Why Aren’t Jewish Women Circumcised? [electronic resource] : Gender and Covenant in Judaism /
Cohen, Shaye J. D.
Berkeley : University of California Press,
c2005.
Why aren't Jewish women circumcised? This improbable question, first advanced by anti-Jewish Christian polemicists, is the point of departure for this wide-ranging exploration of gender and Jewishness in Jewish thought. With a lively command of a wide range of Jewish sources-from the Bible and the Talmud to the legal and philosophical writings of the Middle Ages to Enlightenment thinkers and modern scholars-Shaye J. D. Cohen considers the varied responses to this provocative question and in the process provides the fullest cultural history of Jewish circumcision available.
Description based upon print version of record.
Why aren't Jewish women circumcised? This improbable question, first advanced by anti-Jewish Christian polemicists, is the point of departure for this wide-ranging exploration of gender and Jewishness in Jewish thought. With a lively command of a wide range of Jewish sources-from the Bible and the Talmud to the legal and philosophical writings of the Middle Ages to Enlightenment thinkers and modern scholars-Shaye J. D. Cohen considers the varied responses to this provocative question and in the process provides the fullest cultural history of Jewish circumcision available.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Pt. I. Jewish circumcision and Christian polemics. A canonical history of Jewish circumcision -- Were Jewish women ever circumcised? -- Christian questions, Christian responses -- From reticence to polemic -- Pt. II. Why aren't Jewish women circumcised? four responses. The celebration of manhood -- The reduction of lust and the unmanning of men -- True faith and the exemption of women -- The celebration of womanhood.
Description based on print version record.
Jews
Rabbinical literature
Women in rabbinical literature.
Circumcision
Berit milah