Sacred Body

Sabbath’s erudite chapters are appealing and well written. Overall, she effectively challenges that secular Jewish expression detracts from practicing and preserving legitimate Jewish belief and practice. Her charge that earthly life is inspired by action more than awe is challenging and enables infinity to conjoin with the actual in the Jewish view of the “sacred body.” * Journal of Ecumenical Studies *
Roberta Sterman Sabbath presents an intriguing and stimulating survey of Jewish literature from the Bible and the Talmud, through Kabbalistic, philosophical, and enlightenment texts, and on into contemporary Jewish literature and dance. Her focus is the role of the Body, both Human and Divine, in facilitating the encounter with the Holy and its expression in the world of creation throughout the history of the Jewish experience. -- Marvin A. Sweeney, Claremont School of Theology
This book offers a masterful discussion of Jewish literary illumination, evoking life-affirming stories from the biblical past to the twentieth century. It argues the human condition should not be left hostage to predetermined discourses on the metaphysical, apocalyptic, or uniform. It should wrestle, rather, with the tensions of uncomfortable, contradictory, and fragmentary lived experience. The sacred body is where human beings can fulfill their mission, namely to make life on earth better. Roberta Sterman Sabbath's intervention is erudite and eye-opening, and its innovative worldview is much needed in our world today, which is increasingly beset by crisis and instability. -- Emran El-Badawi, University of Houston