Sela Rachel Blaustein (1890-1931), beter bekend als Rachel de dichteres, is een van Israels groot... more Sela Rachel Blaustein (1890-1931), beter bekend als Rachel de dichteres, is een van Israels grootste dichters. Straten en instituten zijn naar haar vernoemd en haar afbeelding siert een bankbiljet. Haar gedichten zijn helder en eenvoudig van taal, melancholisch en doortrokken van diepe emoties. In haar liefdesgedichten beschrijft ze eenzaamheid, pijn en verlangen; haar natuurgedichten zijn ongekunsteld en in die over Bijbelse figuren proeft de lezer de taal van het heilige boek. Dit tweede deel uit de 'Hebreeuwse Bibliotheek' – het eerste deel ('Chaim Nachman Bialik’)* behandelt de dichter Bialik – geeft een goed overzicht van leven en werk van deze dichteres. Geschikt voor de beginnende poezieliefhebber en voor hen die over de grenzen van de landelijke poezie heen willen kijken.
Encyclopedia of Romantic Nationalism in Europe, 2018
This encyclopedia documents the presence and impact of nationalized cultural consciousness in Eur... more This encyclopedia documents the presence and impact of nationalized cultural consciousness in European nationalism. It tracks how intellectuals, historians, philologists, novelists, poets, painters, folklorists, and composers, in an intensely collaborative transnational network, articulated the national identities and aspirations that would go on to determine European history and politics, with effects that are still felt today. Edited by Joep Leerssen, in cooperation with almost 350 authors from dozens of countries, this encyclopedia gives a clear idea of the intricate (transnational and intermedial) networks and entanglements in which all aspects of Romantic Nationalism are connected. The online Open Access edition of The Encyclopedia of Romantic Nationalism in Europe is available here.
In the following article, various manifestations of the perception of retrospective future, inher... more In the following article, various manifestations of the perception of retrospective future, inherent to Jewish thought, will be presented through an analysis of several textual paradigmatic instances. Diodorus Cronus, in his famous ‘master argument’, formulated a similar, though not identical, confusion in linear time. The motivation in his case is, of course, logical and not theological as was that of the rabbis; however, the philosophical manifestations are as remarkably similar as they are counterintuitive. As a philosophical descendant of the rigid logic of the Eleatic school and figures such as Parmenides and Zeno, Diodorus Cronus had a problem with the Aristotelian idea of motion. On the other hand, he tried not to ignore the changed state of affairs and to account for change and movement. He claimed that while change as a process does not make any sense, we must acknowledge that something has been changed. That brings us to a unique time-perception of the order of things that challenges linear time in a similar manner to the rabbinic notion of Oral Torah and the kabbalistic tzimtzum. Both, Oral Torah, as a text still being created but already given on Mount Sinai, and the tzimtzum — incorporating what Wolfson calls “circular linearity” — bear close similarities with Cronus’ time perception. One must stress that there is no apparent historical connection between Diodorus Cronus and the rabbis and there are obvious fundamental differences between them; however, their shared notion of the retrospective future bears very interesting affinities that the present article wishes to bring to the fore. To do so, this article will describe the concept of retrospective future in Jewish thought, chart Cronus’ conception of the ‘master argument’, and compare between them. Keywords: Hermeneutics, Time, Oral Torah, future contingents, Diodorus Cronus, tzimtzum, The ‘master argument’, motion, non-linear, retrospective future.
The conscious use of literary constraints has become a widespread phenomenon in modern Hebrew lit... more The conscious use of literary constraints has become a widespread phenomenon in modern Hebrew literature. The choice in advance of a formal apparatus for a given work of art – even before the concrete making of the work – can make use of traditional constraints (such as the sonnet) or create completely new ones. The artistic constraint and its use are at the heart of the activity of the literary group, Oulipo (Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle). The introducing of Oulipo and its members into the discourse of Hebrew literature is not the only reason for the rise of pre-constrained writing in Hebrew literature in recent decades. Quite remarkably various major notion in the work of Oulipo share great affinities with rabbinical ideas, mainly its conception of language and interpretation. The article in dedicated to one of them.
