The Name of God in Jewish Thought: A Philosophical Analysis of Mystical Traditions from Apocalyptic to Kabbalah

201 Pages·2016·4.63 MB·English

by  Michael T. Miller

The Name of God in Jewish Thought
One of the most powerful traditions of the Jewish fascination with language is
that of the Name. Indeed, the Jewish mystical tradition would seem a two mil-
lennia long meditation on the nature of name in relation to object, and how name
mediates between subject and object. Even within the tide of the twentieth cen-
tury’s linguistic turn, the aspect most notable in – the almost entirely secular –
Jewish philosophers is that of the personal name, here given pivotal importance
in the articulation of human relationships and dialogue.
The Name of God in Jewish Thought examines the texts of Judaism pertaining
to the Name of God, offering a philosophical analysis of these as a means of
understanding the metaphysical role of the name generally, in terms of its rela-
tionship with identity. The book begins with the formation of rabbinic Judaism
in Late Antiquity, travelling through the development of the motif into the Medi-
eval Kabbalah, where the Name reaches its grandest and most systematic state-
ment – and the one which has most helped to form the ideas of Jewish
philosophers in the twentieth and twenty- first centuries. This investigation will
highlight certain metaphysical ideas which have developed within Judaism from
the Biblical sources, and which present a direct challenge to the paradigms of
western philosophy. Thus a grander subtext is a criticism of the Greek metaphys-
ics of being which the west has inherited, and which Jewish philosophers often
subject to challenges of varying subtlety; it is these philosophers who often place
a peculiar emphasis on the personal name, and this emphasis depends on the
historical influence of the Jewish metaphysical tradition of the Name of God.
Providing a comprehensive description of historical aspects of Jewish Name-
Theology, this book also offers new ways of thinking about subjectivity and
ontology through its original approach to the nature of the Name, combining
philosophy with text-c ritical analysis. As such, it is an essential resource for stu-
dents and scholars of Jewish Studies, Philosophy and Religion.
Michael T. Miller is a researcher in Jewish mysticism and modern philosophy,
with a focus on Jewish thought from the Second Temple period to the medieval
Kabbalah. His philosophical interests cover modern Jewish philosophy as well
as philosophy of language and metaphysics.
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University of Kentucky
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The Name of God in Jewish
Thought
A philosophical analysis of mystical
traditions from apocalyptic to Kabbalah
Michael T. Miller
First published 2016
by Routledge
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© 2016 Michael T. Miller
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British Library Cataloguing-i n-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data
Miller, Michael T., author.
The name of God in Jewish thought: a philosophical analysis of mystical
traditions from apocalyptic to Kabbalah / Michael T. Miller.
pages cm
1.God (Judaism)–Name. 2. Rabbinical literature–History and criticism.
I. Title.
BM610.M57 2015
296.3′112–dc23 2015016774
ISBN: 978-1-138-94405-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-67209-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
For one who understands, and so will understand.
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Acknowledgements x
List of abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
1 Presence and speech: Rosenzweig’s ontology and the
rabbinic doctrine of creation via the Name 30
2 Losing the Name: Derrida’s rejection of Logos theology 53
3 The intentional Name: Husserl and the Talmud on
Metatron as a phenomenal object 67
4 The seventy faces of God: Kripke on names, identity and
the angels of the Hekhalot 83
5 The tree of names: the source of logic and emanation in
Wittgenstein and Gikatilla 101
6 Name and letter: deconstructing language with Abulafian
prophecy and Levinasian othering 126
7 Redemption in the Name: Walter Benjamin’s kabbalistic
Messianism 150
8 Conclusion: the metaphysical meaning of the Name 170
Appendix: Hagiga 15a manuscript variations 186
Index 187