Synopsis

Expanding the Palace of Torah offers a broad philosophical overview of the challenges the women's revolution poses to Orthodox Judaism, and Orthodox Judaism's response to those challenges. Writing as an insider (herself an Orthodox Jew), Ross seeks to develop a theological response that fully acknowledges the male bias of Judaism's sanctified texts, yet nevertheless provides a rationale for transforming that bias in today's world without undermining their authority. She proposes an approach to divine revelation -- the theological heart of traditional Judaism -- which she calls "cumulativism." This approach is based on a conflating of strict boundaries between text and its interpretation, or divine intent and the evolution of human understanding.

Biography

TAMAR ROSS is Associate Professor of Jewish Thought in the Department of Philosophy at Bar Ilan University. She has also been the central instructor of Jewish Thought at Midreshet Lindenbaum (the first women's Yeshiva) since its inception.