ABSTRACT
Is a self confined to one body? Surprising answers are found in a teaching by the Hasidic Jewish spiritual master Naḥman of Breslov (1772–1810) and a prayer by his disciple Rabbi Nathan Sternhartz (1780–1844). These texts are based on ancient and widespread concepts of procreation as a male activity, where the female plays a passive, secondary role. In this view, human reproduction could happen without women, so the tradition arose that semen “wasted” through masturbation or nocturnal emissions becomes demon offspring. This is a phallocentric outlook; the phallus, though, is not powerful, but vulnerable and unreliable, even when sanctified by circumcision. Rebbe Naḥman, a storyteller who lived in his imagination, related to his actual children and his drops of semen, now demonic beings, as his offspring and extensions of his own self. Therefore, he taught, and Rabbi Nathan prayed, that when a man repents with all his heart, the hearts of all his offspring, humans and demons, will feel it. Then they will repent and be redeemed along with him. This extended sense of self can be compared to modern identities wrapped up in genetic ancestry. It may also be conducive to encountering God – a central goal of Hasidic spirituality.
