The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women

Learn more about the Encyclopedia

Aharon Shemesh

Aharon Shemesh (Ph.D.) is a professor in the Talmud Department at Bar-Ilan University and a fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He is the author of Punishments and Sins: From Scripture to the Rabbis (2003) and many articles on the development of Jewish law in the Talmud and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Articles by this author

Qumran

Whether or not women were a part of the Essenes’ Qumran settlement, they do appear in Qumran literature. Women in the halakhic writing are only discussed when there are explicit rulings about women’s issues. Halakhic literature shows that women were excluded from all facets of public life and generally were subject to strict halakhic rulings.