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Holiness and Power Do Not Derive from the Contents of the Text Holiness and Power Do Not Derive from the Contents of the Text
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The Most Powerful Book Is a Closed Book The Most Powerful Book Is a Closed Book
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The Torah Scroll as the Body of Revelation The Torah Scroll as the Body of Revelation
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Some Concluding Remarks Some Concluding Remarks
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6 A Closed Book: The Torah Scroll as the Body of Revelation
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Published:April 2023
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Abstract
This chapter contends that one should read early rabbinic practices of ritualized reverence for the Torah scroll through the logic of early rabbinic practices of human bodily sacralization. Here, the human body served most powerfully as a conduit for intangible sacred forces when its orifices were closed, its surfaces were clean of bodily detritus, and its more animal bodily facets were covered. This was so that its inner parts and workings were hidden from view, its fluids kept from leaking, and the constantly degrading grit of its materiality obscured from both perception and consciousness in the temporary wholeness of health and dignity. As the chapter shows, the body of revelation was likewise at the height of its supernatural powers when its material frailties were effaced by being closed in and obscured from view. Just as a rabbinic husband and wife might briefly disrobe, so the Torah scroll was periodically unwrapped and opened for a few moments so that its textual contents might be read out to its congregational partners. But like the inner parts of the human bodies and their biological products, it was only when the limiting materiality of the written text was contained and hidden from view that the textual vessel would become a silent conduit for a more intangible and otherworldly power.
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