Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues, 2017
In this article I offer a new reading of Beruriah, sparked by my reading of Isaac Bashevis Singer... more In this article I offer a new reading of Beruriah, sparked by my reading of Isaac Bashevis Singer's story "Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy." Notwithstanding the differences in time and literary genre, Singer's invention of a twentieth-century version of Beruriah, and the sorrowful ending he creates, prompt us to reread Beruriah as a rabbinic attempt to question the male/female binary and its limitations. In the wake of third-wave feminism, which sees women as now having the choices that Beruriah seems, on some level, to have embraced, this article offers a new feminist reading that builds and expands upon scholarly insights of the past. We have become accustomed to thinking of Beruriah as proof that women became Torah scholars in antiquity, and of medieval commentators such as Rashi as men who sought to call attention to the dangers of women studying Torah. This article proposes that there is more to learn from Beruriah and her husband Rabbi Meir, not to mention Yentl and her study partner, Avigdor.
Scholars employing a feminist hermeneutic have advanced the fields of Jewish Studies and Early Ch... more Scholars employing a feminist hermeneutic have advanced the fields of Jewish Studies and Early Christianity while pioneering the new field of Late Antiquity. This session hopes to foster a conversation about the various ways that the feminist lens has been applied to Jewish and Christian texts of Late Antiquity while keeping an eye to what future avenues lie still unexplored. What questions have not been answered? What challenges remain for female scholars in these fields? How can our scholarship speak to Feminist political causes today and in the future? It is our hope that this panel can provide graduate students and young scholars with an opportunity to engage established scholars from a variety of backgrounds to engage these pressing concerns
International handbooks of religion and education, 2011
The Babylonian Talmud (Bavli) stands at the canonical center of Jewish tradition. Composed betwee... more The Babylonian Talmud (Bavli) stands at the canonical center of Jewish tradition. Composed between the third and seventh centuries C.E., the Bavli has been and continues to be studied in a variety of contexts, ranging from religious academies (yeshivot) to modern secular universities. Its study has resulted in a long chain of commentaries, including the almost line-by-line commentary of Rabbi
The following group of essays emerged out of a seminar held at the Association for Jewish Studies... more The following group of essays emerged out of a seminar held at the Association for Jewish Studies conference in 2015. As section heads of Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity and Rabbinic Literature and Culture, tasked to think about how to address gaps in our fields, we recognized that despite a large amount of scholarship available on the Jerusalem Temple and its priesthood, there was a dearth of cross-disciplinary scholarly exchange, especially between ancient Jewish historians and those of us who engage in literary analysis of rabbinic sources. As a result, our divisions joined together to create “The Jerusalem Temple in History, Memory, and Ritual,” taking advantage of the “seminar” format at the conference. Twelve scholars, each working with different source material and employing different methodological approaches, participated.
Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues, 2015
This article explores the ways in which feminist analysis can be used to think more deeply about ... more This article explores the ways in which feminist analysis can be used to think more deeply about the rabbinic treatment of male priests in Tractate Yoma, and in so doing to illuminate the power structures by which the rabbis dominated or differentiated themselves not only from women, but also from other men. Just as the rabbis asserted their authority—actually and imaginatively—on and through women’s bodies, they used similar strategies with respect to priests. Through an examination of Mishnah Yoma 2:1–2 and BT Yoma 23a, I investigate the rabbis’ constructions of masculinity as strategies for developing a distinct image of themselves over and against an “other,” specifically the priest, whom they wish to render less authoritative and even powerless.
This chapter re-examines assumptions about the gendered meaning of the sukkah. It points out that... more This chapter re-examines assumptions about the gendered meaning of the sukkah. It points out that this ritual structure, linked to the home but apart from it, forced negotiation between the spheres of the ritual and the domestic. The chapter looks at historic sources to reconstruct the process by which the rabbis dictated the gendering of the sukkah that persists to the present. It looks in detail at the male rabbinic figure Rabbi Yohanan ben Hahorani and at the female figures Shammai's daughter-in-law and Queen Helene in their sukkahs. They are observed as character types used by the rabbis for rhetorical purposes to express elements of their own anxiety about the rabbinic home and all that it represents. In this regard, just as the rabbis ‘think with’ the sukkah in order to think about home, they also ‘think with’ the gendered body that occupies home. Each of these three figures disrupts the expected social relations of husband–wife, mother–son, and rabbi–disciple within the s...
