Addresses how Jewish women in particular have survived, suffered, and thrived over three millennia.

To study women in the Jewish traditions is to study women in history, literature, theology and religious law. This book contrasts the lives of real Jewish women with portrayals of Jewish women in religious texts and other sacred literature to investigate the presence or lack thereof of agency to express themselves religiously, the handling of social expectations, and pressure to transmit transitions to the next generation. Studying women in the Jewish traditions brings into sharp focus that any lived religion is not best studied by isolating such categories, but instead must be approached in a way that integrates all of them. Because of the diverse economic, geographical, historical, and political factors that have affected the forms of Jewish communities, the study of women in the Jewish traditions is an opportunity for students to begin to consider the multiple ways that group identities take shape. The study of women in the Jewish traditions also asks us to consider the importance of the individual in relationship to betterment of the group as a whole. These questions are important as we approach contemporary, penetrating questions about nationhood, global good, and the role of the individual.