ABSTRACT
In some circles, ideal Jewish masculinity was bound to a holy man’s command over mystical knowledge of holy names, especially God’s most holy and hidden name, the shem ha-meforash. The tradition of name knowledge and use of names to ascend to heaven or perform other miracles derived from the Hekhalot mystical tradition. Yet, in late antiquity, and increasingly in the Middle Ages and early modern period, Jews feared misuse of the power that knowledge of the shem ha-meforash conveyed. This anxiety was directed primarily at young Jewish men who might use this power for frivolous means. To dissuade them, Jesus was cast as the ultimate “young (Jewish) man gone bad” and his powers were associated with homosexuality, impurity, and heresy/conversion to Christianity, even as stories with the Toledot Yeshu parodied the Hekhalot mystical tradition. Within early modern Europe, the magical battle between Judas and Jesus also, potentially, represented the “battle” between Christian Kabbalists and Jewish ones.
