The effectiveness of words: Religion and healing among the Lubavitch of Stamford Hill
Author(s)
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Abstract
Testimonials of miraculous healing offered by Lubavitch Hasidim evoke images of exile and restitution which derive from Kabbalistic texts. Mediated practically through the person of the Rebbe, these testimonials articulate both immediate affliction and ultimate meaning, physical embodiment as well as symbolic representation, each constituting the other. Both Kabbalah and medical anthropology attempt to transcend not dissimilar epistemological dualisms: those characteristic of monotheism and contemporary science. Yet the ‘lower root’ of Kabbalah affirms a material reality known through immediate sensory experience which recalls the rationale of biomedicine.
Topics
Main Topic: Other Chabad-Lubavitch Haredi / Strictly Orthodox Jews Hassidim Health Religious Belief Anthropology
Genre
Geographic Coverage
Original Language
Volume/Issue
19(3)
Page Number
339-383
DOI
Link
Link to article (paywalled), The effectiveness of words: Religion and healing among the Lubavitch of Stamford Hill
Bibliographic Information
The effectiveness of words: Religion and healing among the Lubavitch of Stamford Hill. 1995: 339-383. https://archive.jpr.org.uk/10.1007/BF01381917
