Bruriah

Bruriah, daughter of Rabbi Hanina ben Teradion, one of the Ten Martyrs, and wife of Rabbi Meir, lived in the 2nd century and is the only woman of the Talmud whose rulings in law are quoted and accepted. The Tosefta (Kelim) records a ruling of hers on purity of which Rabbi Yehudah said, "Bruriah spoke well", and the Talmud (Pesachim 62b) says she learned three hundred laws from three hundred teachers in a single day. Her wit was famous: when ruffians tormented Rabbi Meir and he prayed that they die, she read him Psalm 104:35, "Let sins cease from the earth", not sinners, and told him to pray that they repent; he did, and they repented (Berakhot 10a).

A later midrash on Proverbs 31 tells how, when their two sons died on a Sabbath, she waited until it ended and then asked Rabbi Meir whether a deposit must be returned to its owner when he asks for it. After her father's martyrdom under Hadrian, Rabbi Meir rescued her sister from Roman captivity (Avodah Zarah 18a). Bruriah became the model of the learned Jewish woman.