Massekhet Sukkah


Book Description

Tractate Sukkah from the Babylonian Talmud presents a broad spectrum of rabbinical sources from Erez Israel and Babylon that explicitly examine issues relating to women. Some of these sources were created by sages who lived in Erez Israel in the time of the second temple and after its destruction and were called Tannaim, and the others were created by sages who lived in Erez Israel and in Babylon from the third until the seventh century and were called Amoraim. All the sources can be divided into two categories: topics directly connected to women and Sukkot, and matters indirectly associated with women that were incorporated into the sugiot (Talmudic fragments). Shulamit Valler's commentary to Tractate Sukkah includes an intensive study of all the sources which are connected to women and gender in this Tractate, thus leading to interesting findings regarding reality, conceptions and lifestyle.




Massekhet Keritot


Book Description

The tractate Keritot of the Babylonian Talmud belongs to the Order of Qodashim in the Mishnah. It discusses the Temple and its rituals, especially sacrifices, but deals mostly with laws of incest, sexual transgressions, childbirth, and miscarriages. In this commentary, Federico Dal Bo provides a historical, philological and philosophical investigation on these gender issues. He discusses almost the entire tractate, referring to many other sources, Jewish (the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Sifra, and other rabbinic texts) as well as non-Jewish (Akkadian, Hittite, and Ugaritic). The author also provides accurate philological observations both on the Mishnah and the Gemara. Finally, he addresses gender issues by combining a reductionistic approach to Talmudic study (the so called "Brisker method") with philosophical deconstruction. Dal Bo shows that in nearly the entire tractate Keritot the rabbis discuss human sexuality in a tendentious and restrictive way, claiming that heterosexuality is the only proper sexual contact and progressively stigmatizing any other kind of sexual behavior.




Massekhet Betsah


Book Description

This book is a feminist commentary on Tractate Betsah, which deals with the laws specific to festivals. Tamara Or reveals surprising insights into the role of women in the development of halakhah. Thus, the commentary shows women's oppression as well as their actual power and influence even on halakhic decisions. The power women possess in this tractate can be explained as emanating from the fact that most of it is based on labors usually performed by women. In nearly all the cases where the rabbis discuss the sphere of action of women, the latter's behavior was considered halakhically correct or at least not in need of change. The power and influence gained by women through their various activities and endeavors were passed over in silence and thus hidden from the view of their descendants. The following commentary will strive to put these women back into Jewish history and into the history of the development of halakhah.




The Sukkot and Simhat Torah Anthology


Book Description

Back by popular demand, the classic JPS holiday anthologies remain essential and relevant in our digital age. Unequaled in-depth compilations of classic and contemporary writings, they have long guided rabbis, cantors, educators, and other readers seeking the origins, meanings, and varied celebrations of the Jewish festivals. The Sukkot and Simhat Torah Anthology offers new insight intothe Festival of Ingathering, celebrating the harvest in the land of our ancestors, and the Festival of Rejoicing in the Law, marking the new cycle of public Torah readings, by elucidating the two festivals' background, historical development, and spiritual truths for Jews and humankind. Mining the Bible, postbiblical literature, Talmud, midrashim, prayers with commentaries, and Hasidic tales, the compendium also showcases humor, art, food, song, dance, essays, stories, and poems--including works by Chaim Weizmann, Elie Wiesel, Herman Wouk, S. Y. Agnon, Sholom Aleichem, H. N. Bialik, and Solomon Schechter--truly a rich harvest for the "Season of Our Rejoicing."




Massekhet Hullin


Book Description

The Babylonian Talmud's Tractate Hullin is the longest in the Order of Qodashim with twelve chapters and over 140 pages. The Order of Qodashim ("holy things") in general deals with the Temple. The word hullin, however, means "profane things" and actually describes the kosher slaughter of beasts for human consumption outside the temple. Even though this topic is not overtly gendered, and neither does it pertain specifically to women, Tal Ilan discusses over 100 traditions that touch on women and gender. She shows that "women" forever served as good "tools" with which to discuss various topics such as halakhic reliability, or the use of magic, but more specifically that while the tractate is intensely interested in beasts and beast anatomy, women most often serve as points of comparison with beasts for authors of the Talmud. In this way, the rabbinic world view of the intermediate position of women between human and beast is repeatedly demonstrated throughout the tractate.




Rabbinic Literature


Book Description

This volume in the Bible and Women series is devoted to rabbinic literature from late Jewish antiquity to the early Middle Ages. Fifteen contributions feature different approaches to the question of biblical women and gender and encompass a wide variety of rabbinic corpora, including the Mishnah-Tosefta, halakhic and aggadic midrashim, Talmud, and late midrash. Some essays analyze biblical law and gender relations as they are reflected in the rabbinic sages’ argumentation, while others examine either the rabbinic portrayal of a certain woman or a group of women or the role of biblical women in a specific rabbinic context. Contributors include Judith R. Baskin, Yuval Blankovsky, Alexander A. Dubrau, Cecilia Haendler, Tal Ilan, Gail Labovitz, Moshe Lavee, Lorena Miralles-Maciá, Ronit Nikolsky, Susanne Plietzsch, Natalie C. Polzer, Olga I. Ruiz-Morell, Devora Steinmetz, Christiane Hannah Tzuberi, and Dvora Weisberg.




Bringing Down the Temple House


Book Description

A feminist project that privileges the Babylonian Talmudic tractate as culturally significant. While the use of feminist analysis as a methodological lens is not new to the study of Talmudic literature or to the study of individual tractates, this book demonstrates that such an intervention with the Babylonian Talmud reveals new perspectives on the rabbis’ relationship with the temple and its priesthood. More specifically, through the relationships most commonly associated with home, such as those of husband-wife, father-son, mother-son, and brother-brother, the rabbis destabilize the temple bayit (or temple house). Moving beyond the view that the temple was replaced by the rabbinic home, and that rabbinic rites reappropriate temple practices, a feminist approach highlights the inextricable link between kinship, gender, and the body, calling attention to the ways the rabbis deconstruct the priesthood so as to reconstruct themselves.







Massekhet Taʻanit


Book Description




Tractates Tamid, Middot and Qinnim


Book Description

Dalia Marx provides a general introduction and feminist commentary on the last three tractates of the order of Qodashim . Each tractate deals with different aspects of the Second Temple as perceived by the rabbis and each sheds its own light on gender issues. The commentary on Tamid, a tractate dealing with the priestly service in the Temple, discusses the priests as a gender unto themselves and considers women as potential participants in the lay-service of the Temple and perhaps even as part of the sacred service. Middot concerns itself with the design of the Temple, and the commentary explores sacred space from a gendered perspective. Finally, Marx turns to Qinnim, a tractate dealing with bird offerings, typically brought by women. The commentary shows how the tractate employs images of women to develop its discourse. This volume opens a unique window onto the rabbis' perspectives on the Temple and gender related matters.