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Advanced Search & Learning
Our advanced search & learning option offers a more structured approach for reading content with bibliographic citations and guidance for a more intelligent approach. Answers are cited by book summaries, chapter summaries, chapter Knowledge Abstracts, and Knowledge Facts.
Question 1: Where would I start to read books on Judaism
Answer: The Large Knowledge Database contains readers guides as part of our Knowledge Pyramid and recommends starting with The Best Books on Judaism & Jewish Studies - Essays and Recommended Reading by Professor Sarah Imhoff, Dr. Sarah Imhoff is an Assistant Professor in the Religious Studies and Borns Jewish Studies Program at Indiana University, Bloomington.
We always recommend starting with the Introduction for a broad overview and then selecting individual books to read. Then consider or view the chapters or use subject keyword guide and index for more selective subject matter.
Question 2: What books would you recommend for modern Jewish feminism
Answer 2: Our Knowledge Pyramid and The Best Books on Judaism – Jewish Studies by Professor by Dr. Sarah Imhoff.
Title: Engendering Judaism: an inclusive theology and ethics
Author: Adler, Rachel
LC Classification: BM729.W6 A29 1998
Date: 9/28/1999
Question 3: May I have a Book Summary?
Answer 3: Our KnowledgeSearchDatabase.net contains the following summary:
Adler’s book closely examines the ways in which Jewish religious laws and sociological attitudes have served to empower men, while effectively silencing women and thereby turning them into, as Adler states, “peripheral Jews.” Adler sets forth a multidisciplinary feminist theology that serves to incorporate women as equal participants within their religion and their community.
Question 4: May I have Summary of Chapter 1?
Answer 4: Our KnowledgeSearchDatabase.net contains the following summary:
CHAPTER SUMMARY: Chapter 1: Prelude: The Female Rapist and Other Inversions Talmudic Law as interpreted by men and the Ancient Canonical Stories written by men have alienated Jewish women from their religion. Women are diminished, defaced, distorted, and alienated by their distorted portrayal in Canonical Stories – issues which can only be resolved by invoking the concept of the “resolution of comedy” which works to unite the genders.
To break down the barriers that exist between men and women in Judaism, it becomes necessary to reinterpret canonical stories and view them as farce. Canonical Stories which portray rabbis as holy heroes preach that women may only be strong when helping elevate their spouses or the men in their lives, but must revert back to the shadows once the male attains his goals.
Jewish women must acknowledge their rights, but before they are able to do this, they must first recognize the misogyny that exists within the ancient stories. Women must reject the notion that they exist solely to fulfill the needs of others, and realize that they are important in their own right and recognize their own desires and wishes.
The Jewish Study House, the Beit Midrash, is a sacred space from which women are prohibited entry. Two tales, The Wife of Rabbi Akiba and Natan D’Tzutzita and the Lady Evangelist reinforce the notion that after women help their men attain glory, they lose their gifts of spirituality and are again relegated to subservience. Men must separate themselves from their mothers to become wholly autonomous and devote themselves to holy study, while women are expected to accept this way of life. While male beauty signifies spiritual perfection, female beauty is dangerous and devoid of spirituality.
Question 5: May I have Abstracts of Chapter 1?
Answer 5: Our KnowledgeSearchDatabase.net contains the following abstracts:
Knowledge Abstract #1
Record Number BM729.W6 A29 1998 C1 A1
Chapter Title: Prelude: The Female Rapist and Other Inventions
Rachel Adler provides an in-depth discussion of the role that the ancient canonical stories have played in alienating Jewish women. Under Talmudic Law, women are prohibited from engaging in the study of Jewish Biblical teaching. As such, women are treated as merely “peripheral Jews,” able to learn only from the grandmother’s tales deemed appropriate for women. Throughout history they have not been allowed to be active participants in their religion, unable to help shape their faith and work towards changing the rules that dominate their lives. As a result, over time they have become increasingly alienated not only from their own religion, but also the men who have defined their roles over the course of thousands of years.
Knowledge Abstract #2
Record Number BM729.W6 A29 1998 C1 A2
Chapter Title: Prelude: The Female Rapist and Other Inventions
Rachel Adler’s premise is that this alienation is the natural result of the fact that Jewish women are 1) excluded from studying these stories, and 2) distorted and defaced by these stories and the interpretation thereof. When one sector of society is defaced, ALL are ultimately diminished. Throughout this chapter, Adler analyses several variations on the rabbi as a “holy hero,” and calls upon Canadian literary theorist Northrop Frye’s concept of the “resolution of comedy” as a means to unite the genders.
Knowledge Abstract #3
Record Number BM729.W6 A29 1998 C1 A3
Chapter Title: Prelude: The Female Rapist and Other Inventions
The “resolution of comedy” teaches that dissolving the physical divide that exists between an audience comprised of men and women results in the audience ultimately becomes one – forced to stand face to face with one another. In this way, the barrier between the genders is broken down and the intended lesson of the rabbi as a “holy hero stories” becomes farcical. At the moment of illumination, the absurdity touches all, “purifying laughter” ensues, and the gender divide is eradicated.
Knowledge Abstract #4
Record Number BM729.W6 A29 1998 C1 A4
Chapter Title: Prelude: The Female Rapist and Other Inventions
Rachel Adler utilizes four ancient tales of rabbis as “holy heroes” to demonstrate the role of women within Judaism. Women may be strong and support their husbands when needed, but must revert to their ordinary lives and recede into the background as silent and invisible beings once their husbands attain their own individual glory. In this manner the male retains his prized autonomy.
