'Incest' refers to illegal sexual relations between family members. Its precise contours, however, are culturally specific. Hence, an illegal incestuous union in one social context may be a legal close-kin union in another. First-degree sexual unions, between a parent and child, or between siblings, are most widely prohibited and abhorred. This book discusses all overt and covert first-degree incest relations in the Hebrew Bible and also probes the significance of gaps and what these imply about projected sexual and social values. As the dominant opinion on the origin of first-degree incest continues to be shaped, new voices such as those of queer and post-feminist criticism have joined the conversation. It navigates not only the incest laws of Leviticus and the narratives of Lot and his daughters and of Amnon and Tamar but pursues subtler intimations of first-degree sexual unions, such as between Adam and his (absent but arguably implied) mother, Haran and Terah's wife, Ham and Noah. In pursuing the psycho-social values that may be drawn from the Hebrew Bible regarding first-degree incest, this book will provide a thorough review of incest studies from the early 20th century onward and explain and assess the contribution of very recent critical approaches from queer and post-feminist perspectives.

This holistic study demonstrates the interconnected nature of early medieval origin legends and traces their growth over time.

A feminist project that privileges the Babylonian Talmudic tractate as culturally significant. While the use of feminist analysis as a methodological lens is not new to the study of Talmudic literature or to the study of individual tractates, this book demonstrates that such an intervention with the Babylonian Talmud reveals new perspectives on the rabbis’ relationship with the temple and its priesthood. More specifically, through the relationships most commonly associated with home, such as those of husband-wife, father-son, mother-son, and brother-brother, the rabbis destabilize the temple bayit (or temple house). Moving beyond the view that the temple was replaced by the rabbinic home, and that rabbinic rites reappropriate temple practices, a feminist approach highlights the inextricable link between kinship, gender, and the body, calling attention to the ways the rabbis deconstruct the priesthood so as to reconstruct themselves.

'Incest' refers to illegal sexual relations between family members. Its precise contours, however, are culturally specific. Hence, an illegal incestuous union in one social context may be a legal close-kin union in another. First-degree sexual unions, between a parent and child, or between siblings, are most widely prohibited and abhorred. This book discusses all overt and covert first-degree incest relations in the Hebrew Bible and also probes the significance of gaps and what these imply about projected sexual and social values. As the dominant opinion on the origin of first-degree incest continues to be shaped, new voices such as those of queer and post-feminist criticism have joined the conversation. It navigates not only the incest laws of Leviticus and the narratives of Lot and his daughters and of Amnon and Tamar but pursues subtler intimations of first-degree sexual unions, such as between Adam and his (absent but arguably implied) mother, Haran and Terah's wife, Ham and Noah. In pursuing the psycho-social values that may be drawn from the Hebrew Bible regarding first-degree incest, this book will provide a thorough review of incest studies from the early 20th century onward and explain and assess the contribution of very recent critical approaches from queer and post-feminist perspectives.

