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Can Jewish law evolve to embrace gender equality while remaining true to Torah principles? In "Jewish Women in Time and Torah," Orthodox philosopher Eliezer Berkovits challenges traditional restrictions on women's religious participation, arguing that these limitations stem from historical cultural prejudices rather than authentic Jewish teaching. Through careful analysis, Berkovits distinguishes between "Torah-tolerated norms" that temporarily accommodated past societies and "Torah-taught norms" intended to elevate women's status. His framework supports expanding women's religious roles, including wearing tefillin, forming women's minyanim, and conducting Bat Mitzvah ceremonies, based on the Talmudic principle that absence of precedent does not constitute prohibition. The work offers practical halakhic solutions to contemporary challenges, particularly addressing the agunot problem through conditional marriages and annulment procedures. While Berkovits masterfully deploys halakhic and aggadic sources to support his positions, his assertion that negative attitudes toward women purely reflect external cultural influences, rather than internal rabbinical perspectives, warrants closer scrutiny. Nevertheless, his work marks a significant advancement in progressive Orthodox discourse on achieving gender equality within traditional Jewish legal parameters.

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    Published 1990-1991

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