Hannah, Unmasked: Neurodivergence, Dysregulation, and the Formation of Norms in Berakhot 31

This paper argues that the Bavli’s derivation of liturgical norms from Hannah’s emotional dysregulation in B. Berakhot 30B-33A offers a tantalizing counterexample to regnant accounts of neurodivergent emotional dysregulation as morally defective. A vast body of literature, popular and academic alike, portrays explicitly or implicitly neurodivergent-coded traits–including differences of emotional intensity, regulation, and focus, as moral defects, a phenomenon this paper calls “moral neuroableism.”  In Berakhot 31A-B, however, Hannah’s emotional dysregulation–her swaying as though drunk in public prayer space, her impassioned and impeccably reasoned confrontation with God, and her sharp and screaming rebukes of ritual authority–as she prays for a child, and later defends his life, is not only tolerated but becomes the source for norms about how all Jews should pray. This paper will compare Hannah’s actions and emotions to stigmatized neurodivergent emotional expressions, and use their normative power within the text to argue for a reevaluation of the moral worth of neurodivergent patterns of mind.