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Tirzah Meacham (leBeit Yoreh)

Tirzah Meacham (leBeit Yoreh) received a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin (Madison); and a B.A. equivalent, M.A. and Ph.D. in Talmudic and Rabbinic literature from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She edited Sefer haBagrut leRav Shmuel ben Hofni Gaon veSefer haShanim leRav Yehuda haKohen Rosh haSeder (with Miriam Frenkel as translator from Judeo-Arabic to Hebrew, 1998). With Harry Fox (leBeit Yoreh) she edited Introducing Tosefta: Textual, Intratextual and Intertextual Studies (1999). She is an associate professor of Talmudic and Rabbinic literature in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto.

Articles by this author

Reproductive Technology, New (NRT)

New reproductive technology has provided the solution for problems of infertility for hundreds of thousands of couples. For halakhically observant Jews, especially in the pro-natal state of Israel and in general in the post-Holocaust era, this technology has been a blessing but has also created a multitude of halakhic problems.

Niddah, Tractate

The tractate Niddah is concerned with the halakhic status of a woman’s body. It details and clarifies all of the rules of Niddah, which describes a woman in her menstruation period.

Legal-Religious Status of the Married Woman

Rabbinic law defines the criteria and requirements for traditional marriage, marital rights, and divorce. However, the rabbinic marital system poses many problematic issues for women, especially for agunot, women trapped against their will in marriages by their husbands.

Legal-Religious Status of the Moredet (Rebellious Wife)

A woman who is deemed a moredet is severely disadvantaged in her legal standing. There are various ways in which a women is considered a moredet, and all legal processes dealing with rebellious wives put women at a legal disadvantage.

Legal-Religious Status of the Suspected Adulteress (Sotah)

When a husband accused his wife of adultery, the Bible prescribes the ritual of Sotah (bitter waters) to verify his claim. Rabbinic literature explains and explores the ritual and the requirements for undergoing sotah.

Legal-Religious Status of the Virgin

Virginity has long remained a significant feature of womanhood in Judaism. Many foundational Jewish texts detail the specifics of virginity, explaining the requirements of virginity and to what extent these requirements can be expanded.

Legal-Religious Status of the Female According to Age

Legal status in Judaism is determined by age, sex, legal capacity, and, to some extent, by class and societal status. Legal majority in Jewish law was achieved relatively early in comparison to contemporary standards.

Legal-Religious Status of the Jewish Female

Gendered language in the Torah resulted in centuries of debate about a woman’s role with regard to commandments. The sages’ construction of a woman and her values was very negative, probably relating more to their vision of the ideal, which was male oriented, and applying its opposite to females.

Female Purity (Niddah)

Halakhic practice for Niddah, or female purity, is based on a harmonistic reading of Leviticus 12,15, 18, and 20. The laws of female purity have been historically used to determine the status of women in a patriarchal society.

Contraception

One of the major Jewish sources dealing with contraception is Tosefta Niddah. As with the issue of abortion, the more public the debate about contraception became over time, the more some rabbinic authorities attempted to usurp women’s control over their bodies.

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How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Tirzah Meacham (leBeit Yoreh)." (Viewed on October 5, 2024) <https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/author/meacham-tirzah>.