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 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.

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.

Shaye J. D. Cohen: Are Women in the Covenant? - Charlotte E. Fonrobert: Gender Politics in the Rabbinic Neighborhood. Tractate Eruvin - Elizabeth S. Alexander: How Tefillin Became a Non-Timebound, Positive Commandment. The Yerushalmi and Bavli on mEruvin 10:1 - Catherine Hezser: Passover and Social Equality. Women, Slaves and Minors in Bavli Pesahim - Judtih Hauptman: From the Kitchen to the Dining-Room. Women and Ritual Activities in Tractate Pesahim - Tirzah Meacham (leBeit Yoreh): Misconstrued Mitsvot. The Case of the Menstruant Levirate Wife - Shulamit Valler: Women and Dwelling in the Sukkah in the Bavli - Cynthia M. Baker: The Queen, the Apostate, and the Women Between. (Dis)Placement of Women in Tosefta Sukkah - Tamara Or: "Why don't We Say Anything to Them?" (bBes 30a) Women in Massekhet Betsah - Dorothea M. Salzer: Women's World in Massekhet Rosh ha-Shana. Women and Creation in bRosh ha-Shana 10b-11b - Tal Ilan: Dance and Gender in Massekhet Ta'anit - Judith R. Baskin: Erotic Subversion. Undermining Female Agency in bMegillah 10b-17a - Klaus Herrmann: Massekhet Hagigah and Reform Judaism - Irina Wandrey: Mourning Rituals for Women and for Men - Adiel Schremer: For Whom is Marriage a Happiness? mMo'ed Qatan 1:7 and a Roman Parallel.

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.

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.

This is the first full treatment of Jewish childhood in the Roman world. It follows minors into the spaces where they lived, learned, played, slept, and died and examines the actions and interaction of children with other children, with close-kin adults, and with strangers, both inside and outside the home. A wide range of sources are used, from the rabbinic rules to the surviving painted representations of children from synagogues, and due attention is paid to broader theoretical issues and approaches. Hagith Sivan concludes with four beautifully reconstructed 'autobiographies' of specific children, from a boy living and dying in a desert cave during the Bar-Kokhba revolt to an Alexandrian girl forced to leave her home and wander through the Mediterranean in search of a respite from persecution. The book tackles the major questions of the relationship between Jewish childhood and Jewish identity which remain important to this day.