1. Berakoth deals with the laws of blessings and prayer. 2 Mishnayoth Zera'im: the Mishnaic tractates of the Order of Zera'im, principally deal with laws pertaining to agriculture. 3. Shabbath discusses the laws of the Sabbath. 4. Erubin deals with the laws of domains as they relate to the observance of the Sabbath. 5. Pesahim deals with the laws of Passover and the Passover offering. 6. Bezah, Rosh Hashanah, Shekalim: these tractates deal respectively with the laws of the holidays, the laws of the New Year, and the laws of Temple donations. 7. Yoma discusses the laws of the holiday of Yom Kippur. 8. Sukkah and Moed Kattan deal with the laws of the holiday of Sukkoth and the laws of the intermediate days of the holidays, respectively. 9. Ta'anith, Megillah, and Hagigah deal with the subjects of fast days, the holiday of Purim, and the special holiday offering, respectively. 10. Yebamoth deals with the subject of levirate marriage. 11. Kethuboth: this volume deals with the laws of the kethubah, a document delineating a husband's obligations to his wife. 12. Nedarim deals with the subject of vows. 13. The tractate of Nazir deals with the subject of Nazarite vows; the tractate of Sotah addresses the laws pertaining to a wife suspected of adultery. 14. Gittin deals with the subject of divorce. 15. Kiddushin deals with the laws of marriage. 16. Baba Kamma deals with the laws of property damage, injury, and compensation for theft, robbery or violence. 17. Baba Metzia focuses on property ownership, wages, and civil law. 18. Baba Bathra deals with legal claims of rights of action or possession. 19. Sanhedrin deals with the subject of the Jewish court system. 20. Shevuoth deals with the subject of vows, while the tractate of Makkoth discusses the punishment of flagging and the crimes for which it is administered. 21. Abodah Zarah, Horayoth, Eduyyoth, Aboth: these tractates deal respectively with the laws of idolatry, the laws relating to erroneous court decisions, the recording of conclusive Rabbinic teachings, and general Jewish ethics and wisdom. 22. Zebahim deals with the subject of animal Temple offerings. 23. Menahoth deals with the laws of Temple flour offerings. 24. Hullin deals with the laws of slaughtering animals for consumption. 25. Bekoroth, Arakin detail the laws of firstborn animals and the evaluation of specific forms of vows. 26. Temurah, Keritoth, Meilah, Kinnim, Tamid, and Middoth deal with various subjects relating to the Temple and Temple offerings. 27. Niddah discusses the laws concerning menstruation and the monthly period of separation between husband and wife. 28. Mishnayoth Tohoroth: this volume contains all the Mishnaic tractates of the Order of Tohoroth, which principally deals with the laws of spiritual and ritual purity and impurity. 29. Minor Tractates: fifteen tractates in all, the Minor Tractates cover such wide-ranging subjects as: the laws pertaining to Torah scrolls and the scribes who write them, the laws of mourning and of marriage, the wisdom collected by Rabbi Nathan, moral and ethical principles, laws pertaining to converts, and more. 30. Index: this volume contains the complete index of the Talmud, includes a subject index, an index of Scriptural references, and an index of all the Rabbis quoted throughout the Talmud.

The sex laws of the Hebrew Bible are well known, if not notorious. From them many have concluded that in ancient Israel adultery was a capital crime, that there was no conception of rape, that brides had to be virgins, and that women had no autonomy whatsoever. But was that the reality? Not if we broaden our horizon beyond the laws, argues Lipka, who focusses here on sexual transgression, that is, the trespass against sexual boundaries. She finds three aspects of sexual transgression: it may be transgression against religious boundaries (sexual acts violating divine law), against communal boundaries (sexual acts violating the rights of another member of the community), or against personal boundaries (sexual acts imposed by force and/or violence). Transgressive sex is complicated. But some conclusions are possible. (1) Though adultery was universally disapproved of, there was a wide variety of opinions on who was considered guilty, who was considered the offended party, who was punished, what the punishment was, and who should execute it. (2) There was indeed a conception of rape, with an understanding of its devastating emotional and psychological consequences for the victim. (3) Though virginity in brides was the norm, and young women were under a great deal of pressure to preserve their virginity, it was unrealistic for all men in ancient Israel to expect their wives to be virgins. (4) Women did not enjoy legal autonomy over their sexuality, yet they were not completely powerless; they had some degree of personal sexual autonomy, and some took the liberty of doing with their bodies as they pleased.

As old as the prehistoric bones jumbled in caves, as new as the latest union consummated in a test tube, the family in one form or another is at the heart of every society. Our most common institution, it is also the source of some of the world's most compelling and persistent questions, touching the very quick of history, anthropology, psychology, and sociology. A History of the Family is the first work to address all these aspects of the family over time and across the earth--to search out what the family means in its most particular and universal senses. This monumental work in two volumes brings together experts from every discipline to show what the study of each epoch has to tell us about the family. Why is the family universal and yet so different in its various cultural manifestations? What notions of kinship regulate it, and how do these develop and change? Françoise Zonabend's anthropological perspective on these questions, leading off Volume I, surveys familial terms and arrangements from familiar patrilinear models to matrilinear societies in Sumatra and Ghana to polyandry among the Nayar and the Toda of India. The following essays, which move from prehistory to antiquity to the middle ages, trace the evolution of the family from primate behavior to codified practices--in Sumer and Babylon and ancient Rome, in feudal Europe and medieval Byzantium, in China and Japan and Arab Islam--and relate these developments to religious, economic, and governmental concerns from land ownership to dynastic control and the maintenance of public order.