The Order of Qodashim in the Talmud discusses the Temple and its rituals. The Jewish Temple was first and foremost a male institution. This introduction volume to the Feminist Commentary on Seder Qodashim discovers niches in this system where women were present and active.
The Order of Qodashim in the Mishnah and the Babylonian Talmud discusses the Temple and its rituals, especially the sacrifices. It is well known that the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, while it stood, was almost exclusively a male institution. The purpose of the feminist commentary on Seder Qodashim is to discover niches in this elaborate system where women were present and active. Differences between male and female participation in the Temple cult - as they are presented in the mishnaic and talmudic texts - are the topic of the essays in this volume. The contributions by highly esteemed scholars of rabbinic literature represent a surprising selection of topics that touch on Temple and gender. This volume sums up two conferences, held in Berlin and Jerusalem, devoted to the Order of Qodashim, initiating the Feminist Commentary Series on this Order.
Table of contents:
Tal Ilan: Introduction
1. Women in the TempleGünter Stemberger: Did Women Actively Participate in the Sacrificial Cult of the Temple of Jerusalem? Some Preliminary Observations -
Andreas Lehnardt: »The Scent of Women.« Incense and Perfume in
ySheq 5:2 (
Sheqalim) -
Marjorie Lehman: Reading the Gendered Rhetoric of Yom Kippur (
Yoma) -
Moshe Benovitz: Miriam bat Bilgah in the Temple: Self, Symbol, Substitute or Stereotype? (
Sukkah) -
Ishay Rosen-Zvi: The
Sotah in the Temple: A Well-Ordered Choreography (
Sotah) -
Tirzah Meacham: How Pragmatism Trumps Dogmatism: Marginalization and the Masses in the Case of Coming to the Temple (
Niddah)
2. Women after the Destruction of the TempleAryeh Cohen: The Gender of Shabbat (
Shabbat) -
Gail Labovitz: The Omitted Adornment: Women and Men Mourning the Destruction (
Mo'ed Qatan) -
Klaus Herrmann: Do Women have Access to the Divine Realm? Temple Ideology in Judaism (
Hagigah) -
Christiane Tzuberi: »And the Woman is a High-Priest«: From the Temple to the Kitchen, From the Laws of Ritual Im/Purity to the Laws of Kashrut (
Toharot) -
David Levine: Why No Women in the Beit Midrash?
3. Women in the Temple and in Seder QodashimDvora Weisberg: Clothes (un)Make the Man:
bMenahot 109b (
Menahot) -
Jane Kanarek: All are Obligated: Sacrifice, Sight and Study (
Arakhin) -
Monika Brockhaus: אתנן זונה ומחיר כלב: How do the »Harlot« and the »Dog« Affect the Sacrifice (
Temurah) -
Federico Dal Bo: »Women to Think with:« Sexual Transgressions as Heuristics in
bKeritot 17a-20a (
Keritot) -
Dalia Marx: Tractate
Qinnim: Marginality or Horizons (
Qinnim)
4. Women in Seder QodashimTal Ilan: Males are for God, Females are for Us: Sacred and Kosher Slaughter Rhetorics in
Seder Qodashim and Tractate
Hullin (
Hullin) -
Moshe Lavee: Birth, Seminal Emission and Conversion: Gender, Self-Control and Identity in
bBekhorot (
Bekhorot) -
Reuven Kiperwasser: Body of the Whore, Body of the Story and Metaphor of the Body (
Bekhorot) -
Sarra Lev: »Metaphors of Me'ilah: 'Metaphoric' Use of the Word מעל in Tanakh and in Rabbinic Sources« (
Me'ila)
AppendixZe'ev Safrai: The Place of Women in Non-Establishment Religion During the Period of the Second Temple, the Mishnah and the Talmud
