Why aren't Jewish women circumcised? : gender and covenant in Judaism / Shaye J.D. Cohen.

ISBN:

9780520920491

9781423717270

9781598755893

9780520212503

9780520244580

Title:

Why aren't Jewish women circumcised? : gender and covenant in Judaism / Shaye J.D. Cohen.

Author:

Cohen, Shaye J. D.

Personal Author:

Cohen, Shaye J. D.

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 volume).

Series:

S. Mark Taper Foundation imprint in Jewish studies

Contents:

Jewish circumcision and Christian polemics. A canonical history of Jewish circumcision -- Were Jewish women ever circumcised? -- Christian questions, Christian responses -- From reticence to polemic -- 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.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

Berit milah -- History.

Circumcision -- Religious aspects -- Judaism.

Women in rabbinical literature.

Rabbinical literature -- History and criticism.

Jews -- Identity.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

2005

Publication Information:

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
296.4422 22	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

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.

Author Notes

Shaye J. D. Cohen received a B.A. in classics from Yeshiva College in 1970, a M.A. in Judaica and rabbinic ordination at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and a second M.A. and a Ph.D. in ancient history at Columbia University. A director and professor of Judaic Studies at Brown University, he previously worked at the Jewish Theological Seminary as Dean of the Graduate School, and was a visiting Professor of History at Columbia University.

Holding a keen interest in the history of Judaism and its social and legal boundaries, his published works include Josephus in Galilee and Rome: His Vita and Development as a Historian and From the Maccabees to the Mishnah: A Profile of Judaism. He has also written numerous articles and book chapters on the menstrual taboo in Judaism.

He has received numerous honors, including the Faculty Fellow and Whiting Fellow from Columbia University, the Fellowship from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, and the Fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

Continuing his explorations of Jewish self-definition initiated in The Beginnings of Jewishness (CH, Oct'99, 37-0869), Cohen focuses here on questions raised by the fact that only Jewish males are circumcised. Cohen begins with the history of Jewish circumcision and the earliest Jewish reflections on it. He then turns to Christians who both defend male-only circumcision, inasmuch as it was instituted at God's command, while also attacking its practice among Jews living after the advent of Christianity. In contrast to those who argue that rabbinic Judaism defined itself over against Christianity (e.g., D. Boyarin), Cohen demonstrates that rabbinic texts show little interest in these attacks. In the second part of the book he presents four rationales that medieval and modern Jews developed to explain why only Jewish men are circumcised. Cohen concludes by showing how the various strategies within Jewish tradition that are used to explain male-only circumcision provide a resource for contemporary Judaism. This book is not an attempt to explain the "real meaning" of circumcision through social-scientific criticism of the classical sources (as in H. Eilberg-Schwartz's The Savage in Judaism, 1990), but rather a magisterial presentation of the range of Jewish thought on this ritual. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above; general readers. J. S. Kaminsky Smith College