The madwoman in the rabbi's attic : rereading the women of the Talmud /
Women in the Talmud are generally marginal and almost always anonymous, the daughters, sisters and wives of prominent rabbis. The Madwoman in the Rabbi's Attic explores the stories of the exceptions, the six named heroines of the Talmud, Yalta the shrew, Homa the femme fatale, Marta the prima d...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New Milford, Connecticut :
Maggid Books,
[2024].
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| Edition: | First edition. |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | Women in the Talmud are generally marginal and almost always anonymous, the daughters, sisters and wives of prominent rabbis. The Madwoman in the Rabbi's Attic explores the stories of the exceptions, the six named heroines of the Talmud, Yalta the shrew, Homa the femme fatale, Marta the prima donna, Heruta the madonna/whore, Beruria the overreacherix and Ima Shalom the angel in the house. As their epithets suggest, every one of these women appears to embody an antifeminist archetype. Yet in each case, a careful rereading reveals that there is a lot more to the story than initially meets the eye, that the heroine is far more complex than she first seems and that the rabbis had rather surprising, so as not to say proto-feminist, views of marriage, sex, childbirth and what it means to be a woman in the world. In presenting us with archetypes that systematically break down, the Talmud imparts profound moral teachings about how to read the characters of a text and, ultimately, how to regard the people in our lives. |
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| Item Description: | "The publication of this book was made possible through the generous support of the Jewish Book Trust and the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies"--Title page verso. |
| Physical Description: | xxxv, 249 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-231) and indexes. |
| ISBN: | 1592646735 9781592646739 |