Winner of the 1998 National Jewish Book Award--the summation of a life's work by a mother of Jewish feminist theology

How can women's full participation transform Jewish law, prayer, sexuality, and marriage? What does it mean to "engender" Jewish tradition? Pioneering theologian Rachel Adler gives this timely and powerful question its first thorough study in a book that bristles with humor, passion, intelligence, and deep knowledge of traditional biblical and rabbinic texts. Engendering Judaism challenges both mainstream Judaism and feminist dogma and speaks across Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox movements as well as to Christian theologians and feminists. Beacon's paperback edition of this major work brings it to a wide audience for the first time.
"Summarizing the thinking of a lifetime, [this] is the first major work of feminist Jewish theology since Plaskow's Standing Again at Sinai."

--Alicia Ostriker, Lilith
"Both builds on and departs from earlier feminist work, creating a theology and ethics that are dazzling in their inventiveness and analytic power. . . . [A] rich brew that many progressive Jews will find nourishing and usable, and many non-Jewish feminists will find an important model of the combination of theory and practice."

--Judith Plaskow, The Women's Review of Books
"Will surely be the major text of the new Jewish feminism."

--Arnold Jacob Wolf, Judaism

Rachel Adler has written a pioneering work on what it means to "engender" Jewish tradition, that is, how women's full inclusion can and must transform our understanding and practice of Jewish law, prayer, sexuality, and marriage.Engendering Judaism challenges both mainstream Judaism and feminist dogma, and speaks across the movements as well as to Christian theologians and feminists. It presents a theology and ethics for Judaism that men and women recreate and renew together as equals. Adler assesses the impact of gender and sexuality on Judaism's classic texts. She brings this assessment to bear on three central areas of Jewish thought and practice; law, liturgy, and the ethics of sexuality and relationship