Alef, Mem, Tau

Alef, Mem, Tau PDF

Author: Elliot Wolfson

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2006-04-05

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 0520932315

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This highly original, provocative, and poetic work explores the nexus of time, truth, and death in the symbolic world of medieval kabbalah. Demonstrating that the historical and theoretical relationship between kabbalah and western philosophy is far more intimate and extensive than any previous scholar has ever suggested, Elliot R. Wolfson draws an extraordinary range of thinkers such as Frederic Jameson, Martin Heidegger, Franz Rosenzweig, William Blake, Julia Kristeva, Friedrich Schelling, and a host of kabbalistic figures into deep conversation with one another. Alef, Mem, Tau also discusses Islamic mysticism and Buddhist thought in relation to the Jewish esoteric tradition as it opens the possibility of a temporal triumph of temporality and the conquering of time through time. The framework for Wolfson’s examination is the rabbinic teaching that the word emet, "truth," comprises the first, middle, and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet, alef, mem, and tau, which serve, in turn, as semiotic signposts for the three tenses of time—past, present, and future. By heeding the letters of emet we discern the truth of time manifestly concealed in the time of truth, the beginning that cannot begin if it is to be the beginning, the middle that re/marks the place of origin and destiny, and the end that is the figuration of the impossible disclosing the impossibility of figuration, the finitude of death that facilitates the possibility of rebirth. The time of death does not mark the death of time, but time immortal, the moment of truth that bestows on the truth of the moment an endless beginning of a beginningless end, the truth of death encountered incessantly in retracing steps of time yet to be taken—between, before, beyond.

Alef, Mem, Tau

Alef, Mem, Tau PDF

Author: Elliot R. Wolfson

Publisher:

Published: 2006

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781598759167

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This highly original, provocative, and poetic work explores the nexus of time, truth, and death in the symbolic world of medieval kabbalah.

A New Physiognomy of Jewish Thinking

A New Physiognomy of Jewish Thinking PDF

Author: Aubrey L. Glazer

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2011-03-24

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 1441103317

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A New Physiognomy of Jewish Thinking is a search for authenticity that combines critical thinking with a yearning for heartfelt poetics. A physiognomy of thinking addresses the figure of a life lived where theory and praxis are unified. This study explores how the critical essays on music of German-Jewish thinker, Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno (1903-1969) necessarily accompany the downfall of metaphysics. By scrutinizing a critical juncture in modern intellectual history, marked in 1931 by Adorno's founding of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, neglected applications of Critical Theory to Jewish Thought become possible. This study proffers a constructive justification of a critical standpoint, reconstructively shown how such ideals are seen under the genealogical proviso of re/cognizing their original meaning. Re/cognition of A New Physiognomy of Jewish Thinking redresses neglected applications of Negative Dialectics, the poetics of God, the metaphysics of musical thinking, reification in Zionism, the transpoetics of Physics and Metaphysics, as well as correlating Aesthetic Theory to Jewish Law (halakhah).

Black Fire on White Fire

Black Fire on White Fire PDF

Author: Betty Rojtman

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1998-02-27

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 9780520203211

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"A remarkable book. . . . Rojtman's analysis is very stimulating, especially since the use of linguistic notions does not prevent her from remaining sensitive to the spiritual concerns of the commentators she analyzes."—Thomas Pavel, author of The Feud of Language

On Wings of Moonlight

On Wings of Moonlight PDF

Author: Barbara Ellen Galli

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2007-03-07

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 0773576614

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On Wings of Moonlight - a phrase taken from one of the poems - illuminates the poetic and philosophic kinship between Wolfson, Franz Rosenzweig, one of his influences since graduate school, and Paul Celan. Displaying a deep knowledge of the literary, philosophical, Jewish, and feminist traditions informing Wolfson's academic work, Galli argues that his prose cannot be fully appreciated without consideration of its poetic dimensions.

The Beginning of the World in Renaissance Jewish Thought

The Beginning of the World in Renaissance Jewish Thought PDF

Author: Brian Ogren

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2016-08-22

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 9004330631

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In The Beginning of the World in Renaissance Jewish Thought, Brian Ogren deeply analyzes late fifteenth century Italian Jewish thought concerning the creation of the world and the beginning of time. Ogren examines uses of philosophy and Kabbalah in the thought of four important fifteenth century thinkers.

Time and Eternity in Jewish Mysticism

Time and Eternity in Jewish Mysticism PDF

Author: Brian Ogren

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2015-01-27

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 9004290311

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Time and eternity are concepts that have occupied an important place within Jewish mystical thought. This present volume gives pride of place to these concepts, and is one of the first works to bring together diverse voices on the subject. It offers a multivalent picture of the topic of time and eternity, not only by including contributions from an array of academics who are leaders in their fields, but by proposing six diverse approaches to time and eternity in Jewish mysticism: the theoretical approach to temporality, philosophical definitions, the idea of time and pre-existence, the idea of historical time, the idea of experiential time, and finally, the idea of eternity beyond time. This multivocal treatment of Jewish mysticism and time as based on variant academic approaches is novel, and it should lay the groundwork for further discussion and exploration.

Eternity Now

Eternity Now PDF

Author: Wojciech Tworek

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2019-07-15

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 143847556X

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The Habad movement, formed in eighteenth-century Belarus, has developed into one of the most influential streams of Hasidic Judaism. Drawing on both mystical sermons and legal writings of its founder, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady (1745–1812), Eternity Now provides the first account of the historiosophical dimensions of early Habad doctrine. Challenging the commonly held view that Shneur Zalman was primarily concerned with supratemporal transcendence, Wojciech Tworek reveals the importance of time and history in his teachings. Tworek argues that the worldly dimensions of Shneur Zalman's thought were largely responsible for the rapid growth of Habad at the turn of the nineteenth century and fostered its transformation from an elitist circle into a mass movement. Tworek's readings of Hebrew and Yiddish sources demonstrate the implications of these ideas not only for male scholars but also for non-scholars, Jewish women, and even non-Jews. Philosophical and kabbalistic thought joined together to form a model of religious experience attractive to a broad audience, laying an ideological foundation for the missionary messianism that was to become a hallmark of Habad in the twentieth century.

Saintly Influence

Saintly Influence PDF

Author: Edith Wyschogrod

Publisher: Fordham Univ Press

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 0823230872

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Since the publication of her first book, the first about Levinas published in English, Edith Wyschogrod has been at the forefront of continental philosophy and philosophy of religion.In this volume, twelve scholars examine and display the influence of Wyschogrod's work in essays that take up the thematics of influence in a variety of contexts: Christian theology, the saintly behavior of the villagers of Le Chambon sur Lignon, the texts of the medieval Jewish mystic Abraham Abulafia, the philosophies of Levinas, Derrida, and Benjamin, the practice of intellectual history, the cultural memory of the New Testament, and pedagogy.

The Territorial Dimension of Judaism

The Territorial Dimension of Judaism PDF

Author: W. D. Davies

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2023-04-28

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 0520336836

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This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1982.