The central Oulipian idea, the idea of formulating the constraint by which new works can be produced and created, is very similar to the idea of constant interpretation in rabbinic literature. Moreover, new works – made possible by the constraint – are in the future, as a potential, but also in the past, as a realization, in the constraint itself before it is realized. Here is an inherent, non-linear conception of time, or in the language of the Talmud: “everything that an accomplished student will in the future innovate was already told to Moses at Mt. Sinai”. The same "future" in which everything "has already been told" is the subject of this article. Here, too, lies the same tension between the determinism dictated by language and its own constraints and between the freedom of its users to create in it, between "engraved” (ḥarut) and "freedom" (ḥerut). The article will show how the blurring of linear time is part and parcel of both Oulipo and Rabbinical thought. The article will do so by describing the connection between Diodorus Kronos’ (340? -284 BC) famous "Master argument", the Oulipian notion of constraint and the idea of the giving of the dual Torah at Mount Sinai: the written and the oral. The linear time of past-present-future to which we are accustomed is replaced by a past that takes place in the future from the present.
Textual Transmission in Contemporary Jewish Cultures, 2020
One of the most fundamental notions of rabbinic Judaism is that concerning textual transmission. ... more One of the most fundamental notions of rabbinic Judaism is that concerning textual transmission. The Jewish text is always on the move—sometimes back and forth—from God to humanity, from generation to generation, from teacher to students. Textual transmission encompasses and even necessitates another idea, that of ...
Nobel Prize - winning author S. Y. Agnon was the foremost Hebrew writer of the twentieth century.... more Nobel Prize - winning author S. Y. Agnon was the foremost Hebrew writer of the twentieth century. His work navigated the world of Jewish tradition and that of secular modernity, capturing the conflict between old and new. In "Language, Absence, Play", Yaniv Hagbi explores Agnon's theological and philosophical attitudes toward language, attitudes that to a large extent shaped his poetics and aesthetic values. Drawing on anthologies compiled by Agnon, among others, Hagbi examines his theoretical orientation and the ways he integrated into his poetics ideas about language that are rooted in Jewish theology. In doing so, Hagbi casts light on profound parallels between religiously inspired Jewish hermeneutics and the language-centered superstructuralist theories that have dominated academic discourse in the humanities since the mid-twentieth century. With deep insight and lucid prose, "Language, Absence, Play" demonstrates how the traditional and the contemporary ...
The following article compares two Jewish (Hebrew) anthologies which were published in Europe bet... more The following article compares two Jewish (Hebrew) anthologies which were published in Europe between the wars. Though essentially describing Hebrew literature, both works, Edmond Fleg’s L’Anthologie Juive: Des origines à nos jours (Paris 1924) and Juda Palache’s De Hebreeuwsche litteratuur van den na-Talmoedischen tijd tot op onze dagen in schetsen en vertalingen (Amsterdam 1935) were not published in Hebrew. The study of the parallels between the two anthologies describes some of the issues faced by the compilers and the manners by which they have addressed them.
<p>Jewish culture places a great deal of emphasis on texts and their means of transmission.... more <p>Jewish culture places a great deal of emphasis on texts and their means of transmission. At various points in Jewish history, the primary mode of transmission has changed in response to political, geographical, technological, and cultural shifts. Contemporary textual transmission in Jewish culture has been influenced by secularization, the return to Hebrew and the emergence of modern Yiddish, and the new centers of Jewish life in the United States and in Israel, as well as by advancements in print technology and the invention of the Internet. Volume XXXI of Studies in Contemporary Jewry deals with various aspects of textual transmission in Jewish culture in the last two centuries. Essays in this volume examine old and new kinds of media and their meanings; new modes of transmission in fields such as Jewish music; and the struggle to continue transmitting texts under difficult political circumstances. Two essays analyze textual transmission in the works of giants of modern Jewish literature: S.Y. Agnon, in Hebrew, and Isaac Bashevis Singer, in Yiddish. Other essays discuss paratexts in the East, print cultures in the West, and the organization of knowledge in libraries and encyclopedias.</p>
Textual Transmission in Contemporary Jewish Cultures, 2020
One of the most fundamental notions of rabbinic Judaism is that concerning textual transmission. ... more One of the most fundamental notions of rabbinic Judaism is that concerning textual transmission. The Jewish text is always on the move— sometimes back and forth—¬¬¬from God to humanity, from generation to generation, from teacher to students. Textual transmission encompasses and even necessitates another idea, that of textual participation. A text does not simply change hands; it is always transformed in the process, and the agents of this process, by the very act of transmission, are those who reshape the text. This essay seeks to show the ways in which such notions are incorporated in the belletristic work of Shmuel Yosef Agnon. Textual transmission, in the context of the present essay, is part and parcel of the broader notion of “linguistic materialism.” The material aspect of language is everything that reveals language to our senses. Linguistic materialism is perceived here as the idea that meaning is to be found, not only in words, but also in the concrete material of which language is made. Thus, in order for a text to be transmitted, one or more objects need to be exchanged. Sounds, ink, paper, parchment, letters, books: all are materialistic manifestations of language that enable the act of textual transmission.
