Beschreibung:
May women participate actively in the Torah reading on Shabbat morning? Both the Tosefta (Megillah 3:11) and the Talmud (Megillah 23a) address this issue, and both contain the same contradiction: while at first women are included in the quorum of seven needed for the ritual, in the next breath they are disqualified from reading in public. What motivated the sages to say “All are qualified to be among the seven [who are called to the Torah and read from the Torah on Shabbat morning], even a woman and even a minor [...]” only to follow the statement with a refusal to integrate women into the synagogal ritual of Keriat haTorah? An examination of women’s presence in biblical depictions of public Torah reading (Deuteronomy 31:10–13; Nehemiah 7:72–8:3; Joshua 8:30–35) suggests possible answers to this question.