Active/Passive, ‘Diminished’/‘Beautiful’, ‘Light’ from Above and Below: Rereading Shekhinah’s Sexual Desire in Zohar al Shir ha-Shirim (Song of Songs)

In Zohar al Shir ha-Shirim, the Zohar’s reading of Song of Songs, Shekhinah, echoing themes associated with the Shulamite of the biblical text, consistently initiates cosmic union. Sexual desire in the zoharic texts is a form of capital necessary to facilitate sefirotic intercourse, although scholarly readings of the zoharic corpus often identify Shekhinah as a passive receptacle. This, however, is only true if the endemic contradictions within the texts are glossed over. In Song of Songs, the Shulamite’s sexual ‘initiative’ is core. This was not lost on the author(s) of Zohar al Shir ha-Shirim, who, in struggling to explain Shekhinah’s sefirotic role in line with the erotics of Song of Songs, inescapably echoed the ‘depatriarchalizing’ themes of the biblical text. As this article demonstrates, in Zohar al Shir ha-Shirim, Shekhinah is active and repeatedly encourages and frustrates cosmic sexual intercourse. Zohar al Shir ha-Shirim shows that it is possible to reread Shekhinah’s role beyond the androcentrism of the authors as well as scholarly assumptions about her passivity

The impact of ‘exile’ on thought: Plotinus, Derrida and Gnosticism

This article examines the impact of ‘exile’ – as an individual or collective experience – on how human experience is theorized. The relationship between ‘exile’ and thought is initially approached historically by looking at the period that Eric Dodds famously called the ‘age of anxiety’ in late antiquity, i.e. the period between the emperors Aurelius and Constantine. A particular interest is in the dynamics of ‘empire’ and the concomitant religious ferment as a context in which ‘exile’, both experientially and symbolically, appears to assume an overbearing significance. Plotinus’ narrative of emanation and epistrophe as well as a group of narratives often classified as ‘Gnosticism’ are juxtaposed as two radical examples of a wider spiritual trend at the time according to which ‘exile’ could be considered constitutive of human experience. By way of an historical analogy, the insights gained from this study of late antiquity are then used to guide an analysis of the current, ‘restless’ epoch, in which experiences of displacement and exile on a mass scale undermine traditional notions of belonging, thus reviving the gnostic vision of cosmic reality as an alien, exilic environment. The article concludes with a discussion of Jacques Derrida’s work as an example of contemporary gnosticism, in which a ‘metaphysics of exile’ is presented in the disguise of an ‘exile from metaphysics’

Outcome of lacrimal surgery in older patients

BACKGROUND: Performance of lacrimal surgery under neuroleptic (local) anesthesia has greatly facilitated the procedure and decreased the associated morbidity. We reviewed the outcome of lacrimal surgery in older patients to determine whether such surgery can be performed safely in the outpatient setting in this group. METHODS: Review of the office and hospital charts and the surgical and anesthetic records of 120 patients (84 women and 36 men) aged 70 to 90 years who underwent lacrimal drainage procedures (dacryocystorhinostomy [DCR], canaliculodacryocystorhinostomy, DCR with insertion of a Jones tube, or a revision endonasal procedure with probing and tube insertion) at a university-affiliated hospital in Toronto in 1996. The interval between surgery and data collection ranged from 10 to 22 months. RESULTS: Of the 120 patients 65 were aged 70 to 75 years, 38 were 76 to 80 years, 11 were 81 to 85 years, and 6 were 86 to 90 years. Ninety-six patients had a unilateral procedure, and 24 (22 of whom were aged 70 to 80) had a bilateral procedure. Concomitant conditions, such as hypertension and cardiac disorders, were found in 104 patients (87%). Of the 120 patients 98 (82%) (including all those aged 81 to 90) had local anesthesia, and 22 (18%) had general anesthesia. In one case anesthesia had to be changed from local to general during the procedure because of noncompliance. A total of 112 patients (93%) whose surgery was planned as a day procedure were able to leave the hospital the same day. Three additional patients were admitted to hospital for an overnight stay because of increased bleeding at the time of surgery (one patient) or a history of cardiac problems (two patients). Five patients who had planned overnight stays because of cardiac problems did well during surgery and were discharged the same day, without consequence. None of the patients had to be readmitted at a later date for bleeding or health problems. In 109 patients (91%) the presenting symptom(s) was completely relieved. Overall, 116 patients (97%) had a totally open system with no reflux on syringing. INTERPRETATION: The surgical goals and techniques of lacrimal surgery in older patients were not compromised by performing the surgery in the outpatient setting and under neuroleptic anesthesia in most cases