A Lifetime Companion to the Laws of Jewish Family Life

Deena Zimmerman is a pediatrician who is also one of the first graduates of Nishmat’s Keren Ariel Program as a yoetzet halakha (halakhic advisor on women’s issues). She is the creator and coordinator of the Nishmat Women’s Online Information Center. This book is a halakhic guide to the laws of taharat mishpacha. There are separate sections dealing with various stages of the life cycle including puberty, a woman’s wedding night, pregnancy and childbirth, menopause and peri-menopause. Zimmerman makes clear that her book is not meant to take the place of consultation with a rabbi, but her immense knowledge enables her to clearly lay out the halakhic isssues involved. This is a book to be read very carefully and includes clinical and explicit terminology about the human reproductive system. Zimmerman includes many frequently asked questions about life cycle issues, and deals with issues of timing of medical examinations, birth control and infertility. Especially valuable is the inclusion of key sources in Hebrew and their paraphrase into English. Women are often understandably uneasy about asking rabbis about intimate areas of their lives, and this book is extremely useful both in clarifying the basis of the halakhot and in delineating their precise applications. Deena Zimmerman is a frequent speaker on niddah issues in America. Her book, which incorporates modern medical knowledge, sensitivity to women’s intimate concerns and a profound understanding of Jewish source materials, is a paradigm of what halakhically educated women today can do to enhance the quality of Orthodox Jewish life for both women and men.