Jewish Culture between Canon and Heresy

Author:   David Biale
Publisher:   Stanford University Press
ISBN:  

9781503634336


Pages:   296
Publication Date:   07 February 2023
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
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Jewish Culture between Canon and Heresy


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Overview

This career-spanning anthology from prominent Jewish historian David Biale brings over a dozen of his key essays together for the first time. These pieces, written between 1974 and 2016, are all representative of a method Biale calls ""counter-history"": ""the discovery of vital forces precisely in what others considered marginal, disreputable and irrational."" The themes that have preoccupied Biale throughout the course of his distinguished career-in particular power, sexuality, blood, and secular Jewish thought-span the periods of the Bible, late antiquity, and the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. Exemplary essays in this volume argue for the dialectical relationship between modernity and its precursors in the older tradition, working together to ""brush history against the grain"" in order to provide a sweeping look at the history of the Jewish people. This volume of work by one of the boldest and most intellectually omnivorous Jewish thinkers of our time will be essential reading for scholars and students of Jewish studies.

Full Product Details

Author:   David Biale
Publisher:   Stanford University Press
Imprint:   Stanford University Press
ISBN:  

9781503634336


ISBN 10:   1503634337
Pages:   296
Publication Date:   07 February 2023
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

"Introduction: Between Canon and Counterhistory 1. The God with Breasts: El Shaddai in the Bible 2. Korah in the Midrash: The Hairless Heretic as Hero 3. Counterhistory and Jewish Polemics against Christianity: The Sefer Toldot Yeshu and the Sefer Zerubavel 4. ""The Torah Speaks the Language of Human Beings"": Abraham Ibn Ezra's Radical Interpretation of the Bible 5. Between Melancholy and a Broken Heart: A Note on Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav's Depression 6. The Kabbalah in Nachman Krochmal's Philosophy of History 7. Masochism and Philosemitism: The Strange Case of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch 8. Historical Heresies and Modern Jewish Identity 9. Shabbtai Zvi and the Seductions of Jewish Orientalism 10. Leo Strauss: The Philosopher as Weimar Jew 11. Arendt in Jerusalem: Hannah Arendt on the Eichmann Trial 12. Gershom Scholem's ""Ten Unhistorical Aphorisms on the Kabbalah"": Text and Commentary 13. The Threat of Messianism: An Interview with Gershom Scholem (August 14, 1980) 14. Mysticism and Politics in Modern Israel: The Messianic Ideology of Abraham Isaac Ha-Cohen Kook 15. The End of Enlightenment? Epilogue: By the Waters of San Francisco: A Partial Autobiography"

Reviews

Over the course of his career, David Biale has distinguished himself for both his critical acumen and his capacious interests. Written in the contrarian spirit of counter-history, these essays exemplify his singular passion for unsettling conventional ideas concerning the norms and boundaries of the Jewish past. A superb, thought-provoking collection. -Peter E. Gordon, author of Migrants in the Profane: Critical Theory and the Question of Secularization David Biale has always been a trailblazer. This collection highlights the many ingenious roads he has opened for scholars of the Jewish past. Rigorous in method, delicate in touch, Biale sheds light on corners of history that others deemed marginal or taboo, inviting us to engage in an exploration of counter-history that remains directly at the field's heart. -Sarah Abrevaya Stein, co-editor of Wartime North Africa: A Documentary History 1934-1950


"""Over the course of his career, David Biale has distinguished himself for both his critical acumen and his capacious interests. Written in the contrarian spirit of ""counter-history,"" these essays exemplify his singular passion for unsettling conventional ideas concerning the norms and boundaries of the Jewish past. A superb, thought-provoking collection.""—Peter E. Gordon, author of Migrants in the Profane: Critical Theory and the Question of Secularization ""David Biale has always been a trailblazer. This collection highlights the many ingenious roads he has opened for scholars of the Jewish past. Rigorous in method, delicate in touch, Biale sheds light on corners of history that others deemed marginal or taboo, inviting us to engage in an exploration of ""counter-history"" that remains directly at the field's heart.""—Sarah Abrevaya Stein, co-editor of Wartime North Africa: A Documentary History 1934-1950 ""Intellectually exciting and apleasure to read, the essays in this collection are a fine introduction to many important thinkers in the Jewish tradition.""—Bob Goldfarb, Jewish Book Council"


"""Over the course of his career, David Biale has distinguished himself for both his critical acumen and his capacious interests. Written in the contrarian spirit of ""counter-history,"" these essays exemplify his singular passion for unsettling conventional ideas concerning the norms and boundaries of the Jewish past. A superb, thought-provoking collection.""—Peter E. Gordon, author of Migrants in the Profane: Critical Theory and the Question of Secularization ""David Biale has always been a trailblazer. This collection highlights the many ingenious roads he has opened for scholars of the Jewish past. Rigorous in method, delicate in touch, Biale sheds light on corners of history that others deemed marginal or taboo, inviting us to engage in an exploration of ""counter-history"" that remains directly at the field's heart.""—Sarah Abrevaya Stein, co-editor of Wartime North Africa: A Documentary History 1934-1950"


Author Information

David Biale is the Emanuel Ringelblum Distinguished Professor of Jewish History at the University of California, Davis.

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