Feminist studies of gender and Judaism widely agree that, at least until the late 1970s, it is masculinity that has been almost exclusively generative of Judaism's authoritative religious and historical knowledge and leadership. Underpinning and perpetuating the secondary status of Jewish women are a male God, the male "founder," Abraham, and leader, Moses, a traditionally male rabbinical establishment historically subsequent to a hereditary male priesthood, and a male messiah in the times to come. Until the late twentieth century, most women (even those in relatively liberal circles) have known communal Judaism and Jewish thought from the perspective of the marginal other. Despite the existence of women of outstanding piety throughout Jewish history, and a very few instances of female scholars in the rabbinic and early modern periods particularly, women have not been the speaking subjects but the silent objects of Jewish discourse. They have...