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Forsaken HBI Series on Jewish Women Forsaken HBI Series on Jewish Women Shulamit Reinharz, General Editor Sylvia Barack Fishman, Associate Editor Th e HBI Series on Jewish Women, created by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, publishes a wide range of books by and about Jewish women in diverse contexts and time periods. Of interest to scholars and the educated public, the HBI Series on Jewish Women fi lls major gaps in Jewish tudiesS and in Women and Gender Studies as well as their intersection. Th e HBI Series on Jewish Women is supported by a generous gift from Dr. Laura S. Schor. For the complete list of books that are available in this series, please see www.upne.com Sharon Faye Koren, Forsaken: Th e Menstruant in Medieval Jewish Mysticism Sonja M. Hedgepeth and Rochelle G. Saidel, editors, Sexual Violence against Jewish Women during the Holocaust Julia R. Lieberman, editor, Sephardi Family Life in the Early Modern Diaspora Derek Rubin, editor, Promised Lands: New Jewish American Fiction on Longing and Belonging Carol K. Ingall, editor, Th e Women Who Reconstructed American Jewish Education: 1910–1965 Gaby Brimmer and Elena Poniatowska, Gaby Brimmer: An Autobiography in Th ree Voices Harriet Hartman and Moshe Hartman, Gender and American Jews: Patt erns in Work, Education, and Family in Contemporary Life Dvora E. Weisberg, Levirate Marriage and the Family in Ancient Judaism Ellen M. Umansky and Dianne Ashton, editors, Four Centuries of Jewish Women’s Spirituality: A Sourcebook Carole S. Kessner, Marie Syrkin: Values Beyond the Self Ruth Kark, Margalit Shilo, and Galit Hasan-Rokem, editors, Jewish Women in Pre-State Israel: Life History, Politics, and Culture Tova Hartman, Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism: Resistance and Accommodation Anne Lapidus Lerner, Eternally Eve: Images of Eve in the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, and Modern Jewish Poetry Margalit Shilo, Princess or Prisoner? Jewish Women in Jerusalem, 1840–1914 Marcia Falk, translator, Th e Song of Songs: Love Lyrics fr om the Bible The Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry Jehuda Reinharz, General Editor Sylvia Fuks Fried, Associate Editor Th e Tauber Institute Series is dedicated to publishing compelling and innovative approaches to the study of modern European Jewish history, thought, culture, and society. Th e series features scholarly works related to the Enlightenment, modern Judaism and the struggle for emancipation, the rise of nationalism and the spread of antisemitism, the Holocaust and its aft ermath, as well as the contemporary Jewish experience. Th e series is published under the auspices of the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry — established by a gift to Brandeis University from Dr. Laszlo N. Tauber — and is supported, in part, by the Tauber Foundation and the Valya and Robert Shapiro Endowment. For the complete list of books that are available in this series, please see www.upne.com Sharon Faye Koren Forsaken: Th e Menstruant in Medieval Jewish Mysticism Nils Roemer German City, Jewish Memory: Th e Story of Worms David Assaf Untold Tales of the Hasidim: Crisis and Discontent in the History of Hasidism Jehuda Reinharz and Yaacov Shavit Glorious, Accursed Europe: An Essay on Jewish Ambivalence Eugene M. Avrutin, Valerii Dymshits, Alexander Ivanov, Alexander Lvov, Harriet Murav, and Alla Sokolova, editors Photographing the Jewish Nation: Pictures fr om S. An-sky’s Ethnographic Expeditions Michael Dorland Cadaverland: Inventing a Pathology of Catastrophe for Holocaust Survival Walter Laqueur Best of Times, Worst of Times: Memoirs of a Political Education * Rose-Carol Washton Long, Matt hew Baigell, and Milly Heyd, editors Jewish Dimensions in Modern Visual Culture: Antisemitism, Assimilation, Affi rmation Berel Lang Philosophical Witnessing: Th e Holocaust as Presence David N. Myers Between Jew and Arab: Th e Lost Voice of Simon Rawidowicz * A Sarnat Library Book Sharon Faye Koren Forsaken Th e Menstruant in Medieval Jewish Mysticism Brandeis University Press Waltham, Massachusett s Brandeis University Press An imprint of University Press of New England www.upne.com © 2011 Brandeis University All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Designed by Michelle Grald Typeset in Arno Pro by Integrated Publishing Solutions 5 4 3 2 1 University Press of New England is a member of the Green Press Initiative. Th e paper used in this book meets their minimum requirement for recycled paper. For permission to reproduce any of the material in this book, contact Permissions, University Press of New England, One Court Street, Suite 250, Lebanon NH 03766; or visit www.upne.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Koren, Sharon Faye. Forsaken : the menstruant in medieval Jewish mysticism / Sharon Faye Koren. p. cm.—(HBI series on Jewish women) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-1-58465-981-5 (cloth : alk. paper)—isbn 978-1-58465-982-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)—isbn 978-1-61168-022-5 (e-book) 1. Purity, Ritual—Judaism. 2. Menstruation—Religious aspects— Judaism. 