... that must be performed on every pilgrimage festival (tHag 1:4). An early Talmudic source (tHa... more ... that must be performed on every pilgrimage festival (tHag 1:4). An early Talmudic source (tHag 1:4) instructs one to bring the re'iyah (appearance) offering ... from II Kings 4:23 where] it is written: Why are you [my wife] going to [the prophet Elisha] today; it is not a new moon and it is ...
Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues, 2014
In an effort to disentangle motherhood from idealized notions of the Jewish family, this article ... more In an effort to disentangle motherhood from idealized notions of the Jewish family, this article explores the complex rabbinic depiction of mothers who weave priestly garments for their sons serving as priests in the Temple. By viewing mothers and motherhood as a central location through which the rabbis construct and reflect on their own society and culture, it seeks to garner a more prominent analytical place for mothers in the narration of rabbinic Judaism. Located in a societal context organized by gender, the textual mother of tractate Yoma offers us an example of how the rabbis interact with, contest and hope to construct the gendered relationships that define their world.
Footprints traces the history and movement of Jewish books since the inception of print. The hist... more Footprints traces the history and movement of Jewish books since the inception of print. The history of the book is an important part of humanities scholarship. Especially as more books are digitized, scholars, librarians, collectors, and others have become increasingly attuned to the significance of individual books as objects with their own unique story. Jewish books in particular tell a fascinating story about the spread of knowledge and faith in a global Diaspora. Every literary work represents a moment in time and space where an idea was conceived and documented. But the history of a book continues long after composition as it is bought, sold, shared, read, confiscated, stored, or even discarded. This history is the essence of Footprints.
“Footprints: Jewish Books Through Time and Place” is a database and research project designed to ... more “Footprints: Jewish Books Through Time and Place” is a database and research project designed to trace books-in-motion. It brings together acts of careful individual research with large-scale quantification and mapping: using inscriptions, owner’s marks, and catalogs of copies of early Jewish printed books. The project is a cooperative endeavor of four project directors, both faculty and librarian, from different institutions, each representing different fields of Jewish Studies. With the technical expertise of partners at a university-based center for teaching and learning, a mix of paid and volunteer student, postdoctoral, and library based researchers, the project directors have created a database that is transforming the way research on the history of the book is done. This chapter will address collaboration in three aspects: between project directors; between the project and its contributors (individual and institutional, public and private); and between contributors and users....
Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues, 2017
In this article I offer a new reading of Beruriah, sparked by my reading of Isaac Bashevis Singer... more In this article I offer a new reading of Beruriah, sparked by my reading of Isaac Bashevis Singer's story "Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy." Notwithstanding the differences in time and literary genre, Singer's invention of a twentieth-century version of Beruriah, and the sorrowful ending he creates, prompt us to reread Beruriah as a rabbinic attempt to question the male/female binary and its limitations. In the wake of third-wave feminism, which sees women as now having the choices that Beruriah seems, on some level, to have embraced, this article offers a new feminist reading that builds and expands upon scholarly insights of the past. We have become accustomed to thinking of Beruriah as proof that women became Torah scholars in antiquity, and of medieval commentators such as Rashi as men who sought to call attention to the dangers of women studying Torah. This article proposes that there is more to learn from Beruriah and her husband Rabbi Meir, not to mention Yentl and her study partner, Avigdor.
Scholars employing a feminist hermeneutic have advanced the fields of Jewish Studies and Early Ch... more Scholars employing a feminist hermeneutic have advanced the fields of Jewish Studies and Early Christianity while pioneering the new field of Late Antiquity. This session hopes to foster a conversation about the various ways that the feminist lens has been applied to Jewish and Christian texts of Late Antiquity while keeping an eye to what future avenues lie still unexplored. What questions have not been answered? What challenges remain for female scholars in these fields? How can our scholarship speak to Feminist political causes today and in the future? It is our hope that this panel can provide graduate students and young scholars with an opportunity to engage established scholars from a variety of backgrounds to engage these pressing concerns
International handbooks of religion and education, 2011
The Babylonian Talmud (Bavli) stands at the canonical center of Jewish tradition. Composed betwee... more The Babylonian Talmud (Bavli) stands at the canonical center of Jewish tradition. Composed between the third and seventh centuries C.E., the Bavli has been and continues to be studied in a variety of contexts, ranging from religious academies (yeshivot) to modern secular universities. Its study has resulted in a long chain of commentaries, including the almost line-by-line commentary of Rabbi
The following group of essays emerged out of a seminar held at the Association for Jewish Studies... more The following group of essays emerged out of a seminar held at the Association for Jewish Studies conference in 2015. As section heads of Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity and Rabbinic Literature and Culture, tasked to think about how to address gaps in our fields, we recognized that despite a large amount of scholarship available on the Jerusalem Temple and its priesthood, there was a dearth of cross-disciplinary scholarly exchange, especially between ancient Jewish historians and those of us who engage in literary analysis of rabbinic sources. As a result, our divisions joined together to create “The Jerusalem Temple in History, Memory, and Ritual,” taking advantage of the “seminar” format at the conference. Twelve scholars, each working with different source material and employing different methodological approaches, participated.
Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues, 2015
This article explores the ways in which feminist analysis can be used to think more deeply about ... more This article explores the ways in which feminist analysis can be used to think more deeply about the rabbinic treatment of male priests in Tractate Yoma, and in so doing to illuminate the power structures by which the rabbis dominated or differentiated themselves not only from women, but also from other men. Just as the rabbis asserted their authority—actually and imaginatively—on and through women’s bodies, they used similar strategies with respect to priests. Through an examination of Mishnah Yoma 2:1–2 and BT Yoma 23a, I investigate the rabbis’ constructions of masculinity as strategies for developing a distinct image of themselves over and against an “other,” specifically the priest, whom they wish to render less authoritative and even powerless.
This chapter re-examines assumptions about the gendered meaning of the sukkah. It points out that... more This chapter re-examines assumptions about the gendered meaning of the sukkah. It points out that this ritual structure, linked to the home but apart from it, forced negotiation between the spheres of the ritual and the domestic. The chapter looks at historic sources to reconstruct the process by which the rabbis dictated the gendering of the sukkah that persists to the present. It looks in detail at the male rabbinic figure Rabbi Yohanan ben Hahorani and at the female figures Shammai's daughter-in-law and Queen Helene in their sukkahs. They are observed as character types used by the rabbis for rhetorical purposes to express elements of their own anxiety about the rabbinic home and all that it represents. In this regard, just as the rabbis ‘think with’ the sukkah in order to think about home, they also ‘think with’ the gendered body that occupies home. Each of these three figures disrupts the expected social relations of husband–wife, mother–son, and rabbi–disciple within the s...
... that must be performed on every pilgrimage festival (tHag 1:4). An early Talmudic source (tHa... more ... that must be performed on every pilgrimage festival (tHag 1:4). An early Talmudic source (tHag 1:4) instructs one to bring the re'iyah (appearance) offering ... from II Kings 4:23 where] it is written: Why are you [my wife] going to [the prophet Elisha] today; it is not a new moon and it is ...
Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues, 2014
In an effort to disentangle motherhood from idealized notions of the Jewish family, this article ... more In an effort to disentangle motherhood from idealized notions of the Jewish family, this article explores the complex rabbinic depiction of mothers who weave priestly garments for their sons serving as priests in the Temple. By viewing mothers and motherhood as a central location through which the rabbis construct and reflect on their own society and culture, it seeks to garner a more prominent analytical place for mothers in the narration of rabbinic Judaism. Located in a societal context organized by gender, the textual mother of tractate Yoma offers us an example of how the rabbis interact with, contest and hope to construct the gendered relationships that define their world.
Footprints traces the history and movement of Jewish books since the inception of print. The hist... more Footprints traces the history and movement of Jewish books since the inception of print. The history of the book is an important part of humanities scholarship. Especially as more books are digitized, scholars, librarians, collectors, and others have become increasingly attuned to the significance of individual books as objects with their own unique story. Jewish books in particular tell a fascinating story about the spread of knowledge and faith in a global Diaspora. Every literary work represents a moment in time and space where an idea was conceived and documented. But the history of a book continues long after composition as it is bought, sold, shared, read, confiscated, stored, or even discarded. This history is the essence of Footprints.
“Footprints: Jewish Books Through Time and Place” is a database and research project designed to ... more “Footprints: Jewish Books Through Time and Place” is a database and research project designed to trace books-in-motion. It brings together acts of careful individual research with large-scale quantification and mapping: using inscriptions, owner’s marks, and catalogs of copies of early Jewish printed books. The project is a cooperative endeavor of four project directors, both faculty and librarian, from different institutions, each representing different fields of Jewish Studies. With the technical expertise of partners at a university-based center for teaching and learning, a mix of paid and volunteer student, postdoctoral, and library based researchers, the project directors have created a database that is transforming the way research on the history of the book is done. This chapter will address collaboration in three aspects: between project directors; between the project and its contributors (individual and institutional, public and private); and between contributors and users....
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