Perhaps more than any other aspect of rabbinic literature, the laws about and discussions of menstruation have polarized current discussions of gender relations in Jewish culture. Is the designated impurity of menstruation sexist? Or does ritual absence from sex during menstruation encourage a rhythmic reaffirmation of conjugal intimacy?This book offers a new perspective on the extensive rabbinic discussions of menstrual impurity, female physiology, and anatomy, and on the social and religious institutions those discussions engendered. It analyzes the functions of these discussions within the larger textual world of rabbinic literature and in the context of Jewish and Christian culture in late antiquity.How did gender work—how was it made to work—in rabbinic literature? How did that literature dictate the place of women in Jewish culture? In search of answers to these questions, the author analyzes the architectural metaphors deployed to describe female anatomy, arguing that this discursive construction operated culturally to associate women with the home and exclude them from rabbinic study halls.The author shows that rabbinic discourse is not completely controlled by rabbinic ideology, however. She analyzes talmudic discussions that allow alternative gender perspectives to emerge, indicating that women and their bodies were not completely objectified. This suggests that the Babylonian Talmud does not present a completely homogeneous gender structure, but contains a number of different, sometimes contradictory, possibilities.The book concludes with a study of early Christian texts that relate to the same biblical laws on menstrual impurity as rabbinic texts, focusing in particular on a Jewish-Christian text in which the anonymous author polemicizes against Jewish women converts who remain attached to the biblical laws. This text allows us to reconstruct women’s perspectives on the inscription of religious meaning onto their bodies and physiological processes.

An inspirational guide for mothers, grandmothers, stepmothers, aunts, or any woman wishing to nurture a girl through her coming of age (while empowering herself!) This book provides practical guidelines for mentoring a girl into womanhood. It offers creative ceremonies and activities designed to honor a girl s transition and call her to new levels of maturity. At the same time, it presents the adult woman/mentor with powerful tools for enhancing her inner and outer life. The book is motivated by the belief that for a girl to enter womanhood in a meaningful way, it is essential that her mother and other special women in her life cultivate a new way of relating that will gradually help her to become their peer.

No longer will women have to put up with their health problems. This book is a woman's indispensable guide to reversing health problems based on the expert advie of 68 leading physicians. It contains clinically proven alternative therapies for relief from conditions such as infertility, endometriosis, vaginitis menstrual problems, ovarian cysts and much more.

Why do I feel like this today? Understand the influence of the cycles on your daily life and become less of a mystery to yourself. Using the menstrual cycle charting handbook and journal Thirteen Moons enables women to see the patterns within the cycles and better understand how and why they feel the way they do. Thirteen Moons teaches you how to chart your cycle and provides charts for a whole year so you can see the patterns. There are journal pages to keep a record of your dreams with specific and revealing questions for you to answer each week of your cycle or the lunation cycle. Menopausal women will see how their moods and energy levels are linked with the moon phases. The Spinning Wheels is a unique and innovative tool, a wealth of information in one handy card that tells you the characteristics of each phase of each cycle - Earth season, life season, moon phases and menstrual cycle. On any particular day you can be aware of all the energies that are affecting you and be more likely to understand the way you feel. This information enables women to be familiar with the complex interplay of the cycles that influences their every moment. Thirteen Moons and Spinning Wheels was created by midwife and woman s blood mysteries teacher Jane Hardwicke Collings in Australia to help women reconnect with the wisdom inherent in the cycles and the magic intrinsic to their menstrual cycle. Women all around the planet have been using Thirteen Moons and Spinning Wheels to help them understand and flow with their cycles.

“Dr. Rako discusses a growing body of information that deflates the notion that menstrual suppression is a viable option for women." —The New York Times Encouraging healthy menstruating women and even teenage girls to do away with their normal menstrual cycles by dosing themselves more or less nonstop with hormones (a multi-billion-dollar-per-year industry) is, in a word, reckless. What every woman and her doctor MUST know about the actual benefits of the normal menstrual cycle—naturally lowered blood pressure, reduced risk of heart attacks and strokes, healthy bones, rhythmic stimulation of sexual desire and creativity—and about the potential hazards of menstrual suppression (heart attacks, strokes, cervical cancer, osteoporosis, depressed libido) deserves a voice. I am determined that it will have one. —Susan Rako, M.D.