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.

Whether or not women were a part of the Essenes’ Qumran settlement, they do appear in Qumran literature. Women in the halakhic writing are only discussed when there are explicit rulings about women’s issues. Halakhic literature shows that women were excluded from all facets of public life and generally were subject to strict halakhic rulings.

IIn antiquity, the treatment of women drew from patriarchal biblical traditions. Despite a few notable exceptions, women had minimal legal rights but were active participants in alternative Jewish sects and could hold office. As rabbinic material was codified, control over women increased, although the literature was not exclusively restrictive towards women.

Rabbi Ben-Zion Hai Ouziel was the Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel. Ouziel believed women could vote and be elected, serve as judges, use birth control for health reasons, and inherit property. He proposed a marriage formula that would prevent women from becoming agunot (“chained”).

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.

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.

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 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.

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.