Massekhet Gittin Chapters 4-5

Tractate Gittin of the Mishnah is located in the Order of Women and discusses divorce proceedings. Chapters 4 and 5 of the Tractate address a specific topic – “the improvement of the world” – and list a number of rules (most of them devoted to women and gender issues) which were enacted so as to improve a certain undesirable condition. This volume provides a feminist commentary on these gender-relevant mishnaic texts, and on the commentary of the Babylonian Talmud on them. The Babylonian commentary includes an extended literary unit that describes and comments on the conquest of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple. Anat Israeli and Tal Ilan address the gendered issues that arise from this literary unit and raise the question of women’s place (and victimhood) in the male economy of war.