Holy Men and Hunger Artists: Fasting and Asceticism in Rabbinic Culture

leondumoulin.nl: Holy Men and Hunger Artists: Fasting and Asceticism in Rabbinic Culture (): Eliezer Diamond: Books.
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• Eliezer Diamond Holy Men And Hunger Artists Fasting And Asceticism In Rabbinic Culture 2003
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The Asceticism of Fasting 5. Notes Includes bibliographical references and index. View online Borrow Buy Freely available Show 0 more links Related resource Publisher description at http: Set up My libraries How do I set up "My libraries"? These 4 locations in All: Open to the public ; BM Open to the public ; University of Sydney Library.

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Eliezer Diamond Holy Men And Hunger Artists Fasting And Asceticism In Rabbinic Culture 2003

Find it at other libraries via WorldCat Limited preview. Publisher's Summary The existence of ascetic elements within rabbinic Judaism has generally been either overlooked or actually denied. This is in part because asceticism is not commonly identified with celibacy, whereas the rabbis emphasized sexuality as a positive good. In addition, argues Eliezer Diamond, it serves the theological agendas of both Jewish and Christian scholars to characterise Judaism as non- or anti-ascetic.

In fact, however, Diamond shows that rabbinic asceticism does indeed exist. This asceticism is secondary, rather than primary, in that the rabbis place no value on self-denial in and of itself, but rather require themselves the virtual abandonment of familial, social, and economic life in favour of an absolute commitment to the study of the Torah.

SearchWorks Catalog

Oxford University Press, According to Eliezer Diamond, modern scholars have too often ignored or marginalized the ascetic practices of the rabbis and thereby created a puzzling gap between talmudic Judaism and its medieval and modern inheritors, who were and are considerably more overt in their ascetic practices. Diamond's objective is to reemphasize the ascetic trends of the talmudic rabbis and thereby reconnect them with later groups such as the medieval German Hasidim and the modern ultra-Orthodox.

In his exploration and definition of rabbinic asceticism, Diamond follows closely in the footsteps of Steven Fraade, 1 who by broadening the term "asceticism" concluded that rabbinic literature is not devoid of ascetic aspects and tendencies. Fraade concluded that "rabbinic traditions exhibit a tension between a radically ascetic even dualistic ideal and the need to fulfill that ideal within society.

In order to transform the rabbis into true ascetics and not just a religious elite living in tension with asceticism Diamond employs the term "instrumental asceticism," which he distinguishes from "essential asceticism," a more Christian-style asceticism. In the remainder of the book, Diamond sets out to prove that the rabbis were basically "instrumental ascetics," and occasionally even "essential ascetics.

In the first chapter Diamond demonstrates that the study of Torah was at the heart of the rabbinic world, an act not only instrumental to the [End Page e52] practical knowledge of how to fulfill God's law but an essential fulfillment of the law itself. As a consequence, rabbis privileged Torah study above all, including family and work, "thereby practicing a form of instrumental asceticism" p.

JSTOR: Access Check

That the rabbis prioritized the study of Torah over the pursuit of material wealth and that they were willing to suffer some economic hardships while pursuing their study is certainly true. However, I remain unconvinced that the acceptance or even occasional celebration of such hardships is even instrumental asceticism. Diamond himself acknowledges that "it could be argued that what we have here is neither essential nor instrumental asceticism but rather the incidental acceptance of deprivation in the pursuit of Torah if and when necessary" p.