A Feminist Commentary on the Babylonian Talmud

In this volume, Tal Ilan presents a feminist commentary on the first three mishnaic tractates of Seder Zera'im (Seeds) that have no Babylonian commentary. The first one, Pe'ah, is about charity. The commentary shows that, even though women in antiquity were poorer than men, and the Bible was aware of this, this tractate actually ignores them completely. Demai, the second tractate, is about doubtful tithing. Because it devotes much space to a sectarian organization known as the havurah , it is interesting to discover that this sect included women among its members. The third tractate, kil'ayim, is about forbidden mixtures - mixed breeding among animals, mixed weaving of two sorts of thread; the sowing of mixed crops in a field, or working the land with two different animals hitched together. The tractate is full of gendered metaphors that are discussed in detail.