to Shallum, son of Tikvah. But they spied the band, and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha, and he came to life, as it is said, "And as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived" (2 Kings 13:21); and afterwards he begat Chanameel, as it is said, "Behold, Chanameel the son of Shallum thine uncle shall come unto thee" (Jer. 32:7).

In the study house. [Targum Yonoson rendered,] in the study house. There is a gate in the Temple courtyard, named "the Gate of Chuldoh" [as stated] in Maseches Midos. Others interpret "במשנה" as "outside the wall/' [i.e.,] between the two walls, which are double [around] the city. (במשנה [i.e.,] she was teaching the Oral Law to the elders of the generation, i.e., the Mishnah. An annotation of Rabbi Akiva.) In the study house. (From, "These are the words," until "before the eyes of all Yisroel," i.e., the Book of Devarim, also known as Misheh Torah, and likewise all the things that are repeated in the Torah, she expounded on in public, and she revealed the punishments and the exiles which were doubled for those who transgress the secrets and the allusions of the Torah. The Secret of Righteousness.)