Why Jewish Women are not Permitted to Work on the Festival of Rosh Hodesh: An Anthropological Explanation
Author: | Fishbane, Simcha |
Year: | 2017 |
Pages: | 64 |
ISBN: | 1-4955-0618-5 978-1-4955-0618-5 |
Price: | $79.95 |
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Dr. Fishbane's monograph explores the cultural and theological reasons behind the Jewish ritual of not allowing women work on the festival of Rosh Hodesh. Rabbinic Judaism is patriarchal in nature and the ritual appears to be an exemption to cultural norms.
Reviews
"Rabbinic Judaism, and especially early Rabbinic Judaism is not compatible with Feminist ideology. In the cosmos of the Rabbis, women were subservient to men. This essay will explore these time exemptions and their literary and historical development. In doing so, I will make use of social scientific tools to derive the motivation behind these customs and why they were never actively incorporated into Jewish observance."
Table of Contents
The Problem
First Consideration: Cross-Cultural Influence
Second Consideration: Women in Judaism
Third Consideration: Structure of the Jewish Family
Work Exemptions in the Yerushalmi
The Position of the other Rishonim
Codification of the Law Against Working
Additional Views of the Achronim
Discussion - Rosh Hodest
Cross Cultural Religion - A Comparison
Additional Illustrations from the Talmud Yerushalmi
The First Nine Days of the Hebrew Month of Av
Three Additional Customs
Not Working on Saturday after the conclusion of the Sabbath
Not Working on Monday and Thursday
Not Working before the Commencing of the Sabbath and Holidays
Two Non-Talmudic Cases
In the Evenings between Passover and Shavuot (sefirat haomer)
Not Working while the Hanukah lights are burning
Summary and Concluding Remarks
Works Cited