Pub Date : 2015-07-01DOI: 10.1163/1477285X-12341263
J. Weinstein
The Greek tradition of political philosophy, with its prominent focus on the forms of government, should be distinguished from the discourse typical of many rabbinic sources, with its concern for collective goals. This discourse commonly deploys broad, mid-level goals to mediate between abstract theology and practical law. Among these goals, yishuv medinah focuses on the economic and social development of a region or district, articulating the character of local needs. This is compared to related goals—the settling of the world (yishuv ha-ʿolam) and the ordering of the world (tikkun ha-ʿolam)—and contrasted with Aristotle’s approach, which in many ways typifies the Greek tradition.
{"title":"Yishuv Medinah and a Rabbinic Alternative to Greek Political Philosophy","authors":"J. Weinstein","doi":"10.1163/1477285X-12341263","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1477285X-12341263","url":null,"abstract":"The Greek tradition of political philosophy, with its prominent focus on the forms of government, should be distinguished from the discourse typical of many rabbinic sources, with its concern for collective goals. This discourse commonly deploys broad, mid-level goals to mediate between abstract theology and practical law. Among these goals, yishuv medinah focuses on the economic and social development of a region or district, articulating the character of local needs. This is compared to related goals—the settling of the world (yishuv ha-ʿolam) and the ordering of the world (tikkun ha-ʿolam)—and contrasted with Aristotle’s approach, which in many ways typifies the Greek tradition.","PeriodicalId":42022,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF JEWISH THOUGHT & PHILOSOPHY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2015-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73229702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2015-07-01DOI: 10.1163/1477285X-12341262
L. Kaye
This article illuminates rabbinic concepts of temporality through examining metaphorical uses of the root qbʿ. The root has both concrete and metaphorical meanings, describing the physical attachment of objects as well as temporal ideas of permanence, stability, and endurance. While it has been argued that rabbinic texts do not display concepts of time in the modern sense, a combination of philological and conceptual analysis shows how rabbinic images of temporal themes can be elicited from rabbinic texts. Moreover, attention to the multivalence of words can clarify complex Bavli passages that engage overlapping but distinctive metaphorical meanings of the root.
{"title":"Fixity and Time in Talmudic Law and Legal Language","authors":"L. Kaye","doi":"10.1163/1477285X-12341262","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1477285X-12341262","url":null,"abstract":"This article illuminates rabbinic concepts of temporality through examining metaphorical uses of the root qbʿ. The root has both concrete and metaphorical meanings, describing the physical attachment of objects as well as temporal ideas of permanence, stability, and endurance. While it has been argued that rabbinic texts do not display concepts of time in the modern sense, a combination of philological and conceptual analysis shows how rabbinic images of temporal themes can be elicited from rabbinic texts. Moreover, attention to the multivalence of words can clarify complex Bavli passages that engage overlapping but distinctive metaphorical meanings of the root.","PeriodicalId":42022,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF JEWISH THOUGHT & PHILOSOPHY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2015-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79892354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2015-07-01DOI: 10.1163/1477285X-12341265
R. Katsman
In this article I compare some elements of Eric Gans’s thought with a few aspects of the philosophy of Hermann Cohen—first and foremost, Gans’s concept of the origin and Cohen’s concept of Ursprung—while revealing the deep affinity between these two lines of thinking.
{"title":"Eric Gans’s Thinking on Origin, Culture, and the Jewish Question vis-à-vis Hermann Cohen’s Heritage","authors":"R. Katsman","doi":"10.1163/1477285X-12341265","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1477285X-12341265","url":null,"abstract":"In this article I compare some elements of Eric Gans’s thought with a few aspects of the philosophy of Hermann Cohen—first and foremost, Gans’s concept of the origin and Cohen’s concept of Ursprung—while revealing the deep affinity between these two lines of thinking.","PeriodicalId":42022,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF JEWISH THOUGHT & PHILOSOPHY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2015-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73066467","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2015-01-30DOI: 10.1163/1477285X-12341258
Alisha Pomazon
This article argues that Hermann Cohen’s methodology for the study of Judaism and the biblical text is based upon his understanding of prophetic Eigenart and the prophetic ideas of morality, monotheism, and mission. In doing so, this article looks at Cohen’s critiques of prophetic scholarship in the work of Alfred Bertholet and Ernst Troeltsch, as these scholars represent for Cohen the highest and the lowest points of prophetic scholarship respectively, and illustrate how prophetic and biblical scholarship are connected to the ideals of society and academia in general.
{"title":"Hermann Cohen and Prophetic Eigenart","authors":"Alisha Pomazon","doi":"10.1163/1477285X-12341258","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1477285X-12341258","url":null,"abstract":"This article argues that Hermann Cohen’s methodology for the study of Judaism and the biblical text is based upon his understanding of prophetic Eigenart and the prophetic ideas of morality, monotheism, and mission. In doing so, this article looks at Cohen’s critiques of prophetic scholarship in the work of Alfred Bertholet and Ernst Troeltsch, as these scholars represent for Cohen the highest and the lowest points of prophetic scholarship respectively, and illustrate how prophetic and biblical scholarship are connected to the ideals of society and academia in general.","PeriodicalId":42022,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF JEWISH THOUGHT & PHILOSOPHY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2015-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84898507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2015-01-30DOI: 10.1163/1477285X-12341259
Uriel Barak
In this essay, I present a manuscript letter by R. Zvi Yehudah Kook, son of R. Avraham Itzhak Kook, that offers a primary, and perhaps exclusive, analysis of his father’s view of Franz Rosenzweig’s relationship to Kabbalah. What makes this letter so interesting is that it clarifies essential points of Kook Sr.’s critique of Rosenzweig’s spiritual world. According to Kook Sr., Rosenzweig’s understanding ignores the full, singular meaning of the divine status of Israel’s Torah, and misleadingly attributes a common origin and value to it and other religions and philosophies. The letter thus sharpens Kook Sr.’s view of the uniqueness of the Jewish religion in general and of Kabbalah specifically.
{"title":"Kabbalah versus Philosophy: Rabbi Avraham Itzhak Kook’s Critique of the Spiritual World of Franz Rosenzweig","authors":"Uriel Barak","doi":"10.1163/1477285X-12341259","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1477285X-12341259","url":null,"abstract":"In this essay, I present a manuscript letter by R. Zvi Yehudah Kook, son of R. Avraham Itzhak Kook, that offers a primary, and perhaps exclusive, analysis of his father’s view of Franz Rosenzweig’s relationship to Kabbalah. What makes this letter so interesting is that it clarifies essential points of Kook Sr.’s critique of Rosenzweig’s spiritual world. According to Kook Sr., Rosenzweig’s understanding ignores the full, singular meaning of the divine status of Israel’s Torah, and misleadingly attributes a common origin and value to it and other religions and philosophies. The letter thus sharpens Kook Sr.’s view of the uniqueness of the Jewish religion in general and of Kabbalah specifically.","PeriodicalId":42022,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF JEWISH THOUGHT & PHILOSOPHY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2015-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81023499","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2015-01-30DOI: 10.1163/1477285X-12341261
E. Lawee
There is growing interest in the Jewish dimensions of the life and thought of Hans Jonas, a twentieth-century philosopher whose increasingly influential teachings address some of the most vexing philosophic and public policy challenges of modern times. This essay aims to clarify the reasons why Jonas might be reckoned as a Jewish thinker while calling into doubt recent claims of his major significance as a modern Jewish thinker, some of which go so far as to urge his addition to the canon of great twentieth-century thinkers, alongside Cohen, Buber, Rosenzweig, Strauss, Levinas, and Kaplan.
{"title":"Hans Jonas and Classical Jewish Sources: New Dimensions","authors":"E. Lawee","doi":"10.1163/1477285X-12341261","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1477285X-12341261","url":null,"abstract":"There is growing interest in the Jewish dimensions of the life and thought of Hans Jonas, a twentieth-century philosopher whose increasingly influential teachings address some of the most vexing philosophic and public policy challenges of modern times. This essay aims to clarify the reasons why Jonas might be reckoned as a Jewish thinker while calling into doubt recent claims of his major significance as a modern Jewish thinker, some of which go so far as to urge his addition to the canon of great twentieth-century thinkers, alongside Cohen, Buber, Rosenzweig, Strauss, Levinas, and Kaplan.","PeriodicalId":42022,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF JEWISH THOUGHT & PHILOSOPHY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2015-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76570670","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2015-01-30DOI: 10.1163/1477285X-12341260
V. Sakal
The article surveys Kaplan’s ideas about God and salvation in the light of current debates on religious realism and pluralism. Using definitions formulated by John Hick, one of the prominent voices of religious realism and pluralism, the article’s central argument is that Kaplan was a religious realist who affirmed the ontological existence of God, even though his epistemology dictated the use of a nonrealistic and functionalistic religious language.
