Kabbalah and eros
By: Moshe Idel.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2005
Place of publication: New Haven
Language: eng; rum
Number of pages: 371
Subjects: Cabala -- History; Love -- Religious aspects -- Judaism; Sex -- Religious aspects -- Judaism
Description: "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 study will be of interest to scholars of religion, Judaism, and feminism."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Kabbalah and some prekabbalistic attitudes to eros; title: Du-partzufin : interpretations of androgyneity in Jewish mysticism; title: God's wife and concubine : paths of national myth; title: Contemplating a female : from platonic eros to Jewish mysticism; title: Cosmoeroticism in Jewish mysticism; title: Appendix : on the theurgical role of the woman in sexuality.