The author explores how Jewish tradition perceives and treats rituals surrounding birth and death, particularly as they pertain to women’s development. Part I focuses on birth contraception and birth control, fertility, and celebrating the birth of a daughter (the ritual of Simhat bat). Part II comprises chapters on the kaddish, or the memorial prayer for the dead, and the funeral. Each chapter begins with a synthesis of rabbincal views on the role of women in the ritual under scrutiny. Millen draws on halakhic literature from modern Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Judaism. She contextualizes the legal debates by raising questions about gender and sexuality and through exploring the public/private nexus and community/autonomy dialectic as understood by different Jewish denominations.