Description
Book SynopsisLooks at what it means for new generations to read and interpret ancient religious texts. This book offers a postmodern reading of the "Talmud", one of the first of its kind. It discusses spirituality and religious practice with such concepts as deconstruction, intertextuality, undecidability, multiple voicing, and eroticism in the "Talmud".
Trade Review"This remarkable book ... is rich in suggestive ideas, including the proposal that thought has its highest ethical function when it refuses wisdom in favor of 'asking a question that it cannot answer.'"--Peter C. Brown, Canadian Philosophical Reviews "The gifts Ouaknin offers are many. His use of Kabbalistic thought simultaneously offers profound insight into the nature of the book and illuminates the concepts used... He offers multiple, useful paths forward in the study of the book, narrative, reading practices, community formation, religious thought, and the Talmud itself."--Journal of Communication Praise for the French edition: "Marc-Alain Ouaknin's book is a veritable gift for the heart and mind! ... [It] contains a radical criticism of the 'masters' who '[think] they control their language and the language of others.'"--Robert Maggiori, Liberation
Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments BOOK ONE: TALMUDIC LANDMARKS I. Revelation and Transmission II. Transcription III. The Talmudic Masters: The Schools IV. The Post-Talmudic Period V. Jurisprudence Derived from the Talmud VI. Interpretation VII. Dialogues BOOK TWO: OPENINGS First Opening: What Is a Book? or, The Story of an Effacing Translation Remarks on the Translation: Legible and Illegible Commentary I. The Two Nunim II. The Story of the Nunim III. Dots, Coronets, and Letters IV. The Structure of the Text V. An Atopian Text VI. The Book: The Verse's Beyond VII. An Open Work VIII. The Talmid Hakham and the Wise Man: Hokhmah and Wisdom IX. The Book and the "Manual" X. Time and Interpretation XI. Violence and Interpretation Second Opening: Visible and Invisible; or, Eroticism and Transcendence Translation Layout of the Commentary FIRST PART (A) I. Architecture II. Visible and Invisible: The Contradiction III. Different Modes of Perception of Revelation IV. The Parokhet: The Text, the "Trace" V. New Faces VI. Confronted with the Text VII. The "There" and the Name SECOND PART (B) I. The Structure of the Text II. An Erotic Image III. Eroticism and Transcendence IV. Eroticism and Prophecy THIRD PART (C) I. Invisible Faces II. The Double Gaze III. Seeing and Death IV. The Body beyond the Body BOOK THREE: THE "BURNT BOOK" Glossary of Hebrew Words Used in This Work Bibliography Index
