mentioned are portrayed as having a strong influence on their husbands. Occasionally they have a public persona. Examples are Bruriah, the wife of the Tanna Rabbi Meir; Rachel, wife of Rabbi Akiva; and Yalta, the wife of Rabbi Nachman. Eleazar ben Arach's wife Ima Shalom counseled her husband in assuming leadership over the Sanhedrin. When Eleazar ben Arach was asked to assume the role of Nasi ("Prince" or President of the Sanhedrin), he replied that he must first take counsel with his wife, which he did. Middle Ages Since Jews were seen as second-class citizens in the Christian and Muslim world (legally known in the Muslim world as dhimmi), it was even harder for Jewish women to establish their own status. Avraham Grossman argues in his book, Pious and Rebellious: Jewish Women in Medieval Europe, that three factors affected how Jewish women were perceived by the society around them: "the biblical and Talmudic heritage; the situation in the non-Jewish society within which the Jews lived and functioned; and the economic status of the Jews, including the woman's role in supporting the family." Grossman uses all three factors to argue that women's status overall during this period actually rose. During the Middle Ages, there was a conflict between Judaism's lofty religious expectations of women and the reality of society in which these Jewish women lived; this is similar to the lives of Christian women in the same period. This prompted the kabbalistic work Sefer Hakanah to demand that women fulfill the mitzvot in a way that would be equal to men. There is evidence that in some communities of Ashkenaz in the 15th century, the wife of the rabbi wore tzitzit just like her husband. Religious life Religious developments during the medieval period included relaxation on prohibitions against teaching women Torah, and the rise of women's prayer groups. One place that women participated in Jewish practices publicly was the synagogue. Women probably learned how to read the liturgy in Hebrew. According to John Bowker, traditionally, Jewish "men and women pray separately. This goes back to ancient times when women could go only as far as the second court of the Temple." In most synagogues, the women were given their own section, most likely a balcony; some synagogues had a separate building. Separation from the men was created by the Rabbis in the Mishnah and the Talmud. The reasoning behind the Halacha