3. Mysticism—Judaism—History. 4. Judaism—History— Medieval and early modern period, 425–1789. I. Title. BM702.K663 2011 296.7′5—dc23 2011017167 Th e publication of this book was generously supported by the Lucius N. Litt auer Foundation. For Atara Malka, Talia Ora, & Tamar Ariel: May you fi nd no barriers as you journey along the path. contents Foreword · xi Acknowledgments · xv Introduction · 1 Part I: Early Jewish Mysticism 1 From Earthly Temple to Heavenly Temple: Impurity in Early Jewish Mysticism · 15 2 Th e Mysticism of the Beraita d’Niddah · 28 3 Menstruation and the Mystics of Ashkenaz · 43 Part II: Medieval Kabbalah 4 Menstrual Impurity and Mystical Praxis in Th eosophical Kabbalah · 63 5 Th e Myth of the Menstruating Shekhinah · 75 6 Th e Ontic Metamorphosis of the Menstruating Shekhinah · 84 7 Th e Interplay between Myth, Science, and Law · 98 Part iii: Mysticism & Menstruation in Islam & Christianity 8 Menstrual Impurity and Sufi sm · 127 9 Menstrual Impurity in Medieval Christianity · 144 Conclusion · 172 Notes · 177 Bibliography · 237 Index · 277 Foreword In this compelling new examination of Judaic mystical approaches to women’s bodies and their functions, Sharon Faye Koren combines a mastery of rab- binic source materials with the tools of contemporary theoretical analysis, including gender theory. Her fresh approach reveals complex and oft en con- tradictory dimensions of Jewish intellectual life. For example, puzzling over the fact that Judaism—unlike Christianity and Islam—preserves few records of female medieval mystics, Koren off ers Foucault’s famous dictum that “cul- ture determines what counts as truth or knowledge within that society.” What- ever mystical experiences Jewish women may have had didn’t “count” in the societies they lived in. Women lacked textual expertise, and also by defi nition they did not inhabit the same world of study and behavioral obligation as Jewish men. Women’s contributions were thus eff ectively ignored by Jewish intellectual history, including intellectual mystical traditions. But while the rabbinic mystical tradition largely ignored fl esh-and-blood women and their spiritual lives, the symbolic “female” became an object of fetishistic obsession. Menstruation and niddah (a halakhic legal category that defi nes a twelve- day period during which women are sexually off limits to their husbands), in particular, were invested with a set of extraordinary symbolic meanings that enabled mystic scholars “to continue to have access to the divine in a post- Temple world,” Koren explains. She traces the notion of expelling in the lin- guistic roots for the term niddah, and reviews anthropological analyses of the “almost universal fear of menstrual blood.” During the actual Temple ob- servances, both men and women were subject to impurity and isolation, and were given the opportunity to purge their impurity through Temple rituals. Post-Temple Judaism retained miqveh immersion for women aft er menstrua- tion and a week of “clean” days (in some communities, this was true for male ejaculation as well). Koren builds on Fonrobert’s insight about the diff erence in language describing male and female “emissions”: the male is described as expelling his issue fr om his body, while the woman is described as having a discharge in her body. Th is perceived distinction—an interpretation that exaggerates physiological diff erences—had profound halakhic and symbolic valence. “Exterior” male impurity is understood as being ephemeral and hav- ing limited duration, while “interior” female impurity bars women perma- nently from mystical practice. Because a woman’s pollution is interior, even a xi postmenopausal woman remains tainted, and thus, in medieval Jewish think- ing, unable to att ain spiritual heights. Koren traces the fascinating departure from talmudic literature, in which “menstruants are prohibited only from performing domestic tasks that would promote intimacy between husband and wife,” to the very diff erent approach within the Hekhalot literature and within Beraita d’Niddah. Both exacer- bated separations between men and women, and assigned spiritual mean- ings (oft en negative) to female reproductive physiology. As Koren explains, mystics concerned with access to divine mysteries asserted: “When an adept wishes to learn the name of God, he must avoid looking at menstruants.” Convinced that the pure and impure realms must not mix, the Hekhalot au- thors invested women’s menstruation with both moral and ritual impurity that arguably had magical properties. Th e Hekhalot literature in general is en- tirely androcentric. Koren comments: “It is as if we are entering a world where wives do not exist.” Th e Beraita d’Niddah, a collection of materials dealing with women and menstruation, departed from mainstream talmudic law by isolating menstruating Jewish women from even the mitzvot (religious obliga- tions) that are incumbent specifi cally upon women. Rabbinic law requires women to fulfi ll many legal obligations in addition to the three “women’s” mitzvot, stipulating that women must recite grace aft er meals and engage in personal prayer no matt er the time of the month.
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