Art, by definition, is creating by the use of self-imposed constraints. Consciously writing under... more Art, by definition, is creating by the use of self-imposed constraints. Consciously writing under formal constraints - sometimes even the formulating of unique constraints for a given work of art - seems to always be an experimental creative activity and not part of mainstream art and literature. Established in 1960, Oulipo (Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle), a group of (mainly) French authors and mathematicians, took upon itself to investigate various practices of pre-constrained writing. The extensive preoccupation with constraints gave language a pivotal role in the work of Oulipo. The setting of language at the center of activity, not as a mere tool but as an end in itself, is also part and parcel of traditional Jewish thought and practice. The article compares between Oulipian ideas on pre-constrained writing with classic Jewish notions on language. It shows the close similarity between what seems to be two distant and separate fields: post-modern literary avant-garde and ancient Jewish sources such as the Talmud, Midrash and kabbalah.
Een twijgje viel op het hek en luimde; Zoals ik ook slaap. De vrucht viel, en wat moet ik met mij... more Een twijgje viel op het hek en luimde; Zoals ik ook slaap. De vrucht viel, en wat moet ik met mijn stam, Wat moet ik met mijn stengel? [Een twijgje viel, 19n] Het korte gedicht Een twijgje viel ('Tzanach lo Zalzal') is een van de meest beroemde gedichten ooit geschreven in het Hebreeuws. Het verwoordt het gespleten bestaan van de auteur, Bialik, tussen veel tegengestelde polen, zoals zionisme en de erkenning van de diaspora, Hebreeuws en Jiddisch, de natuur en het stadsleven of de jeugd en volwassenheid. Bialik schreef het in Odessa in 19 n, in een zeer creatieve periode. Zoals bij zo veel (romantische) auteurs die hebben geprobeerd hun biografie om te vormen tot een mythische autobiografie, is voorzichtigheid geboden bij het bespreken van Bialiks leven, zelfs bij het gebruik van niet-literaire bronnen. Evenwel zijn er een aantal feiten waarvan we kunnen aannemen dat ze correct zijn, omdat ze door meerdere bronnen bevestigd worden. Er zijn niet veel mensen wier leven ook het verhaal is van een tijdperk, van een beweging, van een geschiedenis die boven hen uitstijgt. Het verhaal van Bialik is het verhaal van het Joodse volk in een bepaald moment op een bepaalde plek. Het is ook in grote mate het verhaal van de Modern Hebreeuwse Literatuur van zijn tijd en van de belangrijke rol die zij heeft gespeeld als drijvende kracht achter het (Europese) zionisme. Chaim Nachman Bialik , een van de kopstukken van de Hebreeuws-renaissance, wordt algemeen beschouwd als Isra-73 1.
Stel je voor: drie kamelen lopen in driehoeksformatie. In hun midden hangt een piano. Een vleugel... more Stel je voor: drie kamelen lopen in driehoeksformatie. In hun midden hangt een piano. Een vleugel zweeft door de lucht, erboven een blauwe hemel, eronder geel zand -het tafereel doet denken aan een kindertekening. Dit beeld kan echter ook voor de wortels van de moderne Hebreeuwse cultuur staan, voor de welhaast surreële ontmoeting tussen de wereld van Europa en die van het Midden-Oosten. Wonderlijk genoeg gaat het hier niet alleen om een fantastisch beeld, want precies op deze manier is in 1909 de vleugelpiano van de gezusters Blaustein van Jaffa naar het nog jonge dorp (of mosjava) 2 Rechovot vervoerd.
Sela Rachel Blaustein (1890-1931), beter bekend als Rachel de dichteres, is een van Israels groot... more Sela Rachel Blaustein (1890-1931), beter bekend als Rachel de dichteres, is een van Israels grootste dichters. Straten en instituten zijn naar haar vernoemd en haar afbeelding siert een bankbiljet. Haar gedichten zijn helder en eenvoudig van taal, melancholisch en doortrokken van diepe emoties. In haar liefdesgedichten beschrijft ze eenzaamheid, pijn en verlangen; haar natuurgedichten zijn ongekunsteld en in die over Bijbelse figuren proeft de lezer de taal van het heilige boek. Dit tweede deel uit de 'Hebreeuwse Bibliotheek' – het eerste deel ('Chaim Nachman Bialik’)* behandelt de dichter Bialik – geeft een goed overzicht van leven en werk van deze dichteres. Geschikt voor de beginnende poezieliefhebber en voor hen die over de grenzen van de landelijke poezie heen willen kijken.
