Volume 19, Number 2, 2022

EN:

Until a century ago it was generally assumed that all of the books of the Tanakh were written by men, primarily for men. Herein the author will survey the growing number of scholars, female and male, who have contemplated the possibility that some of these works were composed by women. One of the principal texts that is commonly highlighted is Ruth. Although candidates for its authorship have seldom been suggested, it will be demonstrated herein that Abigail is worthy of consideration as the originator of the story of Ruth.

EN:

This article examines Anna Lesznai’s radical imagining of sex and its use for transcendental purposes that heavily rely on Jewish mystical ideas intertwined with Otto Weininger's theory of gender binarism. In her gender theory—part of feminist discourse at the turn of the twentieth century—Lesznai describes female love, using religious language and ideas from Jewish mysticism, especially those resembling Hassidic concepts, and ultimately compares sexual union to yihud- unio mystica with God. Working within the patriarchal understanding of the biological definition of gender and of the concept of "female difference," Lesznai’s feminism rooted in the belief that certain personality traits and skills are inherently gendered, but she reverses the hierarchy by placing women in the position of power, thus turning Jewish mysticism and Weininger’s gender philosophy on its head.

EN:

Women rabbis have been depicted in fiction for close to fifty years. In the second decade and then in the beginning of the third decade of the twenty-first century over a dozen fictional women rabbis appear as central or important characters in novels, short stories, and on the silver screen. Most of them make their first appearance. This article takes note of the authors of these works, and then looks at the characters themselves, contrasting their “fictional” experiences with the published experiences of “real-life” women rabbis. It discusses these fictional women rabbis in terms of their theology/sense of tradition; religious/educational backgrounds; gender identification; and where that information is dealt with in the storyline, how these women address some of the challenges facing women rabbis such as dressed for success; pay inequity; and matters of sexual harassment. This is followed by a section on how women regard success in the rabbinate. A caveat: the real-lived experiences of women rabbis, their definitions of success and their joys/concerns/issues/disquiets are not necessarily the subjects that concern writers of fiction that feature women rabbis as characters.

EN:

The singing of the hymn Shalom Aleichem upon returning home from the synagogue on Friday night is a well–known tradition. It is assumed that the Talmudic passage in Tractate Shabbat (B. Shabbat 119b) is the source of this tradition. In fact, it is a kabbalistic custom more influenced by the Zohar. There is a second version of Shalom Aleichem to be recited by women after the lighting of the Sabbath candles, that was first published in a collection of prayers entitled Birkhat ha-Mazon, Basel, 1600. This study analyzes the origins and history of this second version of Shalom Aleichem for women.