Abstract:
The allegorical understanding of the Song of Songs by Rabbi Akiba and contemporaries immediately evokes the question why? As Jews they were not ascetics, but they unhesitatingly embrace this "child of ascesis" (Moore 2000:336) to understand the Song. It seems that more than just a spiritual need hides behind this choice, they have a political agenda. A bodycritical appreciation of the early rabbinic body stereotype, the latter which informed their choice, points to a mild dualism where women are associated with the lower body (nature, animal) and men with the upper body (mind). The forward woman of the Song sabotaged the " fibre" of the early Jewish patriarchal society. What better way to silence her (and securing her essential "place") and the Song than through allegory. The threat of the uncontrollable "lower body" now disappears. At the same time their privileged positions as "heads" (Torah specialists) and as "wives of God" (Eilberg-Schwartz 1994:163-196) in the intimate divine:human relationship are safeguarded.
