The Male Body in Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Theology - Paperback

by Yakir Englander (Author)

How does Ultra-Orthodox Jewish literature describe the male body? What does the body represent? What is the ideal male body? This book is a philosophical-theological exploration of the different images of the male body in Ultra-Orthodox literature since the holocaust. The body is not incidental to this community but is the axis by which it tries to understand its meaning and its role in life. In the first part of the book, Yakir Englander explains the ""problem of the body"" and the different ways that Ultra-Orthodox theology deals with it. These different and even contradictory voices can teach the reader about the shifting of ideas inside Ultra-Orthodox thought in the last decades. The second part of the book focuses on the image of the ideal body and describes how the rabbis train their bodies to reach ultimate form.

Author Biography

Yakir Englander is a scholar and an activist. He is the co-author of Sexuality and the Body in New Religious Zionist Discourse. He was a visiting scholar at Northwestern and Rutgers Universities, Harvard Divinity School, and at the Shalom Hartman Institute. Englander served as the Vice President of Kids4Peace International. He teaches at the Academy for Jewish Religion and dedicate himself for social change.