Download or read book Holy Men and Hunger Artists written by Eliezer Diamond and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2004 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The existence of ascetic elements within rabbinic Judaism has generally been either overlooked or actually denied. Diamond shows that rabbinic asceticism does indeed exist. This asceticism is mainly secondary, rather than primary, in that the rabbis place no value on self-denial in and of itself.