Rabbinic Judaism and the Creation of Woman

Abstract

Feminist Jewish studies scholars have frequently focused on images in rabbinic literature. Miriam Peskowitz's essay raises provocative questions about this approach. Although I appreciate efforts to render the and/or invisibilization and gender intellectually impossible in Jewish studies scholarship, I believe that such efforts cannot fully overcome literary constructions gender embedded within ancient Jewish texts. It is sometimes possible to read canonical Jewish texts in new ways and the grain to tease out evidence 44 struggling within and against patriarchal culture. However, finding evidence struggle should not obscure the evidence patriarchy. I will argue that scholarship that explores images of in classical Jewish texts also tells us important things about the marginalization in much rabbinic thinking. Rabbinic discourse is far from monolithic in the views and attitudes it expresses. It includes a variety competing interpretations and opinions. Given this multivocality it is not surprising that rabbinic literature expresses a diversity attitudes towards women. What unites these views, however, is the conviction that women are a separate