Encyclopedia of Romantic Nationalism in Europe, 2018
This encyclopedia documents the presence and impact of nationalized cultural consciousness in Eur... more This encyclopedia documents the presence and impact of nationalized cultural consciousness in European nationalism. It tracks how intellectuals, historians, philologists, novelists, poets, painters, folklorists, and composers, in an intensely collaborative transnational network, articulated the national identities and aspirations that would go on to determine European history and politics, with effects that are still felt today. Edited by Joep Leerssen, in cooperation with almost 350 authors from dozens of countries, this encyclopedia gives a clear idea of the intricate (transnational and intermedial) networks and entanglements in which all aspects of Romantic Nationalism are connected. The online Open Access edition of The Encyclopedia of Romantic Nationalism in Europe is available here.
In the following article, various manifestations of the perception of retrospective future, inher... more In the following article, various manifestations of the perception of retrospective future, inherent to Jewish thought, will be presented through an analysis of several textual paradigmatic instances. Diodorus Cronus, in his famous ‘master argument’, formulated a similar, though not identical, confusion in linear time. The motivation in his case is, of course, logical and not theological as was that of the rabbis; however, the philosophical manifestations are as remarkably similar as they are counterintuitive. As a philosophical descendant of the rigid logic of the Eleatic school and figures such as Parmenides and Zeno, Diodorus Cronus had a problem with the Aristotelian idea of motion. On the other hand, he tried not to ignore the changed state of affairs and to account for change and movement. He claimed that while change as a process does not make any sense, we must acknowledge that something has been changed. That brings us to a unique time-perception of the order of things that challenges linear time in a similar manner to the rabbinic notion of Oral Torah and the kabbalistic tzimtzum. Both, Oral Torah, as a text still being created but already given on Mount Sinai, and the tzimtzum — incorporating what Wolfson calls “circular linearity” — bear close similarities with Cronus’ time perception. One must stress that there is no apparent historical connection between Diodorus Cronus and the rabbis and there are obvious fundamental differences between them; however, their shared notion of the retrospective future bears very interesting affinities that the present article wishes to bring to the fore. To do so, this article will describe the concept of retrospective future in Jewish thought, chart Cronus’ conception of the ‘master argument’, and compare between them. Keywords: Hermeneutics, Time, Oral Torah, future contingents, Diodorus Cronus, tzimtzum, The ‘master argument’, motion, non-linear, retrospective future.
The conscious use of literary constraints has become a widespread phenomenon in modern Hebrew lit... more The conscious use of literary constraints has become a widespread phenomenon in modern Hebrew literature. The choice in advance of a formal apparatus for a given work of art – even before the concrete making of the work – can make use of traditional constraints (such as the sonnet) or create completely new ones. The artistic constraint and its use are at the heart of the activity of the literary group, Oulipo (Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle). The introducing of Oulipo and its members into the discourse of Hebrew literature is not the only reason for the rise of pre-constrained writing in Hebrew literature in recent decades. Quite remarkably various major notion in the work of Oulipo share great affinities with rabbinical ideas, mainly its conception of language and interpretation. The article in dedicated to one of them.
The central Oulipian idea, the idea of formulating the constraint by which new works can be produced and created, is very similar to the idea of constant interpretation in rabbinic literature. Moreover, new works – made possible by the constraint – are in the future, as a potential, but also in the past, as a realization, in the constraint itself before it is realized. Here is an inherent, non-linear conception of time, or in the language of the Talmud: “everything that an accomplished student will in the future innovate was already told to Moses at Mt. Sinai”. The same "future" in which everything "has already been told" is the subject of this article. Here, too, lies the same tension between the determinism dictated by language and its own constraints and between the freedom of its users to create in it, between "engraved” (ḥarut) and "freedom" (ḥerut). The article will show how the blurring of linear time is part and parcel of both Oulipo and Rabbinical thought. The article will do so by describing the connection between Diodorus Kronos’ (340? -284 BC) famous "Master argument", the Oulipian notion of constraint and the idea of the giving of the dual Torah at Mount Sinai: the written and the oral. The linear time of past-present-future to which we are accustomed is replaced by a past that takes place in the future from the present.
