Table of Contents
Preface xiii
Introduction 1
A Mysticism of Ideas 1
Bilinear Thinking 5
Rational Mysticism 8
Kabbalistic Forms of Consciousness 10
The Philosophical Status of the Kabbalists’ Basic Metaphor 10
Kabbalah, Deconstruction, Hegelianism 13
Towards a Contemporary Kabbalistic Theology 16
1. Postmodernism and Jewish Mysticism 19
The Tenor of Post-modernist Thought: Multiple Narratives and the Loss of Center 19
The Lurianic Kabbalah 25
The Shattering of the Foundations 28
Overcoming Binary Oppositions 30
The Role of Negation 31
The Infinite Play of Significance 32
Domination and the Dissolution of God and Self 33
Nihilism and Negation 35
Ethnocentrism and Multi-Culturalism 36
The Need for Universalism and Difference 37
Lurianic Kabbalah and the Syntax of Classical Narrative 38
Kabbalah as a Hermeneutic Methodology 40
Tropological vs. Metaphysical Mysticism 42
Exile as a Condition of Human Existence 43
The Dissolution of the Transcendental Signified and the Autonomous Subject 45
2. Derrida and Jewish Mysticism 48
Derrida, Judaism and the Kabbalah 48
Wolfson and Idel on Derrida and the Kabbalah 50
The Last of the Jews 55
Jabes’ The Book of Questions 56
Sollers and Scholem 60
A Philosophical Accord 62
3. Tzimtzum and Différance 65
The Doctrine of Tzimtzum 65
“Différance” 67
Différance, “Presence” and “Absence” 69
The “Trace” 69
Différance is “Not” 70
Does Différance Create? 71
Différance and Negative Theology 71
Derrida and Mysticism 73
The Thing is Hopelessly Divided Against Itself 74
The Demise of Différance 75
Différance, Space and Time 76
Différance and the Doctrine of Tzimtzum 76
Writing and Tzimtzum 77
Kabbalah, Logocentrism and the Philosophy of Presence 78
Who or What Differs? 80
Differences Between Différance and Tzimtzum 81
Différance, Freud and the Unconscious 82
Creation and the Lie 83
“Khora” 85
A Cartographic Analogy 86
Providing Place 87
Différance and God 88
4. The Shevirah and Deconstruction 91
The Breaking of the Vessels 92
Deconstruction as a Condition for Creation 93
Conceptual and Linguistic Aspects of the Shevirah Doctrine 95
The “Monstrous” and the “Real” 96
Metaphor 97
Bloom on the Shevirah 98
I and Thou 99
The Origin of Evil 101
The Messianic 102
5. A-Systematic Theology 104
The Postmodern Contextualization of all Writing and Speech 105
“The Metaphysical Gesture” 108
Anti-Foundationalism 109
The Continued Quest for a Foundation 109
Humanity and the Actualization of Divine Potential 110
Deconstruction, Hegelian Dialectics and the Kabbalah 112
Temporary Anchors 115
Fluid Foundationalism 116
A Metaphysics of “Perspectives” 117
In Defense of Systematic Theology 119
Deconstruction and Systematic Philosophy/Theology 122
The System that is Not a System: Multiple Perspectives in Kabbalah and Deconstruction 123
The Urge to Philosophize: From Static to Dynamic Theology 124
6. The Doctrine of Coincidentia Oppositorum in Jewish Mysticism 129
Coincidentia Oppositorum in the Early Kabbalah 130
Coincidentia Oppositorum in the Lurianic Kabbalah 131
Elior on the Chabad Hasidism: The Unification of Opposites as the Purpose of the World 133
Dialectical Process in Chabad Thought 135
The Coincidence of Opposites in Other Traditions 138
Derrida: the Overcoming of Polar Oppositions 139
Understanding the Mystical Paradox 144
Model 1: Lessons from a Two-Dimensional World 145
The Coincidence of Opposites: From Analogy to Analysis 149
Model 2: Overcoming the Distinction between Words and Things 150
7. The Torah of the Tree of Life 158
Kabbalistic Reflections on the Hermeneutics of Infinity 158
Scholem: The Divine World of Language 158
Infinite Interpretations 160
Idel on the Plasticity of Textual Significance 161
Kabbalah, Divine Intent, and Infinite Freedom 164
Kabbalah, Dreams, and the Archive 167
Excursus: Deconstruction and Negative Mysticisim 172
Joseph Dan: The “Meaningless Text” 173
Torahs of the Trees of Knowledge and Life 175
The Significance of the Torah of The Tree of Life 177
8. Beyond the Bounds of Language 180
Kabbalah and the Primordial Nature of Language 180
Philosophy and the Primordiality of Language 182
Reality as Presented by Philosophy 184
Philosophical Puzzles, Language Games and Forms of Life 185
God “is” Language 187
Penetrating the Linguistic Barrier 191
Beyond the Symbolic Order: The Mystical in Kant, Wittgenstein and Derrida 191
Transcending the Linguistic Boundary 192
The Way of Analogy 193
Metaphor, Dream, Poetry, Science and Philosophy 194
The Resurfacing of an Ancient Mode of Thought 196
Levinas and L’infiniti 198
Acts Beyond Language 198
The Coincidence of Opposites: An “Echo” of the Linguistic “Big-Bang” 199
“Word and Object,” “Identity and Difference” 200
The Dissolution of the Distinction between Identity and Difference 201
9. Creation Ex Nihilo and the Impossible Messiah 205
Nothingness and Negation in the Theosophical Kabbalah 205
Creation Ex Nihilo 208
Representing “No State of Affairs Whatsoever” 211
Derrida and Différance 212
Signification as the Origin of Being 213
The Impossibility of Nothingness 214
Divine Forgetting, Forgetting the Divine 216
Ayin and the Dissolution of the Self 217
Différance as Numinous 218
Prophetic Judaism and the Passion for the ‘Impossible’ 220
Derrida and Negative Theology 221
Negative Theology in a New Key? 222
The Necessity of Negative Theology 224
Messianism and Apocalypse 226
The Non-meaningful as Divine 227
The Messiah Cannot Come In Ordinary Time 228
10. Kabbalah, Forms of Consciousness and the Structure of Language 230
Kabbalah and Reason 231
Forms of Consciousness/ Modes of Understanding 232
Leibniz, Van Helmont and the Kabbalah 234
Ein-sof and the Open Economy of Thought 236
Otiyot Yesod: Infinite Interpretation 238
The Unity of Opposites 239
On Reason and Authority 242
Ayin: “Unknowing” and the Intuition of the “Non-Dual” 244
Tzimtzum: Concealmeant and Contraction 246
The Shattering of All Horizons 247
Sefirot: The Cognizance of Value 250
Tikkun: Restoration and Redemption 250
“Kabbalah Consciousness” 252
The Lurianic Metaphors, Creativity and the Structure of Language 253
The Nature of the Creative Process 254
Language, the Vehicle of Creation and the Substance of the World 255
The Lurianic Theosophy as a Model of Linguistic Meaning 257
The Emergence of the “Linguistic Subject” 262
Notes 265
Bibliography 315
Index 323