Exegesis or eisegesis, do we draw meaning from the text or do we add meaning based on our own experiences, prejudices, and knowledge? This question is one we must consider when reading Dr. Lefkovitz's book on gender roles in the Hebrew Bible. The Bible does not shy away from sexuality in either its stories or mitzvot and certainly reflects a point of view of a culture and a time. Lefkovitz brings to the text a feminist, gender- based, psychoanalytical analysis which imposes upon the Biblical stories new meanings of sexuality through the lens of modern life. Her work represents a thoughtful and full exploration of several familiar stories beginning with Eve in the Garden and includes such well-known characters as Miriam and Joseph, explored in a new light of sexuality and gender identity. The story of seduction in the Garden has been well commented on, but Lefkovitz adds new layers of sexual meaning to the serpent as a phallic symbol. In a post-Freudian world it is difficult to interpret the serpent image otherwise, but are we imposing our interpretation or drawing out an interpretation? Are there undertones of homosexuality in the Joseph story, or does the beautiful Joseph escape Potiphar's wife because he realizes the consequences of acting on impulse? Interesting questions to ponder or refute in this challenging read of evolving sexual identity in Jewish texts.

Jewish Book World

Lefkovitz is both sharp and playful in her application of a variety of post-modern gender theories in each of the chapters. In accessible language, she explains such potentially difficult ideas as the semiotics of linguistic classification, French feminist theory, Queer theory and the idea of fluid gender identity, comparative cultural norms, and counter-cultural traditions, among others, and skillfully applies them to her selected biblical texts. Readers who are curious about these contemporary concepts will find clear and useful introductions in these pages. . . . Lefkovitz, a professor of Gender and Judaism at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, writes in a readable, personable prose, underpinned by sound scholarship, as the solid and informative endnotes testify. This book will shake up many assumptions, as it cuts a wide swath through biblical, rabbinic, and Western cultures, applying a range of gender theories in surprising ways.

Lilith: A Feminist History Journal

Lori Lefkovitz’s stimulating book confirms the arrival of feminist biblical studies—with its particular set of questions and concerns—as a given in contemporary scholarship on the Hebrew Bible. . . . There is much to admire in this work. I appreciate Lefkovitz’s application of gender theory in original readings of both female and male. Her language is often poetic, her handling of different texts and genres over time is skillfully done, and her passion to clarify the enduring legacy of sexual limitations and subversions for our time is moving. . . . In Scripture strikes me as very much of our time. We live in a culture in which all bets are off, in a world made strange, and it is in this setting that Lefkovitz’s book finds its place, leaving us with a richer and more nuanced appreciation for the shifting and multiple ways in which we take on, and discard, our identities as sexual and gendered readers of biblical texts.

AJS Review

Like the scriptural narratives it discusses, Lefkovitz’s volume is the result of many years of reflection on the facts of biblical life. ...This is an extremely rich book. . . there are a wealth of insightful observations. ... many of Lefkovitz’s readings are stunningly multi-textured and perceptive, showing that new treasures can indeed be drawn from these old indeed, ancient texts by the skillful interpreter of Torah. . . .it is a treasury of trenchant observations effortlessly linking the then of the texts with the now of (post) modernity in a fascinating tapestry of gender and identity.

Review of Biblical Literature

I really delighted in this book. It deals in such clarity with complexity; it reads these ancient biblical texts and finds subtleties that I had never discovered or appreciated before, and opened a new world of meaning. And I had such pleasure in the writing itself.

Relegere: Studies in Religion and Reception

Thrilling to read. . . . In Scripture has such depth that it's difficult to grasp its complexities in one reading. Its ideas will resonate not only in [the] study of the biblical text, but in analysis of other religious and secular works.

The Reporter Group