Ours is an era of profound spiritual searching, in which the role of the Jewish woman is being reexamined. Torah of the Mothers is a landmark collection of essays and teachings culled from years of Bible and Jewish study by highly accomplished women Torah scholars and educators.
Each contributor brings her own area of expertise to bear, providing novel and refreshing insights into biblical and rabbinic texts. Each also offers thought-provoking commentary on the ever present themes of exile and redemption, which are intrinsic to the ongoing saga of the Jewish people.
In Torah of the Mothers, contemporary women also reflect upon teachers who have personally influenced and inspired them. Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchik, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe and Nechama Leibowitz, of blessed memories, are among the mentors who played, and continue to play, a meaningful role in their lives.
Torah of the Mothers combines erudition with deep concern for the daily aspects of our spiritual lives.
Dr. Ora Wiskind Elper teaches Jewish thought at Michlalah College, MaTaN Institute for Women's Torah Studies, and Touro College, Jerusalem. She is the author of Tradition and Fantasy in the Tales of Reb Nahman of Bratslav. She has also translated works from Hebrew, French and German, including An Introduction to the Kabbalah by Moshe Hallamish and Rav Avraham Itzhak HaCohen Kook: Between Rationalism and Mysticism by Benjamin Ish-Shalom.
Dr. Susan Handelman was Professor of English and Jewish Studies for twenty years at the University of Maryland and has recently moved to Israel to join the faculty of the English Department at Bar-Ilan University. She is the author of The Slayer of Moses: The Emergence of Rabbinic Interpretation in Modern Literary Theory and Fragments of Redemption: Jewish Thought and Literary Theory in Scholem, Benjamin and Levinas. She has also co-edited, with Joseph Smith, Psychoanalysis and Religion and co-translated and edited On the Essence of Chassidus by Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe.