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Female Bodies, Male Souls
Asceticism and Gender in the Jewish Tradition
Translated from the Hebrew by Deborah Greniman
Author Information - Contents - Publication Details
The
world-affirming, normative orientation of Judaism is in conflict with
strong ascetic impulses underlying rabbinic tradition. This book explores
the gender-related expressions of this conflict. In particular, it discusses
why Judaism rejects asceticism for all females yet rigorously endorses
it for at least some members of the male elite, and why Jewish women (unlike
Christian and Muslim women) have failed to contribute to the tradition
of mystical spirituality.
Ada Rapoport-Albert is Reader in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College London. Born in Israel, she studied at University College London, and has also taught at the Oriental Institute in Oxford and been a visiting lecturer at the Harvard Divinity College. She is the author of various studies on the history of hasidism, and the editor of Hasidism Reappraised (1996), published by the Littman Library, of Essays in Jewish Historiography (1988) and, with Steven J. Zipperstein, of Jewish History: Essays in Honour of Chimen Abramsky (1988). Her forthcoming books, to be published by the Littman Library, include Emergent Hasidism: Spontaneity and Institutionalization and Messianic Hasidism: From Nineteenth-Century Bratslav to Twentieth-Century Habad.
| Format | 23.5 x 15.5 cm / 6" x 9" |
| Pages | |
| ISBN | 978-1-874774-77-8 |
| Price | £35.00 / $49.50 hardback |
| Date of publication | November 2010 |
© The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2008