Gender and Dialogue in the Rabbinic Prism

Description

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. In Place of an Introduction: On Gender Issues and Their Possible Significance for Understanding the Spiritual World of the Rabbis “Masculinity” and “Femininity” in the Psychosexual Theory of Freud and Nancy Chodorow Lacan’s Interpretation of the Freudian Theory The Drawbacks of the Freudian Approach Sara Ruddick and the Care Experience Between Freud and Buber: Between Psychoanalysis and Dialogue A Note on the Relationship between “I-Thou” and Halakhah and “Law” Phallicism, Humility, and the Tension between “Masculinity” and “Femininity” in the Aggadic Narratives The Chapters of the Book Chapter One. The Woman’s Spiritual Place in the Talmudic Story: A Reading of the Narrative of Mar Ukba and His Wife An Introduction to the Discussion of the Narrative The Text of the Narrative The Reading of the Narrative Why Was Mar Ukba Insulted? The Leitmotiv of the Heel On the Feminine and Masculine Associations in the Narrative Chapter Two. Rabbi Akiva and the Daughter of Ben Kalba Savua: On the Conception of Love in the Spiritual World of the Talmudic Story The Narrative of Akiva and His Mate, according to the Version of Ketubot 62b-63a The Versions of the Narrative The Love of Akiva and His Mate Structure of the Narrative The Waves of Opposition and Their Significance Inner and Outer Stability and Mobility Is This a Romantic Love Story? Against Boyarin’s Political Reading Appendix A: On the Nature of Relationship between Akiva and His Mate in the Later Versions Appendix B: On the Character of Ben Kalba Savua in the Later Versions Appendix C: On the Character of “That Old Man” in the Later Versions Appendix D: On the Conversation with the Women Neighbors in the Later Versions Chapter 3. “Internal Homeland” and “External Homeland”: A Literary and Psychoanalytical Study of the Narrative of R. Assi and His Aged Mother The Complex Relationship between Halakhah and Aggadah, as Background to a Reading of the Narrative The Text of the Narrative A Proposed Psychoanalytical Reading On the Transformation of the Text from the Land of Israel to Babylonia Chapter 4. The Female Breast and the Mouth Opened in Prayer The Narrative of the Intervention by the Mother of R. Ahadboi in the Study Hall Quarrel A Discussion of the Elements of the Narrative Baring One’s Breasts as an Act of Protest Baring One’s Breast as a Spiritual Expression Baring One’s Breasts as an Act of Entreaty Exposing One’s Breasts in the Midrashic Picture: A Gesture of Love and Giving Chapter Five. A Reading of the Creation Narrative: Femininity and Masculinity in the Prism of the Bible and the Midrash The Mythological Background and Gender Aspects In the Beginning God Created Creation Ex Nihilo or Ex Materia? The Midrashic Sources, and Their Relation to the Proposed Dialogic Reading On Building God’s Palace in the Garbage in Gen. Rabbah On the End of the Creation Passage: The Elements of the Sabbath and Sanctity Buber’s Comments on the Creation Passage The Gender Significance of the Moderation in the Biblical Portrayal The Dialogic Significance of the Creation Episode: Love as a Procreative and Creative Force Afterword Bibliography