Knowledge Abstract #5
Record Number: BM729.W6 A29 1998 C1 A5
Chapter Title: Prelude: The Female Rapist and Other Inventions
In order to shatter the traditional Judaic view of a woman’s “proper” role, the Jewish woman must acknowledge her rights, and rail against traditional misogynistic views within Jewish society. Adler utilizes two primary motifs in her analysis of Judaic gender roles. These highlight the reversal of power between Men and Women, and the separation between mothers and sons as well as husbands and wives that the Ancient Stories have taught must occur for the male to maintain his autonomy and spiritual purity. Knowledge Facts Jewish women must acknowledge their rights, but before they are able to do this, they must first recognize the misogyny that exists within the ancient stories.
Knowledge Abstract #6
Record Number: BM729.W6 A29 1998 C1 A6
Chapter Title: Prelude: The Female Rapist and Other Inventions
Under the feminist object-relations theory, proponents note the dichotomy of women as both givers of life and symbols of death. In societies where masculinity confers a preferred and authoritative status, the male can only attain independent selfhood by sundering themselves completely and definitively from their mothers, and in a sense all women, to ensure that the separation remains permanent. Women are then ultimately viewed as creatures that exist solely to fulfill the needs of others, rather than individuals who have their own wishes and desires. This is the essence of patriarchal dominance.
Knowledge Abstract #7
Record Number: BM729.W6 A29 1998 C1 A7
Chapter Title: Prelude: The Female Rapist and Other Inventions
No place is patriarchal dominance that is pervasive throughout Jewish law more prominent than in the beit midrash, or study house.The study house is a sacred space, inhabited only by men – a space in which women are excluded and forbidden entry. In what noted scholar in the field of gender studies Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick termed a homosocial environment, the beit midrash is a place wholly dominated by the masculine psyche.
Knowledge Abstract #8
Record Number: BM729.W6 A29 1998 C1 A7
Chapter Title: Prelude: The Female Rapist and Other Inventions
The first story two stories that Adler deconstructs as prime examples of the power discrepancy between men and women within Judaism are The Wife of Rabbi Akiba and Natan D’Tzutzita and the Lady Evangelist. The primary motif in each of these tales is one of dependent men who are only able to attain glory and honor due to the strength and determination of their wives. Once attained, their wives subsequently find themselves cast down into the role of silent, invisible persons. They lose their innate gift of spirituality, and become relegated to submissive beings.
Knowledge Abstract #9
Record Number: BM729.W6 A29 1998 C1 A9
Chapter Title: Prelude: The Female Rapist and Other Inventions
The second motif that Adler analyzes is the dichotomy between the masculine and the feminine. Keeping in line with the feminist object-relations theory, in order for men to become autonomous individuals, they must separate themselves from their mother and maintain that separation between the sexes. Women must remain silent and invisible so men may devote themselves to studying the holy texts and stories – the only source of eternal life. Good women fall in line with this philosophy. Bad women compete with the holy books for male attention, thereby endangering the male’s ability to attain eternal life. This presents women as dangerous and highlights their “otherness.”
Knowledge Abstract #10
Record Number: BM729.W6 A29 1998 C1 A9
Chapter Title: Prelude: The Female Rapist and Other Inventions
Rachel Adler presents the next two stories which focus on the reversal of power roles, female visibility, and the preservation of the masculine self. She notes the startling differences between the portrayal of masculine beauty and feminine beauty within each. Male beauty at its height signifies spiritual perfection. Conversely, female beauty is a dangerous diversion, rife with the potential for evil and devoid of spirituality.
Question 6: May I have 10 Facts from Chapter 1
Answer 6: Our KnowledgeSearchDatabase.net contains the following facts:
Knowledge Fact #01
Talmudic Law as interpreted by men and the Ancient Canonical Stories written by men have alienated Jewish women from their religion.
Knowledge Fact #02
Women are diminished, defaced, distorted, and alienated by their distorted portrayal in Canonical Stories – issues which can only be resolved by invoking the concept of the “resolution of comedy” which works to unite the genders.
Knowledge Facts #03
To break down the barriers that exist between men and women in Judaism, it becomes necessary to reinterpret canonical stories and view them as farcical comedy.
Knowledge Facts #04
Canonical Stories which portray rabbis as holy heroes preach that women may only be strong when helping elevate their spouses or the men in their lives, but must revert back to the shadows once the male attains his goals.
Knowledge Facts #06
Women must reject the notion that they exist solely to fulfill the needs of others and realize that they are important in their own right and recognize their own desires and wishes.
Knowledge Facts #07
The Jewish Study House, the Beit Midrash, is a sacred space from which women are prohibited entry.
Knowledge Facts #08:
Two tales, The Wife of Rabbi Akiba and Natan D’Tzutzita and the Lady Evangelist reinforce the notion that after women help their men attain glory, they lose their gifts of spirituality and are again relegated to subservience.
Knowledge Facts #09:
Men must separate themselves from their mothers to become wholly autonomous and devote themselves to holy study, while women are expected to accept this way of life.
Knowledge Facts #10
While male beauty signifies spiritual perfection, female beauty is dangerous and devoid of spirituality.
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