Textual Transmission in Contemporary Jewish Cultures, 2020
One of the most fundamental notions of rabbinic Judaism is that concerning textual transmission. ... more One of the most fundamental notions of rabbinic Judaism is that concerning textual transmission. The Jewish text is always on the move—sometimes back and forth—from God to humanity, from generation to generation, from teacher to students. Textual transmission encompasses and even necessitates another idea, that of ...
Nobel Prize - winning author S. Y. Agnon was the foremost Hebrew writer of the twentieth century.... more Nobel Prize - winning author S. Y. Agnon was the foremost Hebrew writer of the twentieth century. His work navigated the world of Jewish tradition and that of secular modernity, capturing the conflict between old and new. In "Language, Absence, Play", Yaniv Hagbi explores Agnon's theological and philosophical attitudes toward language, attitudes that to a large extent shaped his poetics and aesthetic values. Drawing on anthologies compiled by Agnon, among others, Hagbi examines his theoretical orientation and the ways he integrated into his poetics ideas about language that are rooted in Jewish theology. In doing so, Hagbi casts light on profound parallels between religiously inspired Jewish hermeneutics and the language-centered superstructuralist theories that have dominated academic discourse in the humanities since the mid-twentieth century. With deep insight and lucid prose, "Language, Absence, Play" demonstrates how the traditional and the contemporary ...
The following article compares two Jewish (Hebrew) anthologies which were published in Europe bet... more The following article compares two Jewish (Hebrew) anthologies which were published in Europe between the wars. Though essentially describing Hebrew literature, both works, Edmond Fleg’s L’Anthologie Juive: Des origines à nos jours (Paris 1924) and Juda Palache’s De Hebreeuwsche litteratuur van den na-Talmoedischen tijd tot op onze dagen in schetsen en vertalingen (Amsterdam 1935) were not published in Hebrew. The study of the parallels between the two anthologies describes some of the issues faced by the compilers and the manners by which they have addressed them.
<p>Jewish culture places a great deal of emphasis on texts and their means of transmission.... more <p>Jewish culture places a great deal of emphasis on texts and their means of transmission. At various points in Jewish history, the primary mode of transmission has changed in response to political, geographical, technological, and cultural shifts. Contemporary textual transmission in Jewish culture has been influenced by secularization, the return to Hebrew and the emergence of modern Yiddish, and the new centers of Jewish life in the United States and in Israel, as well as by advancements in print technology and the invention of the Internet. Volume XXXI of Studies in Contemporary Jewry deals with various aspects of textual transmission in Jewish culture in the last two centuries. Essays in this volume examine old and new kinds of media and their meanings; new modes of transmission in fields such as Jewish music; and the struggle to continue transmitting texts under difficult political circumstances. Two essays analyze textual transmission in the works of giants of modern Jewish literature: S.Y. Agnon, in Hebrew, and Isaac Bashevis Singer, in Yiddish. Other essays discuss paratexts in the East, print cultures in the West, and the organization of knowledge in libraries and encyclopedias.</p>
Textual Transmission in Contemporary Jewish Cultures, 2020
One of the most fundamental notions of rabbinic Judaism is that concerning textual transmission. ... more One of the most fundamental notions of rabbinic Judaism is that concerning textual transmission. The Jewish text is always on the move— sometimes back and forth—¬¬¬from God to humanity, from generation to generation, from teacher to students. Textual transmission encompasses and even necessitates another idea, that of textual participation. A text does not simply change hands; it is always transformed in the process, and the agents of this process, by the very act of transmission, are those who reshape the text. This essay seeks to show the ways in which such notions are incorporated in the belletristic work of Shmuel Yosef Agnon. Textual transmission, in the context of the present essay, is part and parcel of the broader notion of “linguistic materialism.” The material aspect of language is everything that reveals language to our senses. Linguistic materialism is perceived here as the idea that meaning is to be found, not only in words, but also in the concrete material of which language is made. Thus, in order for a text to be transmitted, one or more objects need to be exchanged. Sounds, ink, paper, parchment, letters, books: all are materialistic manifestations of language that enable the act of textual transmission.
