Academic Studies Press Holiness and Transgression: Mothers of the Messiah in the Jewish Myth (Psychoanalysis and Jewish Life)

Product Description This volume explores the female dynasty of the House of David and its influence on the Jewish messianic myth. It provides a missing link in the chain of research on the topic of messianism and contributes to the understanding of the connection between female transgression and redemption, from the Bible through Rabbinic literature until the Zohar. The author examines the centrality of the mother image in Judeo-Christan culture and the parallels between the figure of Mary in the Gospels and the Davidic mothers in Hebrew Scripture, revealing reciprocal representations of “the mother of the Messiah” in Christian and Jewish imaginaire. Deploying theories in gender studies, psychoanalysis, and comparative religion, this study offers a uniquely composite approach the “mythic gaps” in classic Jewish sources. The book won the Pines, Lakritz, and Warburg awards. Review “Ruth Kara-Ivanov Kaniel’s careful handling of discussions spanning nearly two thousand years of Jewish literary output is highly original and is accomplished by excellent knowledge of the relevant texts and of the research literature, gender studies, and myth theory. The overall picture that emerged from this book is an innovation within the field of Jewish thought … a major contribution to the understanding of the messianic idea and its development in certain branches of the Jewish world, as well as to the understanding of the importance of the role of women in the genealogy of the Messiah.”— Moshe Idel, Professor Emeritus of Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem “This is a fascinating history of women’s transgressive sexuality, which features time and again in the biblical, rabbinic and kabbalistic sources, where it is construed as the crucial and most productive element of the redemptive process, giving rise to the famously irregular maternal genealogy of the Jewish Messiah in each one of his incarnations, right up to and including Jesus Christ.”— Ada Rapoport-Albert, Professor of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College London “Relying on a unique blend of feminist theory and psychoanalysis, Ruth Kara-Ivanov Kaniel offers a highly illuminating account of the role of mothers—from the Bible to the Zohar—within the framework of messianic configurations. An innovative and beautifully written book that invites us to consider the great relevance of gender issues to the understanding of the enigmatic interrelations between transgression and redemption.” — Ilana Pardes, Professor of Gender and Comparative Literature, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem     About the Author Ruth Kara Ivanov Kaniel is a lecturer at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies and at the Hebrew University, and is a research fellow at the Tel-Aviv Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis and at the Shalom Hartman Institute. She is also the head of a Research Group at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. Her current research deals with intersections between Jewish mythology, mysticism, gender and psychoanalysis.