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Now available in English, a provocative new biography of the founder of Hasidism

Leadership --- Mysticism --- Jewish magic. --- Magic, Jewish --- Magic, Semitic --- Religious aspects --- Judaism. --- Baʻal Shem Ṭov, --- Israel ben Eliezer, --- Baalʹ-Shem-Tov, Israėlʹ, --- Baʻal Shem Tob, Israel ben Eliezer, --- Baʻal Shem Ṭov, Yiśraʼel, --- Baal-Shem-Tov, Yisroel, --- Baalshem, Israel, --- Baʻalshem, Yiśraʼel, --- Bal-Shem-Ṭoyv, Yiśroel, --- Besht, --- Ha-Besht, --- Besht, Israel ben Eliezer, --- Beshṭ, Yiśraʼel ben Eliʻezer, --- Eliezer, Israel ben, --- Eliʻezer, Yiśraʼel ben, --- Horivash, --- Ha-Rivash, --- Rivash, --- Ha-R. Y. B. Sh., --- R. Y. B. Sh., --- Baʻa. Sh. Ṭ., --- Israel Baal Shem Tov, --- Israel, --- Miedzyboz, Israel of, --- Or Shivʻat ha-Yamim, --- Yiśraʼel Baʻal Shem Ṭov, --- Yiśraʼel ben Eliʻezer, --- Yisroel Baal-Shem-Tov, --- Yiśroel Bal-Shem-Ṭoyv, --- Baal Szem Tow, --- Beszt, --- Yiśraʼel, --- ב --- בעש״ט --- בעש״ט, --- בעש״ט, ישראל, --- בעל שם --- בעל שם טוב, --- בעל־שם־טוב --- הבעש״ט --- ישראל בעש״ט --- ישראל בעל שם טוב --- ישראל בעל שם טוב, --- ישראל, --- ישראל בן אליעזר, --- ישראל בן אליעזר בעל שם טוב, --- ישראל בן אליעזר ושרה --- ישראל-בן-אליעזר, בעל שם טוב, --- Baal Shem Tov,

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This volume, an amazing act of historical recovery and reconstruction, offers a comprehensive examination of Jewish women in Europe during the High Middle Ages (1000–1300). Avraham Grossman covers multiple aspects of women’s lives in medieval Jewish society, including the image of woman, the structure of the family unit, age at marriage, position in family and society, her place in economic and religious life, her education, her role in family ceremonies, violence against women, and the position of the divorcée and the widow in society. Grossman shows that the High Middle Ages saw a distinct improvement in the status of Jewish women in Europe relative to their status during the Talmudic period and in Muslim countries. If, during the twelfth century, rabbis applauded women as "pious and pure" because of their major role in the martyrdom of the Crusades of 1096, then by the end of the thirteenth century, rabbis complained that women were becoming bold and rebellious. Two main factors fostered this change: first, the transformation of Jewish society from agrarian to "bourgeois," with women performing an increasingly important function in the family economy; and second, the openness toward women in Christian Europe, where women were not subjected to strict limitations based upon conceptions of modesty, as was the case in Muslim countries. The heart of Grossman’s book concerns the improvement of Jewish women’s lot, and the efforts of secular and religious authorities to impede their new-found status. Bringing together a variety of sources including halakhic literature, biblical and talmudic exegesis, ethical literature and philosophy, love songs, folklore and popular literature, gravestones, and drawings, Grossman’s book reconstructs the hitherto unrecorded lives of Jewish women during the Middle Ages.

Middle Ages --- Hasidism --- Judaism --- Women (Jewish law) --- Jewish women --- Women in Judaism --- History