{"title":"Realism, Pluralism, and Salvation: Reading Mordecai Kaplan through John Hick","authors":"V. Sakal","doi":"10.1163/1477285X-12341260","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1477285X-12341260","url":null,"abstract":"The article surveys Kaplan’s ideas about God and salvation in the light of current debates on religious realism and pluralism. Using definitions formulated by John Hick, one of the prominent voices of religious realism and pluralism, the article’s central argument is that Kaplan was a religious realist who affirmed the ontological existence of God, even though his epistemology dictated the use of a nonrealistic and functionalistic religious language.","PeriodicalId":42022,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF JEWISH THOUGHT & PHILOSOPHY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2015-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89486215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2014-08-27DOI: 10.1163/1477285X-12341256
J. Bernstein
It is impossible to do justice to Martin Yaffe’s edition of Leo Strauss’s writings on Moses Mendelssohn in the present context. It amounts to a philosophical optic that allows readers to glimpse, as if for the first time, the fundamentally theological-political character of Strauss’s thinking. This character is so stark that it can be said to function as the horizon on which all of Strauss’s other distinctions (ancients/moderns, philosophy/polis, philosophy/poetry, esoteric/exoteric) come into view. In translating all of Strauss’s introductions and annotations contained in the Moses Mendelssohn Gesammelte Schriften Jubiläumsausgabe—the Jubilee Edition of Mendelssohn’s collected writings (with additional correspondence between Strauss and Alexander Altmann and relevant primary source material by Lessing and Mendelssohn),1 Yaffe has not only succeeded magisterially in presenting readers with a “whole picture”
{"title":"The Theological-Political Problem in Leo Strauss’s Writings on Moses Mendelssohn","authors":"J. Bernstein","doi":"10.1163/1477285X-12341256","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1477285X-12341256","url":null,"abstract":"It is impossible to do justice to Martin Yaffe’s edition of Leo Strauss’s writings on Moses Mendelssohn in the present context. It amounts to a philosophical optic that allows readers to glimpse, as if for the first time, the fundamentally theological-political character of Strauss’s thinking. This character is so stark that it can be said to function as the horizon on which all of Strauss’s other distinctions (ancients/moderns, philosophy/polis, philosophy/poetry, esoteric/exoteric) come into view. In translating all of Strauss’s introductions and annotations contained in the Moses Mendelssohn Gesammelte Schriften Jubiläumsausgabe—the Jubilee Edition of Mendelssohn’s collected writings (with additional correspondence between Strauss and Alexander Altmann and relevant primary source material by Lessing and Mendelssohn),1 Yaffe has not only succeeded magisterially in presenting readers with a “whole picture”","PeriodicalId":42022,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF JEWISH THOUGHT & PHILOSOPHY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2014-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74145297","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2014-08-27DOI: 10.1163/1477285X-12341255
B. Krawcowicz
Using the example of the wartime writings of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Ehrenreich (Transylvania, 1863–1944), the author examines how traditionally oriented thinkers approached the problems posed by the Nazi persecutions of the Jews during World War ii. The author argues that the notion of paradigmatic thinking is helpful in describing ultra-Orthodox responses to the Holocaust as it aptly captures the fundamental premise behind the interpretive perspective that enabled these thinkers to uphold the traditional understanding of theodicy and the covenantal relationship between God and Israel.
{"title":"Paradigmatic Thinking and Holocaust Theology","authors":"B. Krawcowicz","doi":"10.1163/1477285X-12341255","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1477285X-12341255","url":null,"abstract":"Using the example of the wartime writings of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Ehrenreich (Transylvania, 1863–1944), the author examines how traditionally oriented thinkers approached the problems posed by the Nazi persecutions of the Jews during World War ii. The author argues that the notion of paradigmatic thinking is helpful in describing ultra-Orthodox responses to the Holocaust as it aptly captures the fundamental premise behind the interpretive perspective that enabled these thinkers to uphold the traditional understanding of theodicy and the covenantal relationship between God and Israel.","PeriodicalId":42022,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF JEWISH THOUGHT & PHILOSOPHY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2014-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80886068","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2014-08-27DOI: 10.1163/1477285X-12341254
Levi Cooper
A famous Hasidic tale that depicts the decline of mysticism in Hasidic circles also bespeaks the power of storytelling. This study tracks the metamorphosis of this classic tale over a century of its retelling by writers — including Martin Buber, S. Y. Agnon, Gershom Scholem, Walter Kaufmann, Elie Wiesel, and Abba Kovner — who each fashioned the tale in their own image. These authors affirmed but also challenged the tale’s message about the efficacy of storytelling. The use of the tale in Passover celebrations and other contemporary trends are also considered. The question is raised as to whether transmitters have a duty of care not to corrupt the story.
{"title":"‘But I Will Tell of Their Deeds’: Retelling a Hasidic Tale about the Power of Storytelling","authors":"Levi Cooper","doi":"10.1163/1477285X-12341254","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1477285X-12341254","url":null,"abstract":"A famous Hasidic tale that depicts the decline of mysticism in Hasidic circles also bespeaks the power of storytelling. This study tracks the metamorphosis of this classic tale over a century of its retelling by writers — including Martin Buber, S. Y. Agnon, Gershom Scholem, Walter Kaufmann, Elie Wiesel, and Abba Kovner — who each fashioned the tale in their own image. These authors affirmed but also challenged the tale’s message about the efficacy of storytelling. The use of the tale in Passover celebrations and other contemporary trends are also considered. The question is raised as to whether transmitters have a duty of care not to corrupt the story.","PeriodicalId":42022,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF JEWISH THOUGHT & PHILOSOPHY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2014-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75311026","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}