Art, by definition, is creating by the use of self-imposed constraints. Consciously writing under... more Art, by definition, is creating by the use of self-imposed constraints. Consciously writing under formal constraints - sometimes even the formulating of unique constraints for a given work of art - seems to always be an experimental creative activity and not part of mainstream art and literature. Established in 1960, Oulipo (Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle), a group of (mainly) French authors and mathematicians, took upon itself to investigate various practices of pre-constrained writing. The extensive preoccupation with constraints gave language a pivotal role in the work of Oulipo. The setting of language at the center of activity, not as a mere tool but as an end in itself, is also part and parcel of traditional Jewish thought and practice. The article compares between Oulipian ideas on pre-constrained writing with classic Jewish notions on language. It shows the close similarity between what seems to be two distant and separate fields: post-modern literary avant-garde and ancient Jewish sources such as the Talmud, Midrash and kabbalah.
Een twijgje viel op het hek en luimde; Zoals ik ook slaap. De vrucht viel, en wat moet ik met mij... more Een twijgje viel op het hek en luimde; Zoals ik ook slaap. De vrucht viel, en wat moet ik met mijn stam, Wat moet ik met mijn stengel? [Een twijgje viel, 19n] Het korte gedicht Een twijgje viel ('Tzanach lo Zalzal') is een van de meest beroemde gedichten ooit geschreven in het Hebreeuws. Het verwoordt het gespleten bestaan van de auteur, Bialik, tussen veel tegengestelde polen, zoals zionisme en de erkenning van de diaspora, Hebreeuws en Jiddisch, de natuur en het stadsleven of de jeugd en volwassenheid. Bialik schreef het in Odessa in 19 n, in een zeer creatieve periode. Zoals bij zo veel (romantische) auteurs die hebben geprobeerd hun biografie om te vormen tot een mythische autobiografie, is voorzichtigheid geboden bij het bespreken van Bialiks leven, zelfs bij het gebruik van niet-literaire bronnen. Evenwel zijn er een aantal feiten waarvan we kunnen aannemen dat ze correct zijn, omdat ze door meerdere bronnen bevestigd worden. Er zijn niet veel mensen wier leven ook het verhaal is van een tijdperk, van een beweging, van een geschiedenis die boven hen uitstijgt. Het verhaal van Bialik is het verhaal van het Joodse volk in een bepaald moment op een bepaalde plek. Het is ook in grote mate het verhaal van de Modern Hebreeuwse Literatuur van zijn tijd en van de belangrijke rol die zij heeft gespeeld als drijvende kracht achter het (Europese) zionisme. Chaim Nachman Bialik , een van de kopstukken van de Hebreeuws-renaissance, wordt algemeen beschouwd als Isra-73 1.
Stel je voor: drie kamelen lopen in driehoeksformatie. In hun midden hangt een piano. Een vleugel... more Stel je voor: drie kamelen lopen in driehoeksformatie. In hun midden hangt een piano. Een vleugel zweeft door de lucht, erboven een blauwe hemel, eronder geel zand -het tafereel doet denken aan een kindertekening. Dit beeld kan echter ook voor de wortels van de moderne Hebreeuwse cultuur staan, voor de welhaast surreële ontmoeting tussen de wereld van Europa en die van het Midden-Oosten. Wonderlijk genoeg gaat het hier niet alleen om een fantastisch beeld, want precies op deze manier is in 1909 de vleugelpiano van de gezusters Blaustein van Jaffa naar het nog jonge dorp (of mosjava) 2 Rechovot vervoerd.
Chelm. We see only its broad back, unable to
discern where its gaze is directed. Chelm is a city
... more Chelm. We see only its broad back, unable to discern where its gaze is directed. Chelm is a city unlike all others, for beyond it lies nothing: it physically separates us from the void. Chelm is known in Jewish folklore as a city of fools. But the truth of Chelm is much darker—its inhabitants harbor an ancient and fearsome metaphysical wisdom beneath a facade of folly. If we dare to look directly at this wisdom, we risk being blinded. Yaniv Hagbi’s novel weaves the stories of Chelm into a dizzying plot. It focuses on the tale of the son of the Chelm blacksmith, who seeks to save his soul from the city’s grotesque logic. He is exiled to the neighboring city of Z, where logic and practical reasoning prevail. But the city of Z cannot endure life alongside the spiraling spectacle of folly for long, and the blacksmith’s son is forced to return to Chelm one last time— this time as the leader of Z’s inhabitants, to fight against his birthplace and destroy it.
