Pious and Rebellious (The Tauber Institute Series for the

Pious and Rebellious (The Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry & HBI Series on Jewish Women)

This volume, an amazing act of historical recovery and reconstruction, offers a comprehensive examination of Jewish women in Europe during the High Middle Ages (1000â€“1300). Avraham Grossman covers multiple aspects of womenâ€™s lives in medieval Jewish society, including the image of woman, the structure of the family unit, age at marriage, position in family and society, her place in economic and religious life, her education, her role in family ceremonies, violence against women, and the position of the divorcÃ©e and the widow in society.

Grossman shows that the High Middle Ages saw a distinct improvement in the status of Jewish women in Europe relative to their status during the Talmudic period and in Muslim countries. If, during the twelfth century, rabbis applauded women as "pious and pure" because of their major role in the martyrdom of the Crusades of 1096, then by the end of the thirteenth century, rabbis complained that women were becoming bold and rebellious. Two main factors fostered this change: first, the transformation of Jewish society from agrarian to "bourgeois," with women performing an increasingly important function in the family economy; and second, the openness toward women in Christian Europe, where women were not subjected to strict limitations based upon conceptions of modesty, as was the case in Muslim countries. The heart of Grossmanâ€™s book concerns the improvement of Jewish womenâ€™s lot, and the efforts of secular and religious authorities to impede their new-found status.

Bringing together a variety of sources including halakhic literature, biblical and talmudic exegesis, ethical literature and philosophy, love songs, folklore and popular literature, gravestones, and drawings, Grossmanâ€™s book reconstructs the hitherto unrecorded lives of Jewish women during the Middle Ages.

Country	USA
Author	Avraham Grossman
Binding	Kindle Edition
EISBN	9781611683943
Format	Kindle eBook
Label	Brandeis University Press
Manufacturer	Brandeis University Press
NumberOfPages	351
PublicationDate	2012-08-21
Publisher	Brandeis University Press
ReleaseDate	2012-08-21
Studio	Brandeis University Press

Pious and Rebellious (The Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry & HBI Series on Jewish Women)

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