Mystical Bodies, Mystical Meals: Eating and Embodiment in Medieval Kabbalah

Focusing on the Jewish mystical literature of late thirteenth-century Spain, author Joel Hecker analyzes how the Zohar and other esoteric literature represent mystical attainment in their homilies about food. What emerges is not only consideration of eating practices but, more broadly, the effects such practices and experiences have on the bodies of practitioners.

Drawing on anthropology, sociology, ritual studies, and gender theory, Heck...