Front matter of Vol 31
Jewish culture places a great deal of emphasis on texts and their means ... more Front matter of Vol 31
Jewish culture places a great deal of emphasis on texts and their means of transmission. At various points in Jewish history, the primary mode of transmission has changed in response to political, geographical, technological, and cultural shifts. Contemporary textual transmission in Jewish culture has been influenced by secularization, the return to Hebrew and the emergence of modern Yiddish, and the new centers of Jewish life in the United States and in Israel, as well as by advancements in print technology and the invention of the Internet. Volume XXXI of Studies in Contemporary Jewry deals with various aspects of textual transmission in Jewish culture in the last two centuries.
j R B S (1890–1931) is een van Israëls meest geliefde dichteressen, wat wel blijkt uit het feit d... more j R B S (1890–1931) is een van Israëls meest geliefde dichteressen, wat wel blijkt uit het feit dat men haar daar eenvoudigweg kent als ' Rachel (de Dichteres) '. Die laatste titel draagt ze niet voor niets, want haar levensloop en haar gedich-ten zijn onlosmakelijk met elkaar verweven. Zoals gold voor bij-na alle Hebreeuwse schrijvers en dichters uit die tijd was het He-breeuws niet Rachels eerste taal. Zelf beweerde ze graag dat ze de taal ooit van kinderen leerde, dat wil zeggen, van de eerste generaties kinderen die opgroeiden met het Hebreeuws als moe-dertaal. Inderdaad oogt Rachels poëzie helder en ongekunsteld, maar tegelijkertijd is de taal van de Hebreeuwse Bijbel altijd aan-wezig. Het huwelijk tussen oud en nieuw, tussen klassiek en modern , verleent haar gedichten een geconcentreerde schoonheid die niet afdoet aan hun toegankelijkheid. Als één van de eer-ste Hebreeuwse dichteressen introduceerde Rachel bovendien vernieuwende en persoonlijke thema's zoals vrouwelijke vriend-schap, de kinderwens, driehoeksverhoudingen en omgang met de naderende dood. Wij hopen dat deze selectie gedichten de schoonheid van Rachels poëzie zal weten over te brengen op een zo breed mogelijk Neder-lands lezerspubliek.
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Papers by Yaniv Hagbi
As a philosophical descendant of the rigid logic of the Eleatic school and
figures such as Parmenides and Zeno, Diodorus Cronus had a problem with the Aristotelian idea of motion. On the other hand, he tried not to ignore the changed state of affairs and to account for change and movement. He claimed that while change as a process does not make any sense, we must acknowledge that something has been changed. That brings us to a unique time-perception of the order of things that challenges linear time in a similar manner to the rabbinic notion of Oral Torah and the kabbalistic tzimtzum. Both, Oral Torah, as a text still being created but already given on Mount Sinai, and the tzimtzum — incorporating what Wolfson calls “circular linearity” — bear close similarities with Cronus’ time perception. One must stress that there is no apparent historical connection between Diodorus Cronus and the rabbis and there are obvious fundamental differences between them; however, their shared notion of the retrospective future bears very interesting affinities that the present article wishes to bring to the fore. To do so, this article will describe the concept of retrospective future in Jewish thought, chart Cronus’ conception of the ‘master argument’, and compare between them.
Keywords: Hermeneutics, Time, Oral Torah, future contingents, Diodorus Cronus, tzimtzum, The ‘master argument’, motion, non-linear, retrospective future.
The central Oulipian idea, the idea of formulating the constraint by which new works can be produced and created, is very similar to the idea of constant interpretation in rabbinic literature. Moreover, new works – made possible by the constraint – are in the future, as a potential, but also in the past, as a realization, in the constraint itself before it is realized. Here is an inherent, non-linear conception of time, or in the language of the Talmud: “everything that an accomplished student will in the future innovate was already told to Moses at Mt. Sinai”. The same "future" in which everything "has already been told" is the subject of this article. Here, too, lies the same tension between the determinism dictated by language and its own constraints and between the freedom of its users to create in it, between "engraved” (ḥarut) and "freedom" (ḥerut). The article will show how the blurring of linear time is part and parcel of both Oulipo and Rabbinical thought. The article will do so by describing the connection between Diodorus Kronos’ (340? -284 BC) famous "Master argument", the Oulipian notion of constraint and the idea of the giving of the dual Torah at Mount Sinai: the written and the oral. The linear time of past-present-future to which we are accustomed is replaced by a past that takes place in the future from the present.
