Massekhet Shevuʿot

Text, Translation, and Commentary. A Feminist Commentary on the Babylonian Talmud. Volume IV/6.

By (author) Tal Ilan By (author) Tanja Hidde

Book cover: Massekhet Shevuʿot

Extent: 317 pages

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Subjects: Gender & Sexuality, Jewish Studies, Religious Studies

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(May 2025)

ISBN: 9783161645242

6.5 x 9.37 inches

Price: $194.00

In stock

This feminist commentary on Massekhet Shevuʿot examines the role of gender in legal oaths. Tanja Hidde analyzes women’s participation in court and their exclusion as witnesses, while Tal Ilan explores how the Babylonian rabbis connect the oath-swearing of the suspected adulteress in Numbers 5 to other oaths taken by both men and women.


Tanja Hidde and Tal Ilan offer a feminist commentary on the Massekhet Shevu’ot of the Mishnah and the Babylonian Talmud by focusing on women and gender in the texts. The tractate deals with oaths, mostly in a legal, court context. In presenting and interpreting the texts in Mishnah Shevu?ot, Tanja Hidde is concerned first and foremost with the discussion of women’s participation in court cases that require oath-swearing, as well as women’s exclusion from serving as witnesses. Focusing on the Babylonian Talmud, Tal Ilan shows that, in their commentary on Mishnah Shevu’ot, the Babylonian rabbis continually use chapter 5 of the Book of Numbers, because it includes a wife suspected of adultery, who swears an oath. Tal Ilan illustrates that the Babylonian rabbis use the wife’s oath-swearing as a basis for commenting on other actions of both men and women.

  • By (author) Tal Ilan
  • By (author) Tanja Hidde