Gender and Dialogue in the Rabbinic Prism

Admiel Kosman

Published by De Gruyter 2012

Gender and Dialogue in the Rabbinic Prism

Admiel Kosman
Translated by: Edward Levin

Volume 50 in the series Studia Judaica

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110218640

Overview
Contents

About this book

The author applies the fields of gender studies, psychoanalysis, and literature to Talmudic texts. In opposition to the perception of Judaism as a legal system, he argues that the Talmud demands inner spiritual effort, to which the trait of humility and the refinement of the ego are central. This leads to the question of the attitude to the Other, in general, and especially to women. The author shows that the Talmud places the woman (who represents humility and good-heartedness in the Talmudic narratives) above the character of the male depicted in these narratives as a scholar with an inflated sense of self-importance.
In the last chapter (that in terms of its scope and content could be a freestanding monograph) the author employs the insights that emerged from the preceding chapters to present a new reading of the Creation narrative in the Bible and the Rabbinic commentaries. The divine act of creation is presented as a primal sexual act, a sort of dialogic model of the consummate sanctity that takes its place in man’s spiritual life when the option of opening one’s heart to the other in a male-female dialogue is realized.

Author / Editor information

Admiel Kosman, University of Potsdam and Abraham Geiger College, Berlin.

Supplementary Materials

Contents

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Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	v
In Place of an Introduction: On Gender Issues and Their Possible Significance for Understanding the Spiritual World of the Rabbis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter One. The Woman’s Spiritual Place in the Talmudic Story: A Reading of the Narrative of Mar Ukba and His Wife Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
Chapter Two. Rabbi Akiva and the Daughter of Ben Kalba Savua: On the Conception of Love in the Spiritual World of the Talmudic Story Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	56
Chapter 3. “Internal Homeland” and “External Homeland”: A Literary and Psychoanalytical Study of the Narrative of R. Assi and His Aged Mother Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
Chapter 4. The Female Breast and the Mouth Opened in Prayer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
Chapter Five. A Reading of the Creation Narrative: Femininity and Masculinity in the Prism of the Bible and the Midrash Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	154
Afterword Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	214
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	242
Index of Sources Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Academics, Libraries, Institutes
Pages
- Front matter: 7
- Main content: 268
Keywords: Talmudic Aggadah; Jewish Spirituality; Psychoanalysis; Gender; Close Reading

eBook

Published: October 30, 2012
ISBN: 9783110218640

Hardcover

Published: October 15, 2012
ISBN: 9783110207057