Textual transmission, in the context of the present essay, is part and parcel of the broader notion of “linguistic materialism.” The material aspect of language is everything that reveals language to our senses. Linguistic materialism is perceived here as the idea that meaning is to be found, not only in words, but also in the concrete material of which language is made. Thus, in order for a text to be transmitted, one or more objects need to be exchanged. Sounds, ink, paper, parchment, letters, books: all are materialistic manifestations of language that enable the act of textual transmission.
As a philosophical descendant of the rigid logic of the Eleatic school and
figures such as Parmenides and Zeno, Diodorus Cronus had a problem with the Aristotelian idea of motion. On the other hand, he tried not to ignore the changed state of affairs and to account for change and movement. He claimed that while change as a process does not make any sense, we must acknowledge that something has been changed. That brings us to a unique time-perception of the order of things that challenges linear time in a similar manner to the rabbinic notion of Oral Torah and the kabbalistic tzimtzum. Both, Oral Torah, as a text still being created but already given on Mount Sinai, and the tzimtzum — incorporating what Wolfson calls “circular linearity” — bear close similarities with Cronus’ time perception. One must stress that there is no apparent historical connection between Diodorus Cronus and the rabbis and there are obvious fundamental differences between them; however, their shared notion of the retrospective future bears very interesting affinities that the present article wishes to bring to the fore. To do so, this article will describe the concept of retrospective future in Jewish thought, chart Cronus’ conception of the ‘master argument’, and compare between them.
Keywords: Hermeneutics, Time, Oral Torah, future contingents, Diodorus Cronus, tzimtzum, The ‘master argument’, motion, non-linear, retrospective future.
The central Oulipian idea, the idea of formulating the constraint by which new works can be produced and created, is very similar to the idea of constant interpretation in rabbinic literature. Moreover, new works – made possible by the constraint – are in the future, as a potential, but also in the past, as a realization, in the constraint itself before it is realized. Here is an inherent, non-linear conception of time, or in the language of the Talmud: “everything that an accomplished student will in the future innovate was already told to Moses at Mt. Sinai”. The same "future" in which everything "has already been told" is the subject of this article. Here, too, lies the same tension between the determinism dictated by language and its own constraints and between the freedom of its users to create in it, between "engraved” (ḥarut) and "freedom" (ḥerut). The article will show how the blurring of linear time is part and parcel of both Oulipo and Rabbinical thought. The article will do so by describing the connection between Diodorus Kronos’ (340? -284 BC) famous "Master argument", the Oulipian notion of constraint and the idea of the giving of the dual Torah at Mount Sinai: the written and the oral. The linear time of past-present-future to which we are accustomed is replaced by a past that takes place in the future from the present.
Textual transmission, in the context of the present essay, is part and parcel of the broader notion of “linguistic materialism.” The material aspect of language is everything that reveals language to our senses. Linguistic materialism is perceived here as the idea that meaning is to be found, not only in words, but also in the concrete material of which language is made. Thus, in order for a text to be transmitted, one or more objects need to be exchanged. Sounds, ink, paper, parchment, letters, books: all are materialistic manifestations of language that enable the act of textual transmission.
discern where its gaze is directed. Chelm is a city
unlike all others, for beyond it lies nothing: it
physically separates us from the void. Chelm is
known in Jewish folklore as a city of fools. But the
truth of Chelm is much darker—its inhabitants
harbor an ancient and fearsome metaphysical
wisdom beneath a facade of folly. If we dare
to look directly at this wisdom, we risk being
blinded.
Yaniv Hagbi’s novel weaves the stories of Chelm
into a dizzying plot. It focuses on the tale of the
son of the Chelm blacksmith, who seeks to save
his soul from the city’s grotesque logic. He is
exiled to the neighboring city of Z, where logic
and practical reasoning prevail. But the city
of Z cannot endure life alongside the spiraling
spectacle of folly for long, and the blacksmith’s
son is forced to return to Chelm one last time—
this time as the leader of Z’s inhabitants, to fight
against his birthplace and destroy it.
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Jewish culture places a great deal of emphasis on texts and their means of transmission. At various points in Jewish history, the primary mode of transmission has changed in response to political, geographical, technological, and cultural shifts. Contemporary textual transmission in Jewish culture has been influenced by secularization, the return to Hebrew and the emergence of modern Yiddish, and the new centers of Jewish life in the United States and in Israel, as well as by advancements in print technology and the invention of the Internet. Volume XXXI of Studies in Contemporary Jewry deals with various aspects of textual transmission in Jewish culture in the last two centuries.