Language, Eros, Being: Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and Poetic Imagination [Paperback]

Elliot R. Wolfson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0823224198 | ISBN-13: 978-0823224197 | Edition: 4

This long-awaited, magisterial study-an unparalleled blend of philosophy, poetry, and philology-draws on theories of sexuality, phenomenology, comparative religion, philological writings on Kabbalah, Russian formalism, Wittgenstein, Rosenzweig, William Blake, and the very physics of the time-space continuum to establish what will surely be a highwater mark in work on Kabbalah. Not only a study of texts, Language, Eros, Being is perhaps the fullest confrontation of the body in Jewish studies, if not in religious studies as a whole.Elliot R. Wolfson explores the complex gender symbolism that permeates Kabbalistic literature. Focusing on the nexus of asceticism and eroticism, he seeks to define the role of symbolic and poetically charged language in the erotically configured visionary imagination of the medieval Kabbalists. He demonstrates that the traditional Kabbalistic view of gender was a monolithic and androcentric one, in which the feminine was conceived as being derived from the masculine. He does not shrink from the negative implications of this doctrine, but seeks to make an honest acknowledgment of it as the first step toward the redemption of an ancient wisdom.Comparisons with other mystical traditions-including those in Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam-are a remarkable feature throughout the book. They will make it important well beyond Jewish studies, indeed, a must for historians of comparative religion, in particular of comparative mysticism.Praise for Elliot R. Wolfson:Through a Speculum That Shines is an important and provocative contribution to the study of Jewish mysticism by one of the major scholars now working in this field.-Speculum

Editorial Reviews

Review

“One is tempted to say that Wolfson’s Language, Eros, Being is alchemical: Amazingly, it transforms the base metals of hermetically sealed Jewish studies into the gold of exoteric humanities.”

About the Author

ELLIOT R.WOLFSON is the Judge Abraham Lieberman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. Among Wolfson's many books, Fordham has published Language, Eros, Being: Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and Poetic Imagination, winner of the 2005 National Jewish Book Award for Scholarship. Wolfson had earlier won this award, as well as the American Academy of Religion Award for the Best Book in category of Historical Studies, for his Through a Speculum That Shines: Vision and Imagination in Medieval Jewish Mysticism. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Product Details

• Paperback: 792 pages
• Publisher: Fordham University Press; 4 edition (December 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823224198
• ISBN-13: 978-0823224197
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.9 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #822,146 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A tour de force: The Second of Three, July 2, 2005

By 

B. K. Smith "The Seventh Beggar" (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Language, Eros, Being: Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and Poetic Imagination (Paperback)

This is the second major work by Elliot R. Wolfson on kabbalah. The first, Through a Speculum That Shines, was an analysis of the visual in the Jewish mystical tradition. This volume is a brilliant study of the concept of language in kabbalah. The combination of Wolfson's deep understaning of both kabbalah and philosophical thinkers that range from Plato to Heidegger and beyond make this book THE book to read on the linguistic and Jewish mysticism. This is a "must read" for anyone who wants to delve into the depths of kabbalah. With this, we can only wait for the third work to come out next year on the ethical in kabbalah.

These three studies on the visual, the linguistic, and the ethical demonstrate the philosophical nature of kabbalah. The visual corresponds to epistemology (the study of knowing); the linguistic to ontology (the study of being); and the ethical to axiology (the study of values). This being the case, this book is not for the faint hearted. One should not assume that one comes close to understanding it on the first read. It is an extremely difficult book - one that needs to be read many times. This book is a complex web of philosophy and kabbalah. They say that the devil is in the details - just look at the title "Language, Eros, Being" or LEB which is the Hebrew for 'heart - imagine what one will find in the footnotes!