Fine uncovers the hidden complexity and agency of Talmudic women, challenging stereotypes and revealing proto-feminist insights.
SYNOPOSIS
Gila Fine’s The Madwoman in the Rabbi’s Attic reexamines the six named women of the Talmud, from shrews to saints, revealing their complexity beyond antifeminist archetypes. Through careful rereading, Fine uncovers proto-feminist attitudes toward marriage, sex, childbirth, and women’s roles, showing how Talmudic stories offer profound lessons on understanding people and texts.
The book restores the voices of women to Jewish tradition, highlighting their agency, intelligence, and moral depth in a world often dominated by male perspectives.
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WHY WE LOVE THIS BOOK
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gila Fine is the author of The Madwoman in the Rabbi’s Attic: Rereading the Women of the Talmud, winner of the 74th National Jewish Book Award and the 2024 Rabbi Sacks Book Prize. She is a lecturer of rabbinic literature, exploring the tales of the Talmud through philosophy, literary criticism, psychoanalysis, and pop-culture. Gila serves on the faculties of Shalem College, the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, the Tikvah Scholars Program, the Nachshon Project, and Amudim Seminary, and has taught thousands of students at conferences and communities across the Jewish world. She is the recipient of the Maimonides Award for Excellence in Jewish Education.
As editor in chief of Maggid Books, Gila worked closely with such leading scholars as Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, publishing over a hundred titles of contemporary Jewish thought, including several bestsellers and National Jewish Book Award winners. She is also the former editor of Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation. Gila’s work has been featured in the BBC, Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post, The Jerusalem Report, Tradition, Jewish News, and The Jewish Chronicle (which selected her as one of the ten most influential Brits in Israel). Haaretz has called her “a young woman on her way to becoming one of the more outstanding Jewish thinkers of the next generation.”
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