Kabbalah and Eros

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Yale University Press, Jan 1, 2005 - Religion - 371 pages

In this book, the world's foremost scholar of Kabbalah explores the understanding of erotic love in Jewish mystical thought. Encompassing Jewish mystical literatures from those of late antiquity to works of Polish Hasidism, Moshe Idel highlights the diversity of Kabbalistic views on eros and distinguishes between the major forms of eroticism.

The author traces the main developments of a religious formula that reflects the union between a masculine divine attribute and a feminine divine attribute, and he asks why such an "erotic formula" was incorporated into the Jewish prayer book. Idel shows how Kabbalistic literature was influenced not only by rabbinic literature but also by Greek thought that helped introduce a wider understanding of eros. Addressing topics ranging from cosmic eros and androgyneity to the affinity between C. J. Jung and Kabbalah to feminist thought, Idel's deeply learned study will be of consuming interest to scholars of religion, Judaism, and feminism.

 

Contents

Introduction
1
1 Kabbalah and Some Prekabbalistic Attitudes toward Eros
16
Interpretations of Androgyneity in Jewish Mysticism
53
Paths of National Myth
104
From Platonic Eros to Jewish Mysticism
153
5 Cosmoeroticism in Jewish Mysticism
179
Concluding Remarks
202
On the Theurgical Role of the Woman in Sexuality
247
Notes
251
Bibliography
323
Index
345
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About the author (2005)

MOSHE IDEL is Max Cooper Professor of Jewish Thought, Hebrew University, and senior researcher at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem. He is the author of Absorbing Perfections (winner of the Koret Prize for Jewish Thought), Kabbalah, and Messianic Mystics, all published by Yale University Press.

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