Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues

When studying the Talmud with an eye to considerations of gender, sometimes it is possible to demonstrate (for example, by reference to parallel texts or manuscript variants) that women have actively been omitted or edited out of a text. On other occasions, however, women’s exclusion or absence points to more complex workings of gender in the given text and in rabbinic culture more generally. I will demonstrate here that such an example occurs in Mishnah Mo‘ed katan 3:4. The mishnah describes a man spinning thread for ritual fringes during the mid-festival days, when work is supposed to be limited. Since spinning, and wool work more generally, were highly feminized in the world of Greco-Roman antiquity, both symbolically and in practice, and hence in rabbinic culture as well, the male gender of the spinner in this passage becomes notable. While certain “localized” explanations of the mishnaic scenario are possible (relating, for example, to concerns about the festival, or the ritual nature of the act), I will suggest a broader approach. The male spinner leads into explorations of the rabbinic concept of “positive time-bound commandments,” of whether ritual fringes are part of this category, and of how Jewish ritual practices may be gendered by more subtle textual means than those employed in outright discussions of women’s inclusion or exemption.