Ronit Irshai, professor of Gender Studies and Jewish Law (Bar Ilan University), analyzes the relationship between feminism and the supposed ‘male’ process of Jewish law-making and interpretation known as halakhah.  She argues “that power is held not only by the halakhic authorities (posekim) who head their communities but also by the very communities that participate in interpreting the texts through the lives they live in light of the texts’ various meanings” (p. 64). The author thus details how halakhah can be revised and renewed (while keeping halakhic tools, mechanisms, and procedures) in light of feminist values.  

 This is a fascinating interview with Judy Klitsner, in which she explains how biblical episodes may be read as sequels in dialogue with one another – at times expanding and clarifying an earlier story, and at times subverting or undermining the meaning of the original one.    In this interview, she seems to push the envelope of traditional Orthodox thinking – God as a character is neither transcendent nor immutable, but dynamic, changing throughout biblical history; the curse of Eve is not prescriptive, but, in Klitsner’s own words, “subject to much reexamination and overturning in later passages.”

URL:  http://thejewishstar.wordpress.com/2010/10/13/q-and-a-with-judy%C2%A0klitsner/

This volume edited by Frederick Greenspahn, the Chair of Judaic Studies at the University of Denver, includes papers presented at a conference on the changing spiritual options for women in historical and contemporary communities. It includes ten scholarly essays in the field of Jewish women’s and gender studies by leading scholars such as Judith Baskin, Sylvia Barack Fishman, Judith Hauptman, and Chava Weissler. Each article analyzes a different academic field,  ranging from Jewish feminist approaches to the Bible, gendered attitudes in the laws of halitzah (Levirite marriage), the spirituality of Eastern European Jewish women, women’s transformation of contemporary Jewish life, women in Jewish law, and the treatment of women in Jewish American and Israeli literature.

Judy Klitsner examines how later biblical episodes “mine and undermine” earlier ones – the story of Jonah echoes the Noah story just as the story of the midwives in Exodus engages with the Tower of Babel narrative.  But Kiltsner is most compelling, from an Orthodox feminist perspective, when she reads the narratives of the matriarchs in terms of the redemption of Eve’s curse.   In her close literary reading of the biblical text, the author makes a compelling argument for inner biblical exegesis alongside a modern feminist sensibility.

For various reviews (including Jofa’s review) visit Judy Klitsner’s website:   http://www.judyklitsner.com/reviews.htm

This book, edited by Tamar Rudavsky (Professor of Jewish Philosophy, Ohio State University) includes seminal articles in the field of gender and Judaism by scholars such as Lori Lefkovitz, Sylvia Barack Fishman, Pamela Nadell, Rochelle Millen, and Naomi Graetz.  The collection is organized on the basis of 1) theoretical concerns in the study of gender and Judaism; 2) historical approaches; 3) literary readings; and 4) sociological studies.  It includes an analysis of traditional texts in the Talmud (Millen), the Zohar (Wolfson), and Hebrew Bible (Lefkovitz); articles that address issues such as rabbinic attitudes to wife beating (Graetz), women rabbis (Geller, Nadell), and Orthodox views on femininity (Myers and Litman), and constructions of Jewish masculinity (Brod), and the changing status of women in Italy (Adelman), Germany (Heschel), and America and Israel (Shalvi, Fishman).

This review by Deborah Weissman (PhD in Jewish Education, Hebrew University) suggests that this book is true to its title, in offering “new insights and scholarship” on women and Judaism.  It includes an introduction by Judith Baskin (director of Jewish Studies program at the University of Oregon), ten more articles grouped in the categories of “Classical Tradition,” “History,” “Contemporary Life,” and “Literature,” and an epilogue by the editor.  The collection seems to be directed mainly at laypersons not familiar with recent developments in the field.   According to the reviewer, precisely because it is for the layperson, the articles tend to neglect the place of Jewish feminist scholarship within the wider field of women’s studies.

 This review praises Siegelbaum’s “pure delight in womanhood” (as “feminine” rather than “feminist”) in her reading of the Torah.  Klein asserts that difficult topics are addressed “unapologetically”, though often issues, such as head covering, are uprooted from their biblical (and even rabbinic) sources and radically re-contextualized.  The review points out that Siegelbaum does not include any modern women scholars, such as Nechama Leibowitz.  Furthermore, she blurs peshat and drash, presenting as fact the opinion of Yonatan ben Uziel that Joseph’s wife Osnat was the daughter of Dinah, and the midrashic view that the Hebrew midwives “Shifra and Puah must be Yocheved and Miriam.”

