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177 notes introduction 1. Greenberg, “Etymology of Niddah,” 69–77; Fonrobert, Menstrual Purity, 16–18; Milgrom et al., “Niddah,” in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, 9:232–235. 2. Milgrom, Anchor Bible: Leviticus, 745. 3. A Bar Ilan database search of the printed (Margaliot) edition of the Zohar reveals an overwhelming number of instances of the term niddah as compared to the Aramaic and Hebrew terms for the nine other “fathers of impurity.” 4. On the Zohar and Jewish law (halakhah), see Katz, Halakhah ve-Kabbalah; TaShma , Ha-Nigleh she ba-Nistar; H . allamish, Ha-Qabbalah, 117–146; Ta-Shma, “Acceptance of the Zohar,” 407–418; Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, 173–199; Liebes, “Zohar as a Halakhic Book,” 581–605; Shuchat, “When Parallel Lines Meet,” 449–486. 5. Consider the many ordinances attributed to Yoh . annan ben Zaqqai after the destruction of the Temple. Neusner, “Studies on the Taqqanot of Yavneh,” 183–198. For a spiritual reworking, see Heschel, The Sabbath; Green, “Zaddiq as Axis Mundi,” 329–331; Idel, Ascensions on High, 23–71; Brody, “Human Hands Dwell in Heavenly Heights.” 6. Scholem, Major Trends, 37–38. See among others, Idel, “Beloved and the Concubine,” 141–143; Wolfson, Language, Eros, Being, 46–110; Rapoport-Albert, “On Women in Hasidism ,” 508. 7. Baskin,“DolceofWorms,”42.Thatisnottosaythattherearenoexamplesoflearned Jewish women. According to halakhah, women were merely exempted, not forbidden, Torah study, and some distinguished themselves. The figures Beruriah and Ima Shalom were noted for their scholarship in the Talmud, Urania of Worms led prayer services for women, Rabbi Shlomo Yitsh . aqi’s (Rashi’s) daughters were purportedly learned, and the leaders of the German Pietists encouraged women to study Torah. Yet female Pietists could acquire only the exoteric Torah knowledge that would enable them to practice Judaism more efficiently; stringent purity laws barred them from esoteric lore. The Pietist Eleazar of Worms, who lauded the Torah knowledge of his wife and daughter (Shirat haRoqeah . , 226–232), not only adopted the most strict interpretation of menstrual purity laws known at that time but also instituted additional restrictions governing mystics’ contact with menstruants. See, among others, BT Berakhot 20b; BT Qiddushin 29a. Sefer ha-H . inukh, 532 par. 418; Judah the Pietist, Sefer H . asidim, ed. Margaliot, 211 par. 835 and par. 1501. Petah . ia of Regensburg, Seevuv Rav Petah . ia Mi-Regensburg, 9; Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Talmud Torah, 1:13; Maimonides, Teshuvat ha-Ramban, ed. Blau, 34. On Jewish women’s education in the late-antique world, see Ilan, “Quest for the Historical Beruriah, Rachel, and Ima Shalom,” 1–17; Goodblatt, “Beruriah Traditions,” 68–85; Boyarin , Carnal Israel, 183–196; Swidler, Women in Judaism, 97–105. In the Middle Ages, see Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, 26; Agus, The Heroic Age of Franco-German Jewry, 284–309; Cohen, “Women and the Study of Talmud,” 28–37; Grossman, Pious and Rebellious , 154–174; Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 2:171–211; Harvey, “Obligation of Talmud 178 · Notes to Pages 2–4 on Women according to Maimonides,” 122–130; Marcus, “Mothers, Martyrs, and Moneylenders ,” 41–42; Nirenberg, “A Female Rabbi in Fourteenth Century Zaragoza?” 179–183. 8. Hood and Hall, “Gender Differences in the Description of Erotic and Mystical Experiences ,” 195–207; Jacobs, “Religious Experience among Women and Men,” 261–279; Sjørup, “Are Women’s Religious Experiences Mystical Experiences,” 15–32. 9. Foucault, Power/Knowledge; Jantzen, Power, Gender, and Christian Mysticism, 13. 10. Ibid., 223–241. See also, Brown, “Notion of Virginity in the Early Church,” 427– 443; Castelli, “Virginity and Its Meaning for Women’s Sexuality in Early Christianity,” 61–88. 11. Kraemer, “Her Share of the Blessing,” 108–109; Kraemer, When Aseneth Met Joseph, 135; Lesses, “Exe(o)rcising Power,” 343–375. The virulent comments against sorceresses in the Talmud may be seen as part of a rabbinic polemic against successful competition. 12. Rapoport-Albert, “On the Position of Women in Sabbateanism,” 143–327. Professor Rapoport-Albert's Women and the Messianic Heresy of Sabbatai Zev (Littman, 2011) appeared in print too late for me to cite it in my notes and bibliography, but I would like readers to be aware of her excellent new study. See also Chajes, Between Worlds, 97–118. 13. Schechter, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, 199–218; Deutsch, The Maiden of Ludmir. 14. Vital, SeferH . ezyonot,6–7,10;Chajes, Between Worlds, 97–118; Chajes, “Spirit Possession in Sixteenth Century Safed,” 124–158; Faierstein, “Maggidim, Spirits, and Women in Rabbi Hayyim Vital’s Book of Visions...

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