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Eros and the Jews: From Biblical Israel to Contemporary America » (1st Edition)

Book cover image of Eros and the Jews: From Biblical Israel to Contemporary America by David Biale

Authors: David Biale
ISBN-13: 9780520211346, ISBN-10: 0520211340
Format: Paperback
Publisher: University of California Press
Date Published: October 1997
Edition: 1st Edition

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Author Biography: David Biale

David Biale is Koret Professor of Jewish History and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He is the author of Gershom Scholem: Kabbalah and Counter-History (1979) and Power and Powerlessness in Jewish History (1986), both of which won the National Jewish Book Award.

Book Synopsis

"This trailblazing book . . . exposes the evolving and often contradictory attitudes of Jews toward sexuality. One comes away with a fresh sense of the variegated nature of Jewish historical experience, and not only in regard to sexuality."—Robert Alter, author of The World of Biblical Literature

Publishers Weekly

Critiquing a body of texts that runs a wide gamut from the Bible to Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint , this fine, authoritative history of Jewish sexuality may well become a standard reference. (Oct.)

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction: Dilemmas of Desire1
Ch. 1Sexual Subversions in the Bible11
Ch. 2Law and Desire in the Talmud33
Ch. 3Rabbinic Authority and Popular Culture in Medieval Europe60
Ch. 4Sensuality, Asceticism, and Medieval Jewish Philosophy86
Ch. 5Sexuality and Spirituality in the Kabbalah101
Ch. 6The Displacement of Desire in Eighteenth-Century Hasidism121
Ch. 7Eros and Enlightenment149
Ch. 8Zionism as an Erotic Revolution176
Ch. 9Sexual Stereotypes in American Jewish Culture204
Epilogue: Creating Desire228
Notes231
Bibliography of Selected Secondary Works295
Index309

Subjects

Philosophy Ethics & Moral Philosophy
Christianity Judaism & Judaica Jewish Life
Christianity Judaism & Judaica Jewish Philosophy
Christianity All Religion General & Miscellaneous Religion
History Religious History General & Miscellaneous Religion
History Religious History Judaism & Judaica
History World History Jewish History
History World History Social & Cultural History
Judaism & Judaica Jewish Life Love & Relationships - Jewish Life
Judaism & Judaica Jewish Philosophy Jewish ethics
Nonfiction Philosophy General & Miscellaneous Philosophy
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Nonfiction Social Sciences Jewish Studies
Philosophy General & Miscellaneous Philosophy Jewish Philosophy
Philosophy Major Branches of Philosophical Study Ethics & Moral Philosophy
Religion Books Judaism & Judaica Jewish Life
Religion Books Judaism & Judaica Jewish Philosophy
Religion Books All Religion General & Miscellaneous Religion
Science & Nature Social Sciences Jewish Studies
Self Improvement Sexuality History of Sex
Self Improvement Sexuality Sexology & Sexual Behavior - General & Miscellaneous
Self Improvement See All Relationships
Sex & Relationships See all Sexuality Topics History of Sex
Sex & Relationships See all Sexuality Topics Sexology & Sexual Behavior - General & Miscellaneous
Social Sciences Jewish Studies Jewish History
Social Sciences Jewish Studies Jewish Life
Social Sciences Jewish Studies Jewish Philosophy
Christianity Christianity All Religion
Nonfiction History Religious History
Nonfiction History World History
Nonfiction Religion All Religion
Religion Books Christianity All Religion