See also Bracha Goetz's review: http://jewishbookreview.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/women-at-the-crossroads-a-womans-perspective-on-the-weekly-torah-portion/

Ari Zivotofsky, who teaches in the Brain Sciences program at Bar Ilan University and writes widely on themes related to Jewish traditions, discusses the “old wives’ tale” associated with women drinking wine from havdalah, that they will grow unwanted hair.  The tradition that women do not drink wine from havdalah is found only in the late halachik sources, and the consequences of such a practice are found nowhere in traditional sources.

This review of Weisberg’s book commends her thorough research, while faulting her for an over-simplistic sociological model in her feminist analysis.  According to the reviewer, she presents “the Bible as working with an extended-family model, whereas the rabbis advocate a nuclear-family model.”  The reviewers (Farber, Graduate Division of Religion, and Broyde, professor of law, both at Emory University) claim that she ignores the enormous historical and sociological transformation from biblical Ancient Israel to the post-exilic lives of the Jewish family life in the rabbinic period and beyond, with the transition from a largely rural family-farm based culture to an urban one.   

According to a legend recorded by Rashi in his commentary on the Talmud (b. Avodah Zarah 18b), Beruriah succumbed to the seduction of one of the disciples of her husband, Rabbi Meir –at his request-- and when the affair was revealed, she strangled herself and Rabbi Meir fled in disgrace.  Joel Wolowelsky suggests that the purpose of Rashi's anecdote was “to reprimand Rabbi Meir for his outrageous behaviour.”  Brenda Bacon responds with evidence for how the story was understood as a justification not to allow women to study Talmud. 

Rabbi David Zucker, PhD (of Aurora, Colorado), engages in a close reading of the biblical stories of Sarah and Hagar (Genesis 12, 16, 18 and 21).  He suggests that the repetition of the key  terms “see”, “hear,” and “eyes/sight” sets up a deliberate literary strategy to connect Sarah to Hagar, and both women to Abraham.  He also provides a valuable supplement with a comprehensive bibliography on the topic.

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.”

Ronit Irshai, professor of Gender Studies and Jewish Law (Bar Ilan University), analyzes the relationship between feminism and the supposed ‘male’ process of Jewish law-making and interpretation known as halakhah.  She argues “that power is held not only by the halakhic authorities (posekim) who head their communities but also by the very communities that participate in interpreting the texts through the lives they live in light of the texts’ various meanings” (p. 64). The author thus details how halakhah can be revised and renewed (while keeping halakhic tools, mechanisms, and procedures) in light of feminist values. 

This book began from a collection of e-mails from Rebbetzin Siegelbaum written from 1996-1997, during which she founded Midreshet B’erot Bat Ayin. The author engages in commentary on the weekly Torah portion, addressing issues directly related to women. She consistently interprets the Torah as laudatory towards women’s femininity, even on problematic issues (like the husband or father’s right to cancel a woman’s vow).

Dvora Weisberg, a professor of Rabbinics at HUC-JIR, engages in a careful reading of the laws of yibum (levirate marriage, the obligation to marry the childless widow on one’s brother) and halitza (the ritual releasing the parties from such obligation).  From a careful reading of the biblical text (Gen. 38, Deut. 25:5-10, and Ruth), to an analysis of the sources in the Talmud and responsa, the author presents the rabbinic view of family and kinship structures, and principles of inheritance. Weisberg also engages in a cross-cultural perspective, showing how different societies have practiced levirate marriage throughout the world.

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.

This book by Alice Becker Lehrer (Jewish educator in Montreal) includes a fictionalized series of interviews with Jewish biblical and historical heroines, such as Tamar and Tzipporah (of the Tanakh), Rachel (Rabbi Akiva’s wife), and women from later centuries such as Rashi’s daughters and Henrietta Szold.  Each imaginary interview is preceded by a short introduction that puts the subject in textual and historical context. The biblical interviews skillfully draw upon traditional commentaries and midrashic texts to bring the chosen subjects to life.