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1 results

  • 37 - The rabbinic theology of the physical: blessings, body and soul, resurrection, and covenant and election

    • By Reuven Kimelman, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University
  • Edited by Steven T. Katz, Boston University
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Judaism
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    22 June 2006, pp 946-976

  • Summary

    The rabbinic worldview focuses on the significance of the physical, whether it be the created world, the body, or the People of Israel. It affirms the physical as a medium of the spiritual. The rabbinic appreciation of the religious significance of the physical world comes through in their theology of blessings. In concretizing the biblical affirmation of the world, the Rabbis mandated blessings for just about everything in the sensual, aesthetic, and religious realms of life. Rabbinic Judaism's position on the body-soul relationship stands in contrast to that of Hellenistic Judaism. The tighter the link between body and soul, the greater the possibility of refining the body into a medium of the spiritual life. Moves toward death anticipate death as moves toward life anticipate resurrection. Clustering together the affirmations of the physical world, the physical body, the physical resurrection, and the election of physical Israel makes clear their interrelationship.