R. Hisdah's daughter: The one who married both men
R. Hisdah gave his daughter a choice to marry one of his two best students. She refused to choose, saying that she was going to marry both. And she did, with a 10 year gap in-between. During those 10 years of widowhood she kept herself fertile by fantasising of her next husband.
According to Talmudic thinking, a woman who is sexual inactive for ten years or more becomes infertile. This was not the case with R. Hisdah's daughter and so there were suspicions about the ten years she was a widow. She said that she kept herself sexual active in her thoughts by thinking of the man she knew she was going to end up marrying.
I have used an image of the hamza, an amulet of a woman's hand, pointing down with extended middle finger. This amulet is used to protect life, often life of a newborn, against the evil eye. This mirrors her protecting her life-giving fertility against the sterility of complete celibacy.
(Bava Batra 12a and Yevamot 34a)
According to Talmudic thinking, a woman who is sexual inactive for ten years or more becomes infertile. This was not the case with R. Hisdah's daughter and so there were suspicions about the ten years she was a widow. She said that she kept herself sexual active in her thoughts by thinking of the man she knew she was going to end up marrying.
I have used an image of the hamza, an amulet of a woman's hand, pointing down with extended middle finger. This amulet is used to protect life, often life of a newborn, against the evil eye. This mirrors her protecting her life-giving fertility against the sterility of complete celibacy.
(Bava Batra 12a and Yevamot 34a)