Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Kiss of God: Spiritual and Mystical Death in Judaism

The Kiss of God: Spiritual and Mystical Death in Judaism

Fishbane, Michael

Paperback

Series: Samuel and Althea Stroum Lectures in Jewish Studies

Judaism

ISBN10: 0295975555
ISBN13: 9780295975559
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: Sep 1 1996
Pages: 168
Weight: 0.54
Height: 0.51 Width: 5.53 Depth: 8.51
Language: English

The lines of Michael Fishbane's book trace the spiritual face of Judaism in one of its many appearances. Fishbane explores the quest for spiritual perfection in early rabbinic sources and in Jewish philosophy and mysticism. The kiss of God, a symbol for union with God, and the ritual practices--meditation and performance--connected with it are presented.

The book identifies a persistent passion for religious perfection, expressed as the love of God unto death itself. The masters of the tradition cultivated this ideal in all periods, in diverse genres, and in different modes. Rabbinic law and midrash, medieval philosophy and mysticism, public and private ritual all contributed to its development. Rooted in the understanding that the spiritual life requires discipline, the sages set up different ladders of ascension. For some, the Law itself was the means of spiritual growth; for others, more private practices were built upon its foundation. But all agreed that the purification of desire and the perfection of the soul offered the hope of personal salvation. None denied the historical redemption of the nation.

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