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Judith Plaskow Library of Contemporary Judith Plaskow Jewish Philosophers Feminism, Theology, and Justice Editor-in-Chief Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, Arizona State University Edited by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Aaron W. Hughes Editor Aaron W. Hughes, University of Rochester VOLume 6 Leiden • boSTON The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/lcjp 2014 Judith Plaskow Feminism, Theology, and Justice Edited by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Aaron W. Hughes Leiden • boSTON 2014 Cover illustration: Courtesy of Judith Plaskow. Photographed by Richard Fish. The series Library of Contemporary Jewish Philosophers was generously supported by the Baron Foundation. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Judith Plaskow : feminism, theology, and justice / edited by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Aaron W. Hughes. p. cm. — (Library of contemporary Jewish philosophers, ISSN 2213-6010 ; volume 6) Includes bibliographical references. Summary: “Judith Plaskow, Professor of Religious Studies Emerita at Manhattan College in New York, is a leading Jewish feminist theologian. She has forged a revolutionary vision of Judaism as an egalitarian religion and has argued for the inclusion of sexually marginalized groups in society in general and in Jewish society in particular. Rooted in the experience of women, her feminist Jewish theology reflects the impact of several philosophical strands, including hermeneutics, dialogical philosophy, critical theory, and process philosophy. Most active in the American Academy of Religion, she has shaped the academic discourse on women in religion while critiquing Christian feminism for lingering forms of anti-Judaism”— Provided by publisher. ISBN 978-90-04-27979-7 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-28000-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-27980-3 (e-book) 1. Plaskow, Judith—Philosophy. 2. Women in Judaism. 3. Women and religion. 4. Feminism—Religious aspects—Judaism. 5. Judaism—21st century. I. Tirosh- Samuelson, Hava, 1950– editor. II. Hughes, Aaron W., 1968– editor. BM729.W6J84 2014 296.3092—dc23 2014022388 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 2213-6010 ISBN 978-90-04-27979-7 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-27980-3 (e-book) This hardback is also published in paperback under ISBN 978-90-04-28000-7. Copyright 2014 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Global Oriental and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. CONTENTS The Contributors ............................................................................................. vii Editors’ Introduction to Series .................................................................... ix Judith Plaskow: An Intellectual Portrait .................................................. 1 Hava Tirosh-Samuelson The Academy as Real Life: New Participants and Paradigms in the Study of Religion ........................................................................... 27 Judith Plaskow Jewish Theology in Feminist Perspective ................................................ 45 Judith Plaskow Authority, Resistance, and Transformation: Jewish Feminist Reflections on Good Sex .......................................................................... 69 Judith Plaskow Anti-Judaism in Feminist Christian Interpretation .............................. 83 Judith Plaskow Interview with Judith Plaskow .................................................................... 97 Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Aaron W. Hughes Select Bibliography ......................................................................................... 139 THE CONTRIBUTORS Hava Tirosh-Samuelson (Ph.D., Hebrew University, 1978) is Irving and Miriam Lowe Professor of Modern Judaism, the Director of Jewish Stud- ies, and Professor of History at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. Her research focuses on Jewish intellectual history, Judaism and ecology, science and religion, and feminist theory. In addition to numerous articles and book chapters in academic journals and edited volumes, she is the author of the award-winning Between Worlds: The Life and Work of Rabbi David ben Judah Messer Leon (1991) and the author of Happiness in Pre- modern Judaism: Virtue, Knowledge, and Well-Being in Premodern Judaism (2003). She is also the editor of Judaism and Ecology: Created World and Revealed World (2002); Women and Gender in Jewish Philosophy (2004); Judaism and the Phenomenon of Life: The Legacy of Hans Jonas (2008); Building Better Humans? Refocusing the Debate on Transhumanism (2011); Hollywood’s Chosen People: The Jewish Experience in American Cinema (2012); and Jewish Philosophy for the Twenty-First Century (2014). Professor Tirosh-Samuelson is the recipient of several large grants that have funded interdisciplinary research on religion, science, and technology. Aaron W. Hughes (Ph.D., Indiana University Bloomington, 2000) holds the Philip S. Bernstein Chair in Jewish Studies at the University of Roch- ester. Hughes was educated at the University of Alberta, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Oxford University. He has taught at Miami University of Ohio, McMaster University, the Hebrew University of Jeru- salem, the University of Calgary, and the University at Buffalo. He is the author of over fifty articles and ten books, and the editor of seven books. His book titles include Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History (Oxford, 2012); Muslim Identities (Columbia, 2013); The Study of Judaism: Identity, Authenticity, Scholarship (SUNY, 2013); and Rethinking Jewish Philosophy: Beyond Particularism and Universalism (Oxford, 2014). He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Method & Theory in the Study of Religion. Editors’ INTRODUCTION TO SERIES It is customary to begin studies devoted to the topic of Jewish philoso- phy defining what exactly this term, concept, or even discipline is. We tend not to speak of Jewish mathematics, Jewish physics, or Jewish soci- ology, so why refer to something as “Jewish philosophy”? Indeed, this is the great paradox of Jewish philosophy. On the one hand it presumably names something that has to do with thinking, on the other it implies some sort of national, ethnic, or religious identity of those who engage in such activity. Is not philosophy just philosophy, regardless of who phi- losophizes? Why the need to append various racial, national, or religious adjectives to it?1 Jewish philosophy is indeed rooted in a paradox since it refers to philo- sophical activity carried out by those who call themselves Jews. As philoso- phy, this activity makes claims of universal validity, but as an activity by a well-defined group of people it is inherently particularistic. The question “What is Jewish philosophy?” therefore is inescapable, although over the centuries Jewish philosophers have given very different answers to it. For some, Jewish philosophy represents the relentless quest for truth. Although this truth itself may not be particularized, for such individuals, the use of the adjective “Jewish”—as a way to get at this truth—most decidedly is.2 The Bible, the Mishnah, the Talmud, and related Jewish texts and genres are seen to provide particular insights into the more universal claims pro- vided by the universal and totalizing gaze of philosophy. The problem is that these texts are not philosophical on the surface; they must, on the contrary, be interpreted to bring their philosophical insights to light. Within this context exegesis risks becoming eisegesis. Yet others eschew the term 1 Alexander Altmann once remarked: It would be futile to attempt a presentation of Judaism as a philosophical system, or to speak of Jewish philosophy in the same sense as one speaks of American, English, French, or German philosophy. Judaism is a religion, and the truths it teaches are religious truths. They spring from the source of religious experience, not from pure reason. See Alexander Altmann, “Judaism and World Philosophy,” in The Jews: Their History, Culture, and Religion, ed. Louis Finkelstein (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1949), vol. 2, 954. 2 In this regard, see Norbert M. Samuelson, Jewish Faith and Modern Science: On the Death and Rebirth of Jewish Philosophy (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2008), e.g., 10–12. x editors’ introduction to series “philosophy” and instead envisage themselves as working in a decidedly Jewish key in order to articulate or clarify particular issues that have direct bearing on Jewish life and existence.3 Between these two perspectives or orientations, there exist several other related approaches to the topic of Jewish philosophy, which can and have included ethics,4 gender studies,5 multiculturalism,6 and postmodernism.7 Despite their differences in theory and method,

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