“Rabbinic and Roman texts create the impression of a clear dichotomy between slaves and free people…”
Rabbinic and Roman texts create the impression of a clear dichotomy between slaves and...
Category Archives: Jewish Books
“For the rabbis, breastfeeding offers a fascinating set of variables for academic investigation”
For the rabbis, breastfeeding offers a fascinating set of variables for academic investigation. First,...
“Being the principal alcoholic beverage of Mesopotamia, beer is discussed at length in the Babylonian Talmud and, naturally, the vocabulary is Mesopotamian”
Being the principal alcoholic beverage of Mesopotamia, it is discussed at length in the...
“In addition to the biblical distinction between normal and abnormal discharges, the rabbis developed two more categories…”
Leviticus 15 is concerned with normal and abnormal, male and female genital discharges. As...
“The practice of waiting seven blood-free days following the end of a regular menstrual period is variously described in the Talmud as heḥemiru al atzman, minhaga, and halakhah pesukah, indicating that a variety of attitudes existed as to the severity of the requirement”
Zimmerman is correct in saying that a seven-day wait after any bleeding has become...
“Where are the Torah graphic novels?”
For many people, the texts of Torah learning are themselves the biggest obstacles. They...
“…the term halakhah pesukah need not be considered the opposite of minhaga. It may simply mean a rule that cannot be questioned or supported on the basis of conventional talmudic dialectics”
Perhaps it can be argued that the ḥumra of the daughters of Israel is...
“The notion that the seven blood-free days are an undue stringency imposed by the Rabbis is a commonplace of contemporary halakhic discussion among liberal Orthodox and non-Orthodox feminist Jews who discuss the laws of nidah…”
The notion that the seven blood-free days are an undue stringency imposed by the...
“The contrast between wine culture of Palestine and beer culture of Babylonia is well documented in the Talmud…”
One of the important distinctions between the diet of Graeco-Roman Palestine and Babylonia was...
“The family purity handbook shares the qualities of the other halakhic handbooks…, but it has a history of its own”
The family purity handbook shares the qualities of the other halakhic handbooks…, but it...