Searching for A Woman's Voice in Responsa Literature

This paper will address and illustrate the problems and process of investigating women's religious lives by using Jewish legal texts known as responsa. The most significant problem with legal texts is that women's voices are not heard. In terms of responsa specifically, women ask the questions and live with the decision, but they do not create and have no part in the creation of the legal text. As a test case, I will explore a series of responsa written by Rabbi Moses Feinstein, attempting to lift the veil of silence that covers these women. The women do not talk directly to us; but their condition does. The methodological question remains: how much of women's voice do we hear; how much can we claim to be suggestive of their situation and experience.