Elliot R. Wolfson: Poetic Thinking

270 Pages·2015·1.126 MB·English

by  Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, Aaron W. Hughes

Elliot R. Wolfson
Library of Contemporary
Jewish Philosophers
Editor-in-Chief
Hava tirosh-samuelson, Arizona State University
Editor
Aaron W. Hughes, University of Rochester
VoLumE 11
LEidEn • boston
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/lcjp 2015
Elliot R. Wolfson
Poetic thinking
Edited by
Hava tirosh-samuelson and Aaron W. Hughes
LEidEn • boston
2015
Cover illustration: sönke tollkühn. © Jewish museum berlin.
the series Library of Contemporary Jewish Philosophers was generously supported by the baron
Foundation.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
Wolfson, Elliot R., author.
 Elliot R. Wolfson : poetic thinking / edited by Hava tirosh-samuelson and Aaron W. Hughes.
  pages cm. — (Library of contemporary Jewish philosophers, issn 2213-6010 ; volume 11)
 includes bibliographical references.
 isbn 978-90-04-29103-4 (hardback : alk. paper) — isbn 978-90-04-29105-8 (e-book) —
isbn 978-90-04-29104-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Jewish philosophy—20th century. i. tirosh-
samuelson, Hava, 1950- editor. ii. Hughes, Aaron W., 1968- editor. iii. title. iV. title: Poetic
thinking.
 b5800.W645 2015
 181’.06—dc23
2014049626
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issn 2213-6010
isbn 978-90-04-29103-4 (hardback)
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ContEnts
the Contributors  ............................................................................................. vii
Editors’ introduction to the series  ............................................................ ix
Elliot R. Wolfson: An intellectual Portrait  .............................................. 1
 Aaron W. Hughes
occultation of the Feminine and the body of secrecy in medieval
Kabbalah  ............................................................................................................ 35
 Elliot R. Wolfson
iconicity of the text: Reification of torah and the idolatrous
impulse of Zoharic Kabbalah  ...................................................................... 69
 Elliot R. Wolfson
iconic Visualization and the imaginal body of God: the Role of
intention in the Rabbinic Conception of Prayer  .................................. 97
 Elliot R. Wolfson
not Yet now: speaking of the End and the End of speaking  ........... 127
 Elliot R. Wolfson
interview with Elliot R. Wolfson  ................................................................ 195
 Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Aaron W. Hughes
select bibliography  ......................................................................................... 245

tHE ContRibutoRs
Hava tirosh-samuelson (Ph.d, Hebrew university of Jerusalem, 1978) is
irving and miriam Lowe Professor of modern Judaism, the director of Jew-
ish studies, and Professor of History at Arizona state university in tempe,
Arizona. Her research focuses on Jewish intellectual history, Judaism and
ecology, science and religion, and feminist theory. in addition to numer-
ous articles and book chapters in academic journals and edited volumes,
she is the author of the award-winning Between Worlds: The Life and Work
of Rabbi David ben Judah Messer Leon (sunY Press, 1991) and the author
of Happiness in Premodern Judaism: Virtue, Knowledge, and Well-Being in
Premodern Judaism (Hebrew union College Press, 2003). she is also the
editor of Judaism and Ecology: Created World and Revealed Word (Harvard
university Press, 2002); Women and Gender in Jewish Philosophy (indiana
university Press, 2004); Judaism and the Phenomenon of Life: The Legacy
of Hans Jonas (brill, 2008); Building Better Humans? Refocusing the Debate
on Transhumanism (Peter Lang, 2011); Hollywood’s Chosen People: The Jew-
ish Experience in American Cinema (Wayne state university Press, 2012);
and Jewish Philosophy for the Twenty-First Century (brill, 2014). Professor
tirosh-samuelson is the recipient of several large grants that have funded
interdisciplinary research on religion, science, and technology.
Aaron W. Hughes (Ph.d., indiana university bloomington, 2000) holds
the Philip s. bernstein Chair in Jewish studies at the university of Roch-
ester. Hughes was educated at the university of Alberta, the Hebrew
university of Jerusalem, and oxford university. He has taught at miami
university of ohio, mcmaster university, the Hebrew university of Jeru-
salem, the university of Calgary, and the university at buffalo. He is the
author of over fifty articles and ten books, and the editor of seven books.
His book titles include Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of His-
tory (oxford, 2012); Muslim Identities (Columbia, 2013); The Study of Juda-
ism: Identity, Authenticity, Scholarship (sunY, 2013); and Rethinking Jewish
Philosophy: Beyond Particularism and Universalism (oxford, 2014). He is
also the Editor-in-Chief of Method and Theory in the Study of Religion.

