the rebellious women of damascus
"The women of Damascus went to the miqweh, by day as a matter of course. When rabbis joseph ibn tzayyah and Rabbi Moses Barukh realized what was going on, they had a lock installed on the miqwe door. The key was handed over for safekeeping to a few trustworthy women who were responsible for ensuring no one entered before sundown. Undaunted some women broke the lock to the door and continued immersing themselves by day." - Ruth Lamdan, A Separate People: Jewish Women in Palestine, Syria and Egypt This snippet is based on a teshuva from Avkat Rochel by Joseph Caro ,author of the shulhan arukh, who elsewhere states ver certainly that women may not immerse in the daytime. Caro refers to them as Mordot. I rather think of them as poskot. To paraphrase AJH, poskot with their feet. The Rebellious Women of Damascus were merely following in the footsteps of their illustrious aunts, The Rebellious Women of Cairo, castigated by Maimonides for going to the Miqweh 7 days after their pe