The Freedom of Lights : : Edmond Jabès and Jewish Philosophy of Modernity.

• Superior document: Studies in Jewish History and Memory Series ; v.12
• Author: Poniatowska, Patrycja.
• TeilnehmendeR: Tacik, Przemysław.
• Place / Publishing House: Frankfurt a.M. : : Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften,, 2019.; {copy}2019.
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in Jewish History and Memory Series
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (407 pages)

The book offers a comprehensive philosophical reconstruction of the work of Edmond Jabès─a Jewish-French poet, modern Kabbalist and thinker. It is a starting point for an enquiry into the nature of the encounter between Judaism and modern philosophy. Philosophically, Judaism becomes a re-constructed tradition: a field played with by modern forces.

Table of Contents

Cover -- Copyright information -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1 Jewish Philosophy of Modernity -- On the Affinities between Modernity and Judaism -- The Problematic Connectedness between Judaism and Modern Thought -- The Universe of Modernity I: The Historical Hiatus -- The Universe of Modernity II: The Structure that Conditions Thinking -- The Universe of Modernity III: The Problem of Philosophical Account of Judaism -- The Concept of Jewish Philosophy of Modernity -- 2 Edmond Jab è s: Life and Writing -- Life -- Writing -- Conclusion: Jab è s' Supercooled Modernism -- 3 Tzimtzum: Jab è s and Luria -- Inaccessibility of the Origins -- Effects of the Catastrophe -- The Jab è sian Tzimtzum : An Outline -- Tzimtzum as an Ontological Principle -- The Imaginary and the Real -- Tzimtzum as the Principle of Discontinuity -- An Example of the Tzimtzum Cycle: The Act of Writing -- Tzimtzum in Jab è s and in Luria -- Conclusion: The Jab è sian Tzimtzum as a Philosophical Idea of Modernity -- 4 Negative Ontology I: The Vocable -- The Vocable : The Concept and its Contexts -- The Vocable as an Element of Negative Ontology -- The Vocable as a Trace of the Indicible -- Representation and Repetition -- Writing as a Philosophical Practice -- The Role of the Text as a Path of Tzimtzum -- Conclusion: Kabbalistic vs. Modern Meaning of the Ontology of Writing -- 5 Negative Ontology II: God, Nothing and the Name -- God - Nothing -- Tzimtzum and the Exigency of Monotheism -- Language and Monotheism -- Conclusion: Relentless Theology and the Fate of Jerusalem -- 6 Messianism of Writing -- Hope for the Definitive Book -- Messianism and Jab è s ' Ontology -- Messianism, Time and Truth -- The Risk of Messianism: " The Edge of the Book " -- God as the Ultimate Reader: Messianism and Monotheism -- Oneness and Equality of Things.

Equality of Things: Possibility and Impossibility -- The Essence of Messianic Utopia -- Messianism ' s Bi-directional Movement -- There Is No Salvation Beyond Writing -- Conclusion: Jab è s ' Messianism and Modern Philosophy -- 7 The Concept of the Book -- Introduction: The Layers of the Book -- Whiteness: Continuity and Legibility -- Whiteness: The Awe of Excess and Sur-vival -- Whiteness: Existence as Incompletion and Succession -- The Script of the Book -- Writing and the Book -- Writing as Marking the Book: Jab è s vs. Hegel and Mallarm é -- Writing Instead of Knowledge -- Conclusion: The Book and Jewish Philosophy of Modernity -- 8 Judaism and Writing -- Introduction: A Jew and a Writer -- Writing and Judaism: The Structure of the Book -- The Wound as the Beginning of Judaism and Writing -- Historicity: Judaism as a Religion after Religion -- The Jew and the Writer: A Silent Community -- The Fusion of Judaism and Writing: Life as Interpretation -- Conclusion: Jab è s ' Judaism and Jewish Philosophy of Modernity -- 9 The Shoah and Anti-Semitism -- The Shoah as a Disaster -- Bearing Witness to the Shoah -- Anti-Semitism as the Rule of the Name -- Conclusion: Anti-Semitism and the Modern Depletion -- 10 Jab è s ' Ethics: Repetition, Resemblance and Hospitality -- Repetition -- Resemblance -- Hospitality -- The End in Whiteness: A Possibility of Modern Ethics -- 11 Theology of the Point: Jab è s as a Modern Kabbalist -- Introduction: Linguistic Kabbalism in Jab è s ' Thinking -- From Letters to the Point -- Introduction to Kabbalism of the Point, or on Jab è s ' Materialistic Diff é rance -- The Point as the Basis of Creation -- The Point as the End of God ' s Erasure and Withdrawal -- Conclusion: What the Theology of the Point Actually Describes -- Conclusion: Edmond Jabès and Jewish Philosophy of Modernity -- References -- Index.