Both the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud depict a wide range of sorrowful situations tied to every level of society and to the complexities of human behavior and the human condition. The causes and expressions of sorrow amongst the Sages, however, are different from their counterparts amongst common people or women, with descriptions varying between the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmud. In Sorrow and Distress in the Talmud, Valler explores more than 50 stories from both the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmuds, focusing on these issues.

Tractate Sukkah from the Babylonian Talmud presents a broad spectrum of rabbinical sources from Erez Israel and Babylon that explicitly examine issues relating to women. Some of these sources were created by sages who lived in Erez Israel in the time of the second temple and after its destruction and were called Tannaim, and the others were created by sages who lived in Erez Israel and in Babylon from the third until the seventh century and were called Amoraim. All the sources can be divided into two categories: topics directly connected to women and Sukkot, and matters indirectly associated...