"Blessed is he who says and does" : gender, law, and Jewish communal identity

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract
This dissertation explores the ways in which contemporary Jewish law defines women's place in the Jewish community. I carry out a close reading of recent responsa on women and public prayer, women and ritual objects, and women in the rabbinate that utilizes Ronald Dworkin's theory of law as integrity, Catherine Bell's understanding of ritual, and Pierre Bourdieu's conception of the habitus. I identify several main themes in the current halakhic attitude toward women. Women occupy an ambiguous space in this rhetoric: they are Jews, but if Jews are also defined as those obligated in all the commandments, then women are in some important sense outsiders to the 'real' Jewish community. The decisors struggle with this issue, and with the legitimacy of women's requests for greater Jewish participation. Some seek to maintain the status quo in the name of fidelity to tradition, while others ultimately grant women a limited set of new rights as exceptional individuals rather than as a group.

Description

Type of resource text
Form electronic; electronic resource; remote
Extent 1 online resource.
Publication date 2013
Issuance monographic
Language English

Creators/Contributors

Associated with Rosenberg, Jessica Ann
Associated with Stanford University, Department of Religious Studies.
Primary advisor Fonrobert, Charlotte Elisheva
Thesis advisor Fonrobert, Charlotte Elisheva
Thesis advisor Magid, Shaul, 1958-
Thesis advisor Weitzman, Steven, 1965-
Thesis advisor Zipperstein, Steven J, 1950-
Advisor Magid, Shaul, 1958-
Advisor Weitzman, Steven, 1965-
Advisor Zipperstein, Steven J, 1950-

Subjects

Genre Theses

Bibliographic information

Statement of responsibility Jessica Ann Rosenberg.
Note Submitted to the Department of Religious Studies.
Thesis Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2013.
Location electronic resource

Access conditions

Copyright
© 2013 by Jessica Ann Rosenberg
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).

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