Women and Gender in Jewish Philosophy

CONTENTS

C O N T E N T S Acknowledgments ix ‰ Editor’s Introduction: Jewish Philosophy in Conversation with Feminism / Hava Tirosh-Samuelson 1 PART I. RE-READING JEWISH PHILOSOPHERS 1. Loss, Presence, and Gabirol’s Desire: Medieval Jewish Philosophy and the Possibility of a Feminist Ground / Sarah Pessin 27 2. Thinking Desire in Gersonides and Spinoza / Idit Dobbs-Weinstein 51 3. Spinoza’s Ethics of the Liberation of Desire / Heidi Miriam Ravven 78 4. The Lonely Woman of Faith under Late Capitalism; or, Jewish Feminism in Marxist Perspective / Jean Axelrad Cahan 106 5. Dependency and Vulnerability: Jewish and Feminist Existentialist Constructions of the Human / Leora Batnitzky 127 6. From Eros to Maternity: Love, Death, and “the Feminine” in the Philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas / Claire Elise Katz 153 PART II. RE-THINKING ASPECTS OF JEWISH PHILOSOPHY 7. To Know What Is: Feminism, Metaphysics, and Epistemology / T. M. Rudavsky 179 viii contents 8. Into the Woods: Killer Mothers, Feminist Ethics, and the Problem of Evil / Laurie Zoloth 204 9. Judaism’s Body Politic / Nancy K. Levene 234 10. Feminism and the Rabbinic Conception of Justice / Suzanne Last Stone 263 11. Reconstructing Divine Power: Post-Holocaust Jewish Theology, Feminism, and Process Philosophy / Sandra B. Lubarsky 289 12. Theological Desire: Feminism, Philosophy, and Exegetical Jewish Thought / Randi Rashkover 314 ‰ Contributors 341 Index 345 ...