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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.
The poet and Talmud scholar examines Jewish texts, sexuality, and
human vulnerability in poems that brim with wonder, sadness,
sensuality, and humor. Kosman’s second volume in English explores
Jewish texts —Bible, Talmud, midrash — alongside bodies,
physical desires, military experiences, even a refrigerator. Demons
and fantasy enter these poems; so do politics, so does God. These
are not religious poems in a conventionally liturgical,
“inspirational” sense; yet they point to the big questions that
religion asks: about love, hate, desire, violence, transgression,
disappointment.
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