Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
By focusing on the Jewish textual traditions the book series Perspectives on Jewish Texts and Contexts examines both the continuity of a tradition through its transmission of canonical, classical and contemporary texts, as well as the ways that a tradition must continuously adapt itself to respond to new intellectual, historical, social and political contexts. Since there is no reading that is not also an interpretation, imbuing the past with concerns of the present day, the volumes in this series will examine the Jewish textual tradition through questions of its transmissibility, focusing on how these texts give rise to new commentaries, translations and adaptations. By attending to the evolving, topical concerns of Judaism, understood as a living textual tradition, and by fostering dialogue between literary, philosophical, political and religious perspectives, the book series, which consists of original scholarship and proceedings of international conferences, reflects contemporary concerns of Jewish Studies in the broadest sense.
Editorial Board
Prof. Robert Alter (University of California, Berkeley)
Prof. Steven E. Aschheim (Hebrew University, Jerusalem)
Prof. Richard I. Cohen (Hebrew University, Jerusalem)
Prof. Mark H. Gelber (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva)
Prof. Moshe Halbertal (Hebrew University, Jerusalem)
Prof. Christine Hayes (Yale University, New Haven)
Prof. Moshe Idel (Hebrew University, Jerusalem)
Prof. Samuel Moyn (Columbia University, New York)
Prof. Ada Rapoport-Albert (University College London)
Prof. Alvin Rosenfeld (Indiana University, Bloomington)
Prof. David Ruderman (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia)
Prof. Bernd Witte, (Heinrich Heine Universit t, D sseldorf)
Synopsis
This volume addresses the complex topic of the preeminent status of the divine feminine power, to be referred also as Female, within the theosophical structures of many important Kabbalists, Sabbatean believers, and Hasidic masters. This privileged status is part of a much broader vision of the Female as stemming from a very high root within the divine world, then She was emanated and constitutes the tenth, lower divine power, and even in this lower state She is sometime conceived of governing this world and as equal to the divine Male. Finally, She is conceived of as returning to Her original place in special moments, the days of Sabbath, the Jewish Holidays or in the eschatological era. Her special dignity is sometime related to Her being the telos of creation, and as the first entity that emerged in the divine thought, which has been later on generated. In some cases, an uroboric theosophy links the Female Malkhut, directly to the first divine power, Keter. The author points to the possible impact of some of the Kabbalistic discussions on conceptualizations of the feminine in the Renaissance period.