The School of Love in Radical Kabbala
The text that is presented here was published in the 18th century by the community of Shklov. This community was fighting against the Hasidim very strongly. They had found a copy of the medieval Jewish code book - Tur - that was, and still is, a highly respected book in Judaism, with the footnotes that this man - Reb Leib Melamed (teacher) of Brody - had subscribed there in his hand writing. The scholars of the Shklov community had found these footnotes very upsetting. They collected them all and published them as a document that should show clearly that the Hasidic movement is a heretic one.
I want to thank those scholars for doing so. They and the scholars of the community of Vilna, who both made those texts reachable for us today....
Amongst the academic scholars it is not clear that Reb Leib was indeed a Hasid. Some think that he was (such as Dovnov), but more recent scholars believe that Reb Leib was part of the Frankist movement, and not of the Hasidic.
In any case - when we read the texts of the footnotes, we can see that the man was very learned and very frustrated. One can clearly see that Reb Leib was living in an extremely narrow minded environment, that made his spirit rebel. In his texts we can feel the desire for a spiritual path in Judaism that will not deny Eros and sexuality but rather will use them as part of the way to open deeper to God.
Meditative sex can be greater then any religious fasting
This piece is taken from the footnotes that a scholar and a teacher by the name of Reb Leib of Brody wrote to the famous Halachic book "Tur":
The Tur wrote: "In Tish'a Be'Av (the 9th of Av) washing, lubricating the body, wearing shoes and sexual relationships are all forbidden"
Reb Leib footnoted: "But the perfected Hasidim are permitted to do it all. Because they can do in their intentional meditations more then any fasting could ever do. As I was told once by a renowned Hasid and Zadik, that while having sex he was meditating on all the secrets of the heavenly entourage, and he was just like an angel, therefor he was permitted in all, and you should understand it deeply".
to read the Hebrew source of it, see here
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