Editors’ introduction to thE sEriEs
it is customary to begin studies devoted to the topic of Jewish philosophy
defining what exactly this term, concept, or even discipline is. We tend not
to speak of Jewish mathematics, Jewish physics, or Jewish sociology, so why
refer to something as “Jewish philosophy”? indeed, this is the great para-
dox of Jewish philosophy. on the one hand it presumably names something
that has to do with thinking, on the other it implies some sort of national,
ethnic, or religious identity of those who engage in such activity. is not phi-
losophy just philosophy, regardless of who philosophizes? Why the need to
append various racial, national, or religious adjectives to it?1
Jewish philosophy is indeed rooted in a paradox since it refers to philo-
sophical activity carried out by those who call themselves Jews. As philoso-
phy, this activity makes claims of universal validity, but as an activity by a
well-defined group of people it is inherently particularistic. the question
“What is Jewish philosophy?” therefore is inescapable, although over the
centuries Jewish philosophers have given very different answers to it. For
some, Jewish philosophy represents the relentless quest for truth. Although
this truth itself may not be particularized, for such individuals, the use of
the adjective “Jewish”—as a way to get at this truth—most decidedly is.2
the Bible, the Mishnah, the talmud, and related Jewish texts and genres
are seen to provide particular insights into the more universal claims pro-
vided by the universal and totalizing gaze of philosophy. the problem is
that these texts are not philosophical on the surface; they must, on the con-
trary, be interpreted to bring their philosophical insights to light. Within
this context exegesis risks becoming eisegesis. Yet others eschew the term
“philosophy” and instead envisage themselves as working in a decidedly
1 Alexander Altmann once remarked:
it would be futile to attempt a presentation of Judaism as a philosophical system, or
to speak of Jewish philosophy in the same sense as one speaks of American, English,
French, or German philosophy. Judaism is a religion, and the truths it teaches are
religious truths. they spring from the source of religious experience, not from pure
reason.
see Alexander Altmann, “Judaism and World Philosophy,” in The Jews: Their History,
Culture, and Religion, ed. Louis Finkelstein (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication society of
America, 1949), vol. 2, 954.
2 in this regard, see norbert M. samuelson, Jewish Faith and Modern Science: On the
Death and Rebirth of Jewish Philosophy (new York: rowman and Littlefield, 2008), e.g., 10–12.
x editors’ introduction to the series
Jewish key in order to articulate or clarify particular issues that have direct
bearing on Jewish life and existence.3 Between these two perspectives or
orientations, there exist several other related approaches to the topic of
Jewish philosophy, which can and have included ethics,4 gender studies,5
multiculturalism,6 and postmodernism.7
despite their differences in theory and method, what these approaches
have in common is that they all represent the complex intersection of
Judaism, variously defined, and a set of non-Jewish grids or lenses used to
interpret this rich tradition. Framed somewhat differently, Jewish philoso-
phy—whatever it is, however it is defined, or whether definition is even
possible—represents the collision of particularistic demands and universal
concerns. the universal, or that which is, in theory, open and accessible to
all regardless of race, color, creed, or gender confronts the particular, or
that which represents the sole concern of a specific group that, by nature
or definition, is insular and specific-minded.
Because it is concerned with a particular people, the Jews, and how to
frame their traditions in a universal and universalizing light that is believed
to conform to the dictates of reason, Jewish philosophy can never be about
pure thinking, if indeed there ever can be such a phenomenon. rather
Jewish philosophy—from antiquity to the present—always seems to have
had and, for the most part continues to have, rather specific and perhaps
3 see, e.g., strauss’s claim about Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed, perhaps one of
the most important and successful works of something called Jewish philosophy ever
written. he claims that one “begins to understand the Guide once one sees that it is not a
philosophic book—a book written by a philosopher for philosophers—but a Jewish book:
a book written by a Jew for Jews.” see Leo strauss, “how to Begin to study The Guide of the
Perplexed,” in The Guide of the Perplexed, trans. shlomo Pines, 2 vols. (chicago: university
of chicago Press, 1963), vol. 1, xiv.
Modern iterations of this may be found, for example, in J. david Bleich, Bioethical
Dilemmas: A Jewish Perspective, 2 vols. (vol. 1, new York: Ktav, 1998; vol. 2, new York: targum
Press, 2006).
4 see, e.g., david novak, Natural Law in Judaism (cambridge: cambridge university
Press, 1998); Elliot dorff, Love Your Neighbor and Yourself: A Jewish Approach to Modern
Personal Ethics (new York: Jewish Publication society of America, 2006).
5 E.g., the collection of essays in Women and Gender in Jewish Philosophy, ed. hava
tirosh-samuelson (Bloomington, in: indiana university Press, 2004).
6 E.g., Jonathan sacks, The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid a Clash of Civilizations
(London: continuum, 2003); Jonathan sacks, To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of
Responsibility (new York: schocken, 2007).
7 E.g., Elliot r. Wolfson, Language, Eros, Being: Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and Poetic
Imagination (new York: Fordham university Press, 2004); Elliot r. Wolfson, Open Secret:
Postmessianic Messianism and the Mystical Revision of Menahem Mendel Schneerson (new
York: columbia university Press, 2009); Elliot r. Wolfson, A Dream Interpreted within a
Dream: Oneiropoiesis and the Prism of Imagination (new York: Zone Books, 2011).