Ultimate Intimacy

This book introduces the psychoanalytic study of the Kabbalah as a serious discipline. It illustrates the applicability of psychodynamic concepts to Jewish mysticism and the "apocalyptical complex" and essays on specific incidents in the Bible and the Kabbalah. Preface -- Editorial Note -- Prologue -- Dimensions of mysticism -- The apocalyptic complex -- Mysticism and Prophecy -- Chapter Three -- Ezekiel and the Elders of Judah: The workings of a prophetic trance -- Comments -- Esoteric Mysticism, Merkavah and Hekhalot -- Chapter Four -- Four entered the garden: normative religion versus illusion -- Comments -- Chapter Five -- The psychodynamics of merkavah mysticism -- Methodology -- Methodological reflections on psychoanalysis and Judaic studies: a response to Mortimer Ostow -- Comments -- Sex And Gender in the Kabbalah -- Introduction -- Sexual metaphors and praxis in the Kabbalah -- Comments -- Crossing gender boundaries in kabbalistic ritual and myth -- Comments -- Comments on Idel and Wolfson -- Epilogue -- Concluding comments: union and reunion