About the book
Women and Jewish Law was published in 1984 by Schocken Books. It remains to this day a path-breaking book in the fields of gender roles, family and sexuality in Jewish law and practice. The book is used widely in college-level courses and in adult education classes. It won the 1985 Kenneth Smilen Award of the Jewish Museum in New York in the category of Jewish Thought.
Lecturing & Teaching: I have lectured and taught throughout the US and in Europe and Israel about topics related to the book, with my most recent lecture focusing on “#MeToo in the Bible and the Talmud.” I offer teaching, public lectures, and scholar-in-residence events at Jewish Studies programs, synagogues and JCC’s.
ABOUT WOMEN AND JEWISH LAW
How has a legal tradition determined by men affected the lives of women? What are the traditional Jewish views of marriage, divorce, sexuality, contraception, abortion? Women and Jewish Law gives contemporary readers access to the central texts of the Jewish religious tradition on issues of special concern to women. Combining a historical overview with a thoughtful feminist critique, this pathbreaking study points the way for “informed change” in the status of women in Jewish life.
“An amazing book—rich in scholarship, deep in historical perspective, and enormously interesting to anyone concerned with questions of Jewish life.”
—Anne Roiphe
“An essential resource and entry point for understanding the construction of women’s roles in traditional Judaism.”
—Judith Plaskow, author of Standing Again at Sinai
“With great precision and clarity, Biale ferrets out for us the inner meaning of the law, traces its development, and explores its relevance to Jewish women’s lives today.
—Blu Greenberg, author of On Women and Judaism
“[Biale] open[s] up the halakhic process to women, providing the reader who is unfamiliar with the original Hebrew texts with her first encounter of learning.”
—Hadassah Magazine