Carnal Israel: Reading Sex in Talmudic Culture (New Historicism-Studies in Cultural Poetics , No 25) (Paperback)

by Daniel Boyarin (Author) "One of the tendencies of Greek-speaking Judaism-including Paul's-that divided it from rabbinic Judaism seems to have been the acceptance of what might be broadly called..." (more)
Key Phrases: merit mitigates, rabbinic formation, fat rabbis, Rabbi Yohanan, Babylonian Talmud, Rabbi El'azar (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"I find Boyarin's stance appealing, his fusion of Talmudic scholarship with post-modern literary theory brilliant, his arguments convincing."--Alicia Ostriker, "Women's Review of Books

Product Description
Beginning with a startling endorsement of the patristic view of Judaism--that it was a "carnal" religion, in contrast to the spiritual vision of the Church--Daniel Boyarin argues that rabbinic Judaism was based on a set of assumptions about the human body that were profoundly different from those of Christianity. The body--specifically, the sexualized body--could not be renounced, for the Rabbis believed as a religious principle in the generation of offspring and hence in intercourse sanctioned by marriage.
This belief bound men and women together and made impossible the various modes of gender separation practiced by early Christians. The commitment to coupling did not imply a resolution of the unequal distribution of power that characterized relations between the sexes in all late-antique societies. But Boyarin argues strenuously that the male construction and treatment of women in rabbinic Judaism did not rest on a loathing of the female body. Thus, without ignoring the currents of sexual domination that course through the Talmudic texts, Boyarin insists that the rabbinic account of human sexuality, different from that of the Hellenistic Judaisms and Pauline Christianity, has something important and empowering to teach us today.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (August 30, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520203364
• ISBN-13: 978-0520203365
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #644,107 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant speculation, January 14, 2002

By	Berel Dov Lerner (Western Galilee College, Israel) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Boyarin manages to cover some very interesting Talmudic material on gender and sexuality in an intelligent and informed manner. He also has a deep understanding of cultural theory, and argues for a number of exceptionally striking theses regarding Talmuds' (deliberate plural: he contrasts the Babylonian Talmud with the Jerusalem or Land of Israel Talmud) relationships to sexuality, gender, and embodiment. HOWEVER, Boyarin's claims are so wide-ranging and fundamental that it would require the study of a great deal of additional primary textual material to really confirm them in a responsible fashion.

4 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Post-modern rhetoric with pre-modern methodology, May 12, 2005

By	Tzvee (New York City) - See all my reviews

Boyarin fails miserably in this tome to make use of the critical scholarship that has been written in the past 30 years on the rabbis and on rabbinic literature. He speaks of Hellenistic Judaism and Rabbinic Judaism rather than of the individual authors and editors of texts who lived distinct lives and thought distinct thoughts. To make the error clear: what Boyarin does is equivalent to someone writing a book in the future about "Jewish" views of sex in 21st century America and citing Boyarin and Boteach (Kosher Sex) without distinguishing who they were.

2 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A taboo subject approached openly, December 30, 2000

By	Maurizio Giuliano (Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This books approaches in a very open way the issue of sex in the Talmud. Not an easy thing to do... Yet it manages to do so well, without excessively offending one view or another. Through its approach, it probably expores one of the earliest expressions of feminism in Judaism.