The early sages (Tanaaim) created norms of behavior which, if ignored by a Jewish woman, would lead to the abrogation of her rights and permit her husband to divorce her. A woman who goes out without a head covering, one who spins in public, one who speaks with all men, one who curses her in-laws in front of her husband, one who speaks so loudly that her neighbors hear her — one who does any of these things may be divorced by her husband without the rights guaranteed her by the marriage contract. As the sages put it, “One who violates Jewish practice leaves without her ketubah.” The scholars (the sages of the Gemara, the Amoraim) discussed the behavior listed by the early sages and explained in depth how and why a woman is supposed to act.
A woman who goes out without a head covering. The scholars asked: If a woman goes out without a head covering, with her head bare for all to see, she violates the laws of the Torah and this behavior is more serious than a mere violation of the social norms of religious Jewish society. How do we know that uncovering the hair of the woman’s head is a violation of Torah law? Answer: Because it says that when a woman is suspected of adultery the cohen must uncover her head ” uncover the woman’s head” (Numbers 5:18). This means that the woman’s head had been covered and thus the Torah’s laws forbid a woman to walk with her hair uncovered. Answer: The laws of the Torah forbid a totally bare head but they do permit a temporary covering which is only partial, as one who covers her head with a basket. It was the way of women to rest baskets with accessories on their heads, while the social norm of religious Jewish women was not to walk with a basket on their heads but to fully cover their heads with a covering meant only for that. One of the sages issued a ruling which stated that a woman may cover her head with a basket. The scholars asked: When is a woman permitted to go out with a basket on her head? In public it is forbidden, as we have already cited the custom of Jewish women not to go out into the public domain with a basket on their heads. If the permission granted by the sage is for within her home’s courtyard, in such a courtyard one may go without any head covering at all, following the custom of Jewish women. If one forbids them to go out into their own courtyards bare-headed, all husbands would have to divorce all wives, and no woman would be found living with her husband. The scholar Abaye answered that the permission for a woman to go out with a basket on her head is when she is walking from her home’s courtyard to her friend through an alleyway that few people frequent. In such a place a woman is forbidden to walk bare-headed but may cover her head with a basket.
A woman who spins in the public domain. One of the sages explained that this applies when a woman spins with bare arms viewable by passersby. Another sage added that she spins yarn which hangs between her legs, opposite her sexual organ. One sage, Rabbah the son of Bar Channah, was following his teacher in the public domain and saw an Arab woman spinning, with the yarn dangling between her legs, opposite her sexual organ. He told his teacher: This is the case of a woman who spins in the public domain and whose husband must divorce her without paying off her marriage contract.
A woman who speaks with all men. The sage Samuel explained that this is one who flirts during conversations with men.
A woman who curses his parents in his presence. The sage Samuel explained that it is not only in his presence, but even if she curses the grandfather in the presence of his grandchildren, for example, if she tells the grandchild “May a lion eat your grandfather,” she is divorced without payment of her ketubah.
A woman who speaks so loudly her neighbors hear. The sage Samuel explained that this refers to a woman who discusses intimate details of her marital life so loudly that her neighbors hear and her husband is embarrassed. Another sage gave an example: the woman is having marital relations with her husband and due to pain screams loudly enough for her neighbors to hear. The scholars asked: A case where sex is so painful that the woman screams is one in which the woman is allowed to divorce her husband, as the early sages ruled. Because of this the scholars rejected the example.
(Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Ketubot 72a-b)