Holy Men and Hunger Artists: Fasting and Asceticism in Rabbinic Culture (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Holy Men and Hunger Artists: Fasting and Asceticism in Rabbinic Culture Joshua Kulp Eliezer Diamond . Holy Men and Hunger Artists: Fasting and Asceticism in Rabbinic Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Pp. viii + 228.. According to Eliezer Diamond, modern scholars have too often ignored or marginalized the ascetic practices of the rabbis and thereby created a puzzling gap between talmudic Judaism and its medieval and modern inheritors, who were and are considerably more overt in their ascetic practices. Diamond's objective is to reemphasize the ascetic trends of the talmudic rabbis and thereby reconnect them with later groups such as the medieval German Hasidim and the modern ultra-Orthodox. In his exploration and definition of rabbinic asceticism, Diamond follows closely in the footsteps of Steven Fraade,1 who by broadening the term "asceticism" concluded that rabbinic literature is not devoid of ascetic aspects and tendencies. Fraade concluded that "rabbinic traditions exhibit a tension between a radically ascetic (even dualistic) ideal and the need to fulfill that ideal within society."2 Diamond extends the argument, intending to change our overall perception of rabbinic Judaism from the flesh-loving Jews celebrated by modern Jewish scholars and scorned by ancient and medieval Christian polemicists, to active practitioners of self-denial in the pursuit of spiritual perfection. In order to transform the rabbis into true ascetics (and not just a religious elite living in tension with asceticism) Diamond employs the term "instrumental asceticism," which he distinguishes from "essential asceticism," a more Christian-style asceticism. "Instrumental asceticism involves the passionate commitment to a spiritual quest so consuming that one feels it necessary to minimize or eliminate worldly pursuits and pleasures because they detract from or distract one from one's godly objectives" (p. 12). In the remainder of the book, Diamond sets out to prove that the rabbis were basically "instrumental ascetics," and occasionally even "essential ascetics." In the first chapter Diamond demonstrates that the study of Torah was at the heart of the rabbinic world, an act not only instrumental to the [End Page e52] practical knowledge of how to fulfill God's law but an essential fulfillment of the law itself. As a consequence, rabbis privileged Torah study above all, including family and work, "thereby practicing a form of instrumental asceticism" (p. 22). That the rabbis prioritized the study of Torah over the pursuit of material wealth and that they were willing to suffer some economic hardships while pursuing their study is certainly true. However, I remain unconvinced that the acceptance or even occasional celebration of such hardships is even instrumental asceticism. Diamond himself acknowledges that "it could be argued that what we have here is neither essential nor instrumental asceticism but rather the incidental acceptance of deprivation in the pursuit of Torah if and when necessary" (p. 31). Against this possibility Diamond brings scant evidence. The second part of the first chapter deals with the sexual behavior of the sages—ground that has been well covered in the past two decades by scholars such as Boyarin and Satlow. Diamond documents certain ascetic practices, especially Ben-Azzai's notorious lack of fulfillment of the commandment to procreate. He duly notes the perception of tension between marriage and Torah study. Between the lines of certain passages he detects an attitude which opposes sexual desire and focuses on sex as merely a means to procreation. Despite this evidence, it seems to me an unjustified leap to use these texts in order to characterize rabbinic Judaism as being "instrumentally ascetic." Rather, it seems that Diamond has not advanced beyond Fraade's conclusion that "the tension between sexuality and a sage's preoccupation with Torah study is unresolved" (p. 275) nor has he disproved Satlow's characterization, "that the issue of sexual asceticism per se was of little interest to the rabbis."3 The third part of the first chapter uses rabbinic martyrdom as an example of instrumental asceticism. For Diamond, the willingness of some rabbis to lay down their lives for the study of Torah is a manifestation of their ascetic impulse. To this reader, the conflation of martyrdom with asceticism is misleading. Furthermore, Diamond discounts the many texts in which rabbis reject martyrdom...