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

The book offers a comprehensive philosophical reconstruction of the work of Edmond Jabèsa 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.

Edmond Jabès was one of the most intriguing Jewish thinkers of the 20th century a poet for the public and a Kabbalist for those who read his work more closely. This book turns his writings into a ground-breaking philosophical achievement: thinking which is manifestly indebted to the Kabbalah, but in the post-religious and post-Shoah world. Loss, exile, negativity, God's absence, writing and Jewishness are the main signposts of the negative ontology which this book offers as an interpretation of Jabès' work. On the basis of it, the book examines the nature of the miraculous encounter between Judaism and philosophy which occurred in the 20th century. Modern Jewish philosophy is a re-constructed tradition which adapts the intellectual and spiritual legacy of Judaism to answer purely modern questions.

Autorentext

Przemys aw Tacik is Assistant Professor at the Jagiellonian University of Kraków. He holds PhDs in philosophy and law and was a visiting scholar at several universities (Buffalo, Nice, Paris, Heidelberg and Lisbon). His main fields of interest are modernity, contemporary and Jewish philosophy, and international law.

Inhalt

Jewish philosophy of modernity Edmond Jabès: life and writing Tzimtzum: Jabès and Luria Negative ontology: the vocable; god, nothing and the name Messianism of writing The concept of the book Judaism and writing The shoah and anti-semitism Jabès' ethics: repetition, resemblance and hospitality Theology of the point: Jabès as a modern Kabbalist