Matters of the heart: The metamorphosis of the monolithic in the Bible to the fragmented in Rabbinic thought

In this chapter¹ I discuss the concept of heart (lev בל) in rabbinic Judaism. Rabbinic Judaism inherited the perception of the heart as the emotionaland mental center of the human-being from biblical Judaism, but the concept was significantly transformed. My aim is to understand better the perception of the body and the place of emotions in it according to talmudic culture. It is well-known that rabbinic culture constituted a phase in Judaism that was identical neither with biblical nor with medieval Jewish thought. However, the concepts and beliefs of the rabbis are very often understood as borrowed from the Bible, or anachronistically explained in light of medieval ideas. My object here is to read elements in rabbinic literature (in this case "the heart") as they are reflected independently in this culture.² Methodologically, I will do this by showing that the rabbis read the body as a text,³ comprised of various biblical verses, interpreting its components as words and phrases, full of symbolic meaning. My conclusions will show the kind of cultural transformation that this reading reflects.