Language:
Hebrew
Year of publication:
2020
Titel der Quelle:
מחשבת ישראל
Angaben zur Quelle:
ב (תשפא) 335-375
Keywords:
God (Christianity)
;
Presence of God History of doctrines
;
Cabala History To 1570
;
Women in Christianity
Abstract:
Major parts of thirteenth-century Sefirotic literature show evidentenhancement and development of the female aspect of the Godhead, anearlier Jewish theme known to us from rabbinic literature. Thus, as part ofthe developing Sefirotic discourse in this period, rabbinic notions such asGod’s presence (Shekhina), Wisdom (Hokhma), mother of Israel, and the Torahcrystallized as female Sefirot. A question arises, therefore, as to the reasonsfor this growing Jewish preoccupation with female aspects of the Godhead,in this specific historical context. Some twenty years ago, Arthur Green andPeter Schäfer suggested, based on an earlier remark made by Rafael Patai,that this Jewish phenomenon was a reaction to the surge in Marian devotionin the twelfth century. This suggestion aroused scholarly debates, includingtwo main points of critique: first, that this notion is of Jewish provenanceand therefore is in no need of external explications, and second, that thesexual profile of these two figures, Mary and the Shekhina, is clearly opposedin nature. In the current study and elsewhere, I propose regarding these twophenomena – the enhancement of Christian Marian devotion and the Jewishpreoccupation with female aspects of the Sefirotic Godhead, as twoindependent expressions of a wider, much richer, cultural trend. As has beenshown by medievalists at length, the High Middle Ages saw a dramatic surgein the extent of women’s actual and symbolic presence in public spheres,religious and secular alike. In this article I focus on Christian religious anddevout women, and show how these far-reaching changes in these women’spresence in public spheres was experienced at the time, whether positivelyor negatively, in particular by Christian religious men. Alongside the wellknown expansion in Marian devotion in the Christian world, these historicalvicissitudes are related to the evolution of flexible gender approaches tosainthood, to holiness and to the figure of Jesus Christ, all increasinglyperceived as effeminate or womanish in this period. I propose viewing thegrowing preoccupation of thirteenth-century Jewish men with earlier Jewishconcepts regarding female aspects of the Godhead, the latter now perceivedSefirotically, as part of this cultural and theological discourse.
Note:
With an English summary.
URL:
אתר את הפרסום בקטלוג המאוחד של ספריות ישראל
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