RT Article
T1 "Gathering the Dispersed of Israel": The Evolution of a Kabbalistic Prayer Addendum for Tiqqun Qeri
JF Harvard theological review
VO 114
IS 2
SP 241
OP 264
A1 Koch, Patrick B. 1978-
LA English
PB Cambridge Univ. Press
YR 2021
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1770766375
AB This article traces the evolution of a kabbalistic prayer supplication that was designed to purify male Jews from pollution caused by improper seminal emission. In doing so, it focuses on the metaphysical rationale behind it, its function, and its metamorphosis from a highly technical practice into a mainstream devotional practice. It addresses how notions of sexual pollution (qeri) were contextualized in Lurianic Kabbalah and how they were later embedded in kabbalistic manuals and prayer books. Furthermore, the article examines Jewish-Christian and inner- Jewish debates that emerged in connection with the effects of spilling semen in vain. Special attention is paid to possible social factors that may have impacted the increased anxiety about male bodily fluids and "misguided" desires. In addition to the available research on the theological and general historical background of the prohibition of wasting seed, the following analysis offers a microhistory of this short yet highly influential text.
K1 Early Modern Judaism
K1 Jewish Mysticism
K1 Jewish-Christian polemics
K1 Kabbalah
K1 male sexual pollution
K1 Prayer
K1 waste of seed
DO 10.1017/S001781602100016X