Publication of the book: "Maternal Sacrifices. A New Gaze at Sacrificial Patterns in Jewish Cultures, edited by Elisa Carandina, Henoch (46/2, 2024)"

Abstract:

This thematic issue explores the notion of maternal sacrifice, crossing its ritual, narrative and metaphorical dimensions. By reworking the notion of sacrifice in relation to the maternal component, it addresses the question of the mother's presence in sacrificial structures - be they sacrifices performed by mothers, undergone by them or aimed at potential maternal figures. Through a variety of approaches, the contributions gathered here examine this presence in Jewish cultures from Antiquity to the present day: Corrado Martone revisits the place of women in Qumran; Isabella Scortegagna rereads the Soṭah ritual as a collective admonition; Shana Strauch Schick compares maternal figures in rabbinic literature and their Zoroastrian and Christian parallels; Ilaria Briata explores the figure of the infanticidal mother during the siege of Jerusalem and its resonances in Hebrew and Judeo-Spanish literature; Elisa Carandina analyzes the work of Michal Heiman, who restores voice and subjectivity to the anonymous woman in chapter 19 of the Book of Judges. Together, these studies resonate the muted voices of mothers and invite us to rethink the links between gender, ritual and narrative.

The issue is available for purchase, both in print from Morcelliana and digitally, with each article available for download on the Torrossa platform.

The volume includes the following contributions:

- Elisa Carandina, Introduction.
- Corrado Martone, Daughters of Truth and Mothers of the Community. Some Observations on the Elusive Women of Qumran.
- Isabella Scortegagna, The Sacrifice of the Suspected Adulteress. Anthropological Notes of mSoṭah.
- Shana Strauch Schick, Mothers in Rabbinic Retellings of Exodus 2. Between Greco-Roman Palestine and Sasanian Persia.
- Ilaria Briata, The Extreme Sacrifice of a Cannibal Mother in the Siege of Jerusalem.
- Elisa Carandina, Rewriting the Sacrificial Pattern in Michal Heiman's Project Lying Women.