Nahafokhu: Women and Megillah Reading – Overturning Assumptions

Posted by Rahel Berkovits on February 24, 2015
Topics: Esther, Women's Issues, Purim, Megillot

Rahel Berkovits looks into the obligation of women in the reading of the megillah and discusses how things are not as they seem. She goes on to show how the laws are a window to the complexity of the status of women in Rabbinic Judaism and how in the spirit of Purim and Nahafoku, pre-conceived notions will be turned on their head.

About Rahel Berkovits

Rahel Berkovits is a senior faculty member at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, where she has been teaching Mishnah, Talmud and halakha for over twenty years. Rahel lectures widely in both Israel and abroad especially on topics concerning women and Jewish law and a Jewish sexual ethic. She is the Halakhic Editor and a writer for Hilkhot Nashim the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance’s Halakhic Source-guide Series, recently published by Koren Publishing. Rahel is a founding member of Congregation Shirah Hadasha, a halakhic partnership Synagogue, and serves on their halakha committee. In June 2015, Rahel received Rabbinic Ordination from Rabbis Herzl Hefter and Daniel Sperber. Click here to read more. You can find books written by Rahel by clicking here

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