Kabbalah and Eros

Kabbalah and Eros

Cabala -- History
Love -- Religious aspects -- Judaism
Sex -- Religious aspects -- Judaism

"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."--Jacket.

Moshel Idel

New Haven : Yale University Press

Kabbalah and some prekabbalistic attitudes toward eros -- Du-partzufin : interpretations of androgyneity in Jewish mysticism -- God's wife and concubine : paths of national myth -- Contemplating a female : from platonic eros to Jewish mysticism -- Cosmoeroticism in Jewish mysticism.

Book