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A Kiss is Just A Kiss?

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Posted on November 15, 2015

By Joel Hecker, Ph.D.

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Global Day of Jewish Learning Presents: Professor Joel Hecker

A Kiss is Just A Kiss? Mystical Union, Personal Salvation, and World Redemption through Kabbalistic Kissing

In this talk from the 2015 Global Day of Jewish Learning, Professor Joel Hecker discusses the diverse meanings ascribed to kissing in Jewish mystical literature. The Zohar, Judaism’s central and canonical mystical text, depicts kissing as the avenue through which an individual unites with God, angels, the Torah, and one’s fellow (same- or other-sex). There is a reciprocal transfer that occurs in a human kissing that leaves two individuals forever changed, infused with holiness and bliss.

A source sheet is attached.

sourcesheet-dr-joel-hecker-a-kiss-is-just-a-kiss.pdf

This talk was presented at Temple Beth El in Newark, Delaware on November 15, 2015.

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Joel Hecker, Ph.D.

Professor of Jewish Mysticism, RRC

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