A unique look at how non-legal rabbinic writings imagine women and their lives.

Womanist Midrash is an in-depth and creative exploration of the well- and lesser-known women of the Hebrew Scriptures. Using her own translations, Gafney offers a midrashic interpretation of the biblical text that is rooted in the African American preaching tradition to tell the stories of a variety of female characters, many of whom are often overlooked and nameless. Gafney employs a solid understanding of womanist and feminist approaches to biblical interpretation and the sociohistorical culture of the ancient Near East. This unique and imaginative work is grounded in serious scholarship and will expand conversations about feminist and womanist biblical interpretation.

While most gender-based analyses of rabbinic Judaism concentrate on the status of women in the halakhah (the rabbinic legal tradition), Judith R. Baskin turns her attention to the construction of women in the aggadic midrash, a collection of expansions of the biblical text, rabbinic ruminations, and homiletical discourses that constitutes the non-legal component of rabbinic literature. Examining rabbinic convictions of female alterity, competing narratives of creation, and justifications of female disadvantages, as well as aggadic understandings of the ideal wife, the dilemma of infertility, and women among women and as individuals, she shows that rabbinic Judaism, a tradition formed by men for a male community, deeply valued the essential contributions of wives and mothers while also consciously constructing women as other and lesser than men. Recent feminist scholarship has illuminated many aspects of the significance of gender in biblical and halakhic texts but there has been little previous study of how aggadic literature portrays females and the feminine. Such representations, Baskin argues, often offer a more nuanced and complex view of women and their actual lives than the rigorous proscriptions of legal discourse.

"Dirshuni: Contemporary Women's Midrash, is the first ever English edition of an historic collection of midrashim composed by Israeli women. The volume features a comprehensive introduction to Midrash for the uninitiated reader by the distinguished scholar Tamar Kadari and extensive annotation and commentary by Tamar Biala"--

What if the women of the Bible told their own stories? Lady Midrash: Poems Reclaiming the Voices of Biblical Women brings to life alternative interpretations and forgotten female perspectives from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. Following in the footsteps of Jewish midrash, a storytelling tradition that explores the gaps in scripture, these poems re-examine the experiences of Biblical women. Sidelined heroines are celebrated. Supposed villainesses get to speak for themselves. Lady Midrash reverses convention, probes familiar narratives, attends to small moments, highlights peripheral and silent characters, and names the nameless. The imagination of midrash provides the reader with a creative space to rethink assumptions and reconsider the accounts of women in the Jewish and Christian traditions.

The Encyclopedia of Midrash provides a systematic account of biblical interpretation in Judaism. While emphasizing the Rabbinic literature, it also covers interpretation of Scripture in a number of distinct canons, ranging from the Targumic literature and Dead Sea Scrolls to the New Testament and Church Fathers. The Encyclopedia of Midrash provides readers with a depth and breadth of treatment of Midrash unavailable in any other single source. Through the writings of top scholars in each of their fields, it sets out the current state of the question for each of the many topics discussed in its pages. The print edition is available as a set of two volumes (9789004141667).

This important collection of essays by leading scholars of rabbinics reflects the current methodological approaches to the study of midrash. The volume situates midrash within the broader contexts of hermeneutics, rabbinics and postmodern studies, and thus presents a comprehensive view of the kinds of issues scholars in the field are engaging.

Since the end of World War II we have witnessed countless artistic responses to the Holocaust, yet we remain unable to adequately address the atrocities. While Theodor Adorno later rescinded his comments on the barbaric nature of writing poetry after Auschwitz, The Midrashic Impulse and the Contemporary Literary Response to Trauma begins with the possibility that he was right—that his admonition against poetry warns against employing representational modes that transgress the boundaries of the ethical when it comes to the Holocaust. There is a language, other than the language of representation, with which we might speak authentically about such atrocities. This study explores what it means for the world of literature to renounce the language of representation and retain the language of witness. Drawing on the work of Emmanuel Levinas, Maurice Blanchot, Geoffrey Hartman, and others the book focuses on the increasing tendency of contemporary writers to rely on non-representational approaches to storytelling in the context of trauma. This tendency is named the “midrashic impulse” given its similarity to ancient rabbinic approaches to the silences of the Hebrew bible through the creation of Midrash.

"Although women constitute half of the Jewish population and have always played essential roles in ensuring Jewish continuity and the preservation of Jewish beliefs and values, only recently have their contributions and achievements received sustained scholarly attention. Scholars have begun to investigate Jewish women's domestic, economic, intellectual, spiritual, and creative roles in Jewish life from biblical times to the present. Yet little of this important work filters down beyond specialists in their respective academic fields. Women and Judaism brings the broad new insights they have uncovered to the world, presenting their work in an accessible and engaging way. Key senior scholars discuss women's approaches to Jewish law and Torah study, the spirituality of Eastern European Jewish women, Jewish women in American literature, and many other issues."--Back of book.

This first collection of Judith Plaskow's essays and short writings traces her scholarly and personal journey from her early days as a graduate student through her pioneering contributions to both feminist theology and Jewish feminism to her recent work in sexual ethics. Accessibly organized into four sections, the collection begins with several of Plaskow's foundational essays on feminist theology, including one previously unavailable in English. Section II addresses her nuanced understanding of oppression and includes her important work on anti-Judaism in Christian feminism. Section III contains a variety of short and highly readable pieces that make clear Plaskow's central role in the creation of Jewish feminism, including the essential "Beyond Egalitarianism." Finally, section IV presents her writings on the significance of sexual ethics to the larger project of transforming Judaism. Intelligently edited with the help of Rabbi Donna Berman, and including pieces never before published, The Coming of Lilith is indispensable for religious studies students, fans of Plaskow's work, and those pursuing a Jewish education.