Based on interviews with 70 religious women, this article explores the subjective responses of women to their sexuality and their marital relationships, through their observance of the laws of family purity [taharat mishpacha], and shows how women can be empowered by the halakhic autonomy granted to them by the system or may feel oppressed by the  Niddah laws.

Prof. Taylor (East Carolina University, Greenville NC) points out the two opponents underlying Rothenberg’s book – the first the puritanical (perhaps Christian) tradition, which regards sex as a sin, and the other modern, perhaps ‘feminist’ readings of canonical texts.  While Rothenberg admits that these texts are “written by and for men,” warning that they must not be read anachronistically, he acknowledges that “it is possible, and even desirable to infuse the old sources with new and valid meanings” (p. 186).  According to the reviewer, the book addresses “the feminist revolution” in a “cautious and oblique manner.”

Rabbi Naftali Rothenberg, a senior research fellow at the Van Leer Institute of Jerusalem,  explores the issue of love in classic Jewish sources, pointing out that spiritual and physical love between men and women are important feature of Jewish religious canonical texts.   He finds that the Bible, Talmud, Midrash and halakhah devote considerable attention to love, and that much of rabbinic tradition address the issue of love, both spiritual and physical aspects, without inhibition.