Jews and Health

Catherine Hezser (Dr. theol. 1986, Ph.D. 1992, Habil. 1997) is Professor of Jewish Studies at SOAS, University of London. Her book publications include Jewish Slavery in Antiquity (2005), Jewish Travel in Antiquity (2011), and Rabbinic Body Language (2017).

Contents


List of Contributors





1 Introduction: The Significance of Health in Jewish History, Culture, and Society


 Catherine Hezser





2 Trauma, Brokenness and Pain in the Book of Lamentations: Empathetic Attention as a Hermeneutic for Thinking about the Restoration of Health


 Katherine E. Southwood





3 Health and Hellenism: Philo of Alexandria’s Discourse on Health in the Context of Greek Philosophy and Hippocratic Medicine


 Catherine Hezser





4 Definitions of the Human Body and the Order of Creation in Rabbinic Literature


 Reuven Kiperwasser





5 Physical Strength and Weakness as Means of Social Stratification in Palestinian Rabbinic Discourse of Late Antiquity


 Catherine Hezser





6 Medieval Jewish Views on the Preservation of Health at the Crossroads of the Arabic and Latin Medical Traditions


 Carmen Caballero Navas





7 “The Trouble That Stalks in Darkness” (Ps 91:6): Jewish Resilience During the Plague in Early Modern Prague


 Maria Diemling





8 Humoral Regimens of Health in the Jewish Medical Cultures of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries


 Magdaléna Jánošíková





9 Somatic and Spiritual Health in Times of Change: Kabbalists, Rabbis and New Approaches to Medicine in the Eighteenth Century


 Nimrod Zinger





10 Health as a Jewish National Ideal in Early Zionist Writings


 Catherine Hezser





11 Quality of Life versus Sanctity of Life: Euthanasia in Modern Halakhic Discourse and in Israeli Law


 Irit Offer Stark and William Friedman





Subject Index