Published:
Aug. 21, 2006
Source: Journal of Jewish Education, Volume 72, Issue 2 August 2006 , pages 109 – 121
This article examines the application of a recent interpretive trend in the field of gender studies to the study of Talmudic texts as well as its potential role in the teaching of Talmudic literature. It explores what kind of contribution we can make to our students' education in seminaries and Jewish Day schools when we open our texts up to theories of interpretation drawn from the academy. As a theory that views women as "literary devices" rather than as "real" women who convey something about the status of women in antiquity, this method raises the question of what our students stand to gain from this type of feminist inquiry.