Expanding the Palace of Torah: Orthodoxy and Feminism
Expanding the Palace of Torah offers a broad philosophical overview of the challenges the women's revolution poses to Orthodox Judaism, and Orthodox Judaism's response to those challenges. Surprisingly, very little work has been done in this area, beyond exploring the leeway for ad hoc solutions to practical problems as they arise on the halakhic plane. Most Jewish feminist critiques addressing broader theological concerns are conducted by non-Orthodox, Anglo-educated women. Their works...
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A unique examination of the theological implications for Orthodox Judaism of women's changed status in the modern world.
Pt. IThe first stage : acknowledging the problem1Ch. 1Feminism and the Halakhic tradition3Ch. 2Sources of discontent and the conservative response25Pt. IIThe second stage : working within the system47Ch. 3Exploring Halakhic malleability and its limits49Ch. 4The meta-Halakhic solutions of modern orthodoxy60Ch. 5Does positivism work?71Pt. IIIThe third stage : revamping the system101Ch. 6Sociological and historical revisionism103Ch. 7Evaluating revisionism125Ch. 8Halakhic proactivism145Pt. IVBeyond the third stage : expanding the palace of Torah163Ch. 9Halakhah contextualized : nonfoundationalism and the role of interpretive traditions165Ch. 10The word of God contextualized : successive hearings and the decree of history184Ch. 11Some theological remarks for the more philosophically inclined213Pt. VEpilogue225Ch. 12Visions for the future227
\ From the Publisher"This may be one of the most important works to date in tracking the changes in Judaism over the past 2000 years." --Jewish Book World\ "Addressing the practical and the theological challenges that feminism poses to halakah, Ross offers a brilliant study, informed not only by ancient, medieval, and modern Jewish sources, but also by postmodernism, the history of feminism, process theology, mysticism, and legal theory . . . She finds the key to change in women's increasing knowledge of halakah, whose meaning women can transform by weaving a different narrative . . . Highly recommended."--CHOICE\ "[Expanding the Palace of Torah is] a brave, in many ways radical and essential, attempt to deal with the problem seriously, and is a model of erudition and scholarship... Her book offers a powerful alternate theological vision that challenges some of the basic assumptions of the Orthodox Jewish world, and gives a glimpse of just how revolutionary feminism could be to Orthodoxy."--Forward\ "Ross' conjoining of the patriarchal past with a feminist future in the single unfolding process of divine revelation is an unprecedented, and I would suggest brilliant, move in the world of Jewish feminism... this book is ground-breaking in the field of theology (Jewish, feminist and otherwise). It is beautifully written, masterfully insightful in its analysis of earlier feminist attempts to resolve a similar set of challenges and subtly brilliant in the presentation of its own solutions. I simply cannot say enough positive things about it. It is thought-provoking and sophisticated. I have no doubt that this book will become a standard textbook for courses on Jewish feminism."--Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies and Gender Issues\ \ \
