The Male Body in Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Theology
- World Religions
- Publisher: Pickwick Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2021
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Publisher's Description
How does Ultra-Orthodox Jewish literature describe the male body? What does the body represent? What is the ideal male body? This book is a philosophical-theological exploration of the different images of the male body in Ultra-Orthodox literature since the holocaust. The body is not incidental to this community but is the axis by which it tries to understand its meaning and its role in life. In the first part of the book, Yakir Englander explains the "problem of the body" and the different ways that Ultra-Orthodox theology deals with it. These different and even contradictory voices can teach the reader about the shifting of ideas inside Ultra-Orthodox thought in the last decades. The second part of the book focuses on the image of the ideal body and describes how the rabbis train their bodies to reach ultimate form.
Endorsements (4)
“In this groundbreaking study, Yakir Englander looks at the ultra-Orthodox understandings of the male body and the challenges of sexuality to a life of piety. Drawing from classical rabbinic texts and from more recent Jewish pietistic teachings, both Hasidic and Lithuanian, he offers a profound analysis of Jewish sexuality, piety, and maleness.”
“Dualisms of body and mind/soul, and implied contrasts between real/ideal and insider/outsider pervade Abrahamic traditions, producing in Lithuanian Jewish ultra-Orthodox thought distinctive ethical dilemmas and ritual resolutions. Yakir Englander explores these philosophical and practical strategies with scholarly mastery, historical situatedness, and passionate lucidity.”
“With the sympathy of a former practitioner and the insight of a historian, Yakir Englander brilliantly reveals attitudes toward the body in ultra-Orthodox Lithuanian Judaism. While these attitudes are often negative, there are also surprising voices of dissent from the prevailing dogma, voices that suggest a world more complex and fascinating than most outsiders realize. Englander’s concluding remarks on the effect of COVID-19 on this cloistered community demonstrate how these stringently religious Jews, like all of us, cannot escape their bodies.”
“The Male Body in Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Theology is an eloquently written, deeply researched, and groundbreaking study, showing how a rich cultural world, hitherto envisioned as the temple of the intellect, actually places the gendered body in central stage. Englander also challenges the dichotomy between the Hasidic and Lithuanian persuasions, demonstrating the commonality in construction of spiritual authority through hagiography, reaching back to childhood. Thus, he has made a major contribution to religious studies at large.”
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