In this book, Wilda C. Gafney takes a womanist midrash approach to (re)introduce the reader to many of the named and unnamed women in the Torah and in the monarchy. Her approach draws on the wells of her experience with classical and contemporary Jewish midrash and with the sanctified imagination often employed in black preaching. The discussion centers on characters in biblical narratives who are female, with an emphasis on the marginalization of those who are foreign and/or enslaved.
The introduction and second appendix frame the work and should be read first. In the introduction, Gafney first acquaints the reader to the womanist framework more broadly. Gafney then defines her own womanist midrash approach as a set of interpretive practices, including translation, exegesis and biblical interpretation, that attends to marginalized characters in biblical narratives, especially women and girls, intentionally including and centering on non-Israelite peoples and enslaved persons (p. 3)....
