Tanja Hidde and Tal Ilan offer a feminist commentary on the Massekhet Shevu?ot 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 Shevu?ot, Tanja Hidde is concerned first and foremost with the discussion of women’s participation in court cases that require oath-swearing, as well as women’s exclusion from serving as witnesses.
Focusing on the Babylonian Talmud, Tal Ilan shows that, in their commentary on Mishnah Shevu?ot, 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 wife’s oath-swearing as a basis for commenting on other actions of both men and women.