What happens when we begin reading the Talmud with an assumption of female presence rather than female absence? In this episode of Speaking Torah, Rabbi Dr. Jane Kanarek, Professor of Rabbinics and Dean of Faculty at Hebrew College, joins her longtime havruta partner Dr. Judith Kates to explore Jane's book Beyond Brutality: Reclaiming Female Presence in the Bavli Sotah.

Focusing on Tractate Sotah, a text shaped by a brutal ritual that publicly humiliates women, Jane demonstrates how reading the tractate as a unified literary whole reveals something surprising: the Bavli itself pushes back against that brutality.

Get full show notes and more information here: http://hebrewcollege.edu/podcast-29