Hecker, Joel. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2005.
282 + x pp., $44.95 (USD). ISBN: 0-8143-3181-5.
[1] Recent scholarship in Jewish studies as well as popular approaches
to Judaism have focused upon the role of food and the metaphysics
of eating. Joel Hecker’s Mystical Bodies, Mystical Meals serves
as a link between studies concerning food regulations and their
cultural significance in biblical as well as rabbinic literature
and contemporary Jewish cuisine and its ethnic dimensions. With
regard to the Zoharic tradition of medieval Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah)
in Spain, Hecker’s volume is a sophisticated contribution
to the study of food relating to the ritual of eating and the deeper
meaning of the term “nourishment.” The author discusses
the effect eating had upon the Kabbalists who strived to achieve
the flow of divine substance from the Upper World to the Lower World.
A prime example of the symbolism attached to food is found in the
Passover Haggadah, which is still recited in present day celebrations
of this festival.
[2] Israelite religion and the evolving Jewish literatures and cultures
of the Second Temple period (2nd century BCE – 1st century
CE) focused upon the attainment of holiness, which included the
consumption of certain foods and the avoidance of others. Food classifications
are first mentioned in the biblical food laws and then more fully
developed in the later rabbinic laws of kashrut. The voluntary
adherence to these divinely ordained restrictions, as understood
within the Jewish tradition, is often presented as a matter of survival
in the Diaspora. For example, Daniel observed the laws concerning
food, whereas Queen Esther did not (perhaps explaining why the biblical
book named after her is absent from the Dead Sea Scrolls). In the
formative period of Judaism (1st to 6th century
CE), when Judaism was evolving at approximately the same time as
Christianity, the emphasis on the holiness aspect of food categories
was intensified in rabbinic documents. In early Jewish mystical
texts toward the end of this period, the soma (a light metaphor)
presents nourishment for the soul, shifting the emphasis from the
physical to the metaphysical. Subsequently, in medieval mysticism
(as represented in Zoharic literature) the consumption of solid
food and its religious potency received renewed attention.
[3] Medieval Spanish mysticism included speculative mysticism (exemplified
by Isaac Ibn Latif who was heavily influenced by Neoplatonic philosophy)
and prophetic Kabbalah (exemplified by Abraham Abulafia who was
heavily influenced by Maimonides). Generally, the Zohar (“The
Book of Splendour,” 13th century Spain) is a non-elitist
text (compared to Abulafia, Maimonides, etc.), and it focuses upon
issues of popular concern. Additionally, the Zohar displays a homiletical
format which linked the text to Scripture and rabbinic interpretative
literature known as midrash. The Zohar marks a climax in the development
from Merkavah (“The Heavenly Chariot”) mysticism
to a depiction of Sefirot (numbers, spheres, or the ten creative
forces). Furthermore, the Zohar signifies the transition
from experiential Kabbalah (exercises, meditation, etc.) to theoretical
Kabbalah. In the Zohar, the unfolding of the Sefirot takes
place within God—not as emanations from God. The so-called “Lower
World” in the Zohar functions as a metaphor for celestial
reality. This aspect of the “Lower World” is in contrast
with the philosophical approach to religious/scriptural language
by Ibn Latif and Abulafia. Additionally, in other types of medieval
mysticism (such as practiced by the Haside Askhenaz [“The
Pious of German Jewry”]), the religious practitioner attained
a desired spiritual state by either fasting or imbibing certain
substances. These features facilitate Hecker’s study of the
mystical role of nourishment.
[4] Hecker traces the phenomenology of religious feasting. He analyzes
the textual hints in Zoharic literature in his quest to explain
the imaginative experiences of the Kabbalists. He examines the symbolic
nature of eating in general; he systematically classifies experiential
eating and eating as a religious experience of embodiment. The act
of consuming food guides his exploration of the eternal topography
of the body in Zoharic literature. In the course of this inquiry
Hecker provides a summary of the religious significance of eating
in Judaism up to and including the Middle Ages. The Zoharic Kabbalists
display moderate asceticism; nevertheless, there are some instances
of visions through fasting that are similar to the practices of
the followers of the so-called Hekhalot (“Heavenly
Halls”) literature. According to Hecker, the fasting body
nourishes the Divine Body. On the other hand, theurgy was utilized
to receive sustenance from the Divine. The Kabbalists also imagined
that the act of studying was a form of eating: “nourishment
of the body via the nourishment of the soul, that is, through the
adept’s mystical experience ...” (88). In the mindset
of the Kabbalists, there are certain idealized foods. One such food
was the manna fed to the generation of the Exodus from Egypt. An
example of a food that was not idealized was leaven that had the
potential of transforming the body into harbouring the evil inclination.
[5] In one of the book’s sections, Hecker discusses
the problems inherent in the slaughter of animals. From a
Kabbalistic viewpoint, animals may contain the souls of human beings; animals
are embodied into a person when they are consumed and this process
of consuming animals may change their status. The position of the
body during meals is important too. Among the Kabbalists were “rabbinic
Kabbalists” who insisted that meals had to be consumed while
sitting at a table; this is explained by Hecker as a “gesture” in
the religious sense of the word and as one of the mystical techniques
of locating oneself in relation to certain Sefirot and the Shekhinah.
Thus, while eating in this position the body becomes a vessel maintaining
the divine flow. This leads to a mystical conceptualization of the
Sabbath table which creates harmony by arranging paraphernalia into
pairs (two breads, two candles, etc.). The Kabbalists also promoted
the idea that one’s table should never be empty because even
a morsel of bread could bring about the sprouting of the Divine
blessing.
[6] Interesting interpretations make this book very readable;
for example, Hecker recounts one explanation for the four cups of
wine consumed during the Passover meal as a way to unite the four
letters of the Tetragrammaton. Hecker notes that the relationship
between eating and procreation assists in maintaining the Divine
flow, and he maintains that eating was a combination of the imagination
and the physical in kabbalistic circles. The immaterial, theosophical
doctrine of Zoharic Kabbalah appears to have been transferred to
the realm of the material as expressed in the act of eating. In
short, by following elaborate rites with the necessary mystical
intent, the Kabbalists attempted to restore the primordial unity
of the Sefirot and to create the order that was lost during
Creation.
[7] An essential insight in Hecker’s study is the recognition
that the metaphor of eating was used in Zoharic Kabbalah to signify
the flow of energy from Israel to the divine and vice versa. The
author is sensitive to gender issues and utilizes ritual studies,
such as those by Stanley Tambiah and George Lindbeck, to integrate
the study of the Zoharic tradition into religious studies. Due to
the difficult nature of these mystical texts and the near absence
of any social context, Hecker concedes that the actual history of
Kabbalistic society remains speculative. Nevertheless, Hecker is
to be highly commended for presenting a systematic study of the
variegated aspects of eating within the non-systematic materials
found in the Zohar and related literature, such as Sefer Rimmonim (“The
Book of Pomegranates”). Several chapters of the book had been
previously published as articles, but they are well integrated into
this study. There are numerous footnotes, a substantial English
bibliography, and an index. This work is accessible to non-specialists
who subscribe to the popularity of present-day Kabbalah, as taught
and practiced in popular culture; it was a pleasure to read.
Rivka Ulmer
Bucknell University
rulmer@bucknell.edu
