Tanja Hidde and Tal Ilan offer a feminist commentary on the Massekhet Shevuot of the Mishnah and the Babylonian Talmud by focusing on women and gender in the texts. The tractate deals with oaths, mostly in a legal, court context. In presenting and interpreting the texts in Mishnah Shevuot, Tanja Hidde is concerned first and foremost with the discussion of womens participation in court cases that require oath-swearing, as well as womens exclusion from serving as witnesses.
Focusing on the Babylonian Talmud, Tal Ilan shows that, in their commentary on Mishnah Shevuot, the Babylonian rabbis continually use chapter 5 of the Book of Numbers, because it includes a wife suspected of adultery, who swears an oath. Tal Ilan illustrates that the Babylonian rabbis use the wifes oath-swearing as a basis for commenting on other actions of both men and women.
