[Avodah] Vayigash

[Simon Montagu]

On Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 11:40 PM, Lisa Liel <lisa at starways.net> wrote:
> On 1/2/2012 12:14 AM, Simon Montagu wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 3:39 AM,<t613k at aol.com>  wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> <snip>  ... a principle we actually
>>> see throughout the Torah, especially at the beginning when generations
>>> are
>>> named, and very few women are mentioned by name -- those who are
>>> mentioned
>>> by name being the especially important women, like Noach's wife and the
>>> Imahos.
>>>
>>
>> What was Noach's wife's name?
>
> There's a midrash that says it was Naamah, sister of Tuval Kayin.

Indeed there is, but midrashim are not relevant when we are discussing
which women the Torah names explicitly! Worse, I suspect that that
midrash was at least partly intended to answer the question why Na`ama
is named when we know nothing else about her -- in other words,
without the midrash, she is an exception to the rule that only
especially important women are named, so this becomes a circular
argument.