Ebraismo e sessualità fra filosofia e Qabbalah: la "Iggeret ha-Qodesh" ("Lettera sulla santità", sec. XIII)
This article deals with the mystical view of sexual intercourse as illustrated in the Letter on Holiness, a cabalistic work attributed for centuries to Nachmanides, but written in fact by the Castilian cabalist Yosef Gikatilla at the end of the 13th century. After a short examination of the attitude...
| Published in: | Annali di storia dell'esegesi |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Print Review |
| Language: | Italian |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Ed. Dehoniane
2000
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| In: |
Annali di storia dell'esegesi
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| Review of: | Iggeret haq-qôdeš / Moses Nachmanides (Perani, Mauro) |
| RelBib Classification: | BH Judaism |
| Further subjects: | B
Sexual ethics
B Book review B Judaism |
| Summary: | This article deals with the mystical view of sexual intercourse as illustrated in the Letter on Holiness, a cabalistic work attributed for centuries to Nachmanides, but written in fact by the Castilian cabalist Yosef Gikatilla at the end of the 13th century. After a short examination of the attitudes towards sexuality in the Hebrew Bible and in Judaism, compared with Christian attitudes, the author examines the mystical interpretation of the sexual intercourse between men and women as described in this treatise, the only one expressly devoted to the sexual aspects of marriage in Judaism. The Letter radically criticizes the Aristotelian philosophy taken over by Maimonides, with its contempt of the human body and sexuality, considered as an exclusively animal and shameful dimension in man. On the contrary, the sexual union between man and woman represents and realizes the union respectively of sefirah Chokmah-Wisdom and sefirah Binah-Understanding, from whose union emanates the sefirah Deat-Knowledge. The latter is situated vertically in the emanation sefirotic tree, and from it the divine energy descends from the heavens down to the earth below. Sexual knowledge is a theurgical act, part of the emanation process of the divine sefirot. If realized in holiness, in the correct holy time of Shabbat, and after eating suitably clean food, it attracts the divine presence or Shekinah upon the united married couple, which will procreate holy children. |
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| ISSN: | 1120-4001 |
| Contains: | In: Annali di storia dell'esegesi
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