A scholarly study of Jewish sexuality that is neither sexy nor
particularly Jewish. Here, Biale (Power and Powerlessness in Jewish
History, 1986) appears to have lost his way in the murkier realms
of philosophy and theology. He's at his best when dealing with the
sociological and psychological realms of sexuality and
powerlessness, as noted in the nervous passions of Woody Allen,
Lenny Bruce, and Erica Jong. Elsewhere, though, his central
argument sees Eros in Judaism as "the struggle between
contradictory attractions...the story of a profoundly ambivalent
culture." Biale consistently misses the subtleties of the Oriental,
Jewish paradox of erotic spirituality with his Occidental, secular
Bible-critic's sensibility that finds only contradictions. He
therefore thinks it scandalous (rather than glorious) that King
David's lineage is built on the incestuous seductions of the
gentiles Tamar and Ruth (who lust only for progeny). Similarly,
Biale cannot see how the literal level of the "Song of Songs" feeds
the spiritual level with its erotic yearning for the Other. The
failure to see that classical Judaism is closer to the Kama Sutra
than to the teachings of St. Paul is one thing, but Biale is guilty
of errors ("Jacob himself associated with the affirmation of
intermarriage") and of contempt for traditionalists who don't share
his view that Judaism is a derivative amalgam of Canaanite and
Greco-Roman culture. His subjectivity is all too perceptible. The
extensive notes and bibliography help document shifting attitudes
toward romance and marriage, but a topic like this deserves a
little passion. (Kirkus Reviews)
Contradictory stereotypes about Jewish sexuality pervade modern
culture, from Lenny Bruce's hip eroticism to Woody Allen's little
man with the big libido (and even bigger sexual neurosis). Does
Judaism in fact liberate or repress sexual desire? David Biale does
much more than answers that question as he traces Judaism's
evolving position on sexuality, from the Bible and Talmud to
Zionism up through American attitudes today. What he finds is a
persistent conflict between asceticism and gratification, between
procreation and pleasure. From the period of the Talmud onward,
Biale says, Jewish culture continually struggled with sexual
abstinence, attempting to incorporate the virtues of celibacy, as
it absorbed them from Greco-Roman and Christian cultures, within a
theology of procreation. He explores both the canonical writings of
male authorities and the alternative voices of women, drawing from
a fascinating range of sources that includes the "Book of Ruth",
"Yiddish literature", the memoirs of the founders of Zionism, and
the films of Woody Allen. Biale's historical reconstruction of
Jewish sexuality sees the present through the past and the past
through the present. He discovers an erotic tradition that is not
dogmatic, but a record of real people struggling with questions
that have challenged every human culture, and that have relevance
for the dilemmas of both Jews and non-Jews today.
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