DOCSLIB.ORG

Calling for a New Ethos Haviva Pedaya Says the Coronavirus Is an ‘Apocalypse’ Requiring a Novel Code of Ethics by Peggy Cidor

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Calling for a New Ethos Haviva Pedaya Says the Coronavirus Is an ‘Apocalypse’ Requiring a Novel Code of Ethics by Peggy Cidor Cover Story ERIC SULTAN SULTAN ERIC Calling for a new ethos Haviva Pedaya says the coronavirus is an ‘apocalypse’ requiring a novel code of ethics By Peggy Cidor Prof. Haviva Pedaya: I refer to the pandemic as an ‘apocalypse’ since it connotes the end and the beginning of an era PROFESSOR AND poet Haviva Pedaya, er in the history department at Ben-Gurion women. one of the most creative voices in Israeli University of the Negev, and since 2009 she Pedaya’s early research dealt with the academia, believes the novel coronavirus has headed the Elyachar Center for Studies birth of Kabbalah in Provence, France, as pandemic is “apocalyptic” and requires a in Sephardi Heritage, holding the Estelle well as Nachmanides and his students in new ethos and code of ethics. S. Frankfurter Chair in Sephardic Studies. Spain in the 12th century. She later began “I refer to the pandemic as an ‘apoca- She was a senior fellow at the Van Leer In- researching the hassidic movement of the lypse’ since it connotes the end and the be- stitute in Jerusalem, where she has led two 18th century, focusing on Rabbi Nachman ginning of an era,” Pedaya says in an exclu- research groups – Piyyut (Jewish liturgical of Breslov, the charismatic great-grandson sive interview with The Jerusalem Report. poetry) and The East Writes Itself. of the Baal Shem Tov (Rabbi Israel ben “As I see it, we are heading towards a new She is the recipient of the Gershom Eliezer) who revived the hassidic move- version of post-modernism: While many of Scholem Prize for Kabbalah Research in ment by combining Kabbalah with Torah our systems would like to return to normal, 2018, the 2012 Yehuda Amichai literary scholarship. others will be busy drawing lessons.” award, and the 2004 President’s Litera- In her book, Hashem veHamikdash (God Pedaya is married to David Sorotzkin, has ture Award for her book of poetry, Motzah and the Temple), she deals with the concepts one daughter and lives in Beersheba. She Hanefesh (Origin of the Soul). According to of heavenly Jerusalem, the apocalypse and was born in Jerusalem in 1957 to a family of Pedaya, “the condition of animals is a mir- Kabbalah. In her two books on Nachma- Kabbalists from Baghdad. Her great-grand- ror of the human condition.” nides, she discusses hermeneutics (biblical father, Rabbi Yehuda Fatiyah, and her Her first prose book, Ein HeHatul (Eye of interpretation) and the Land of Israel, the grandfather, Shaul Fatiyah, were renowned the Cat), includes stories of the animals she relationship between the symbolic and the Kabbalists. She studied Kabbalah and Jew- cares for. As a Mizrahi (descendant of local concrete, and how it applies to the categori- ish philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jewish communities in the Middle East and zation of texts and attitudes toward the Jew- Jerusalem, graduated from the Jerusalem North Africa) feminist, she has participated ish Diaspora. Currently, she is focusing on School of Visual Theater in 1991, and holds in various Mizrahi cultural events and orga- the issue of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem a doctorate in Jewish philosophy. nizations, and is a fierce critic of the way, – the site of the First and Second Temples. In 1987, Pedaya was appointed a lectur- she believes, society continues to oppress One of the ideas that sets Pedaya apart 10 THE JERUSALEM REPORT JUNE 8, 2020 ERIC SULTAN ERIC from other researchers of hassidism early in her career was her argument that it is one of the major expressions of Jewish modern- ism, as opposed to other scholars who be- lieve that the Enlightenment is the best ex- pression of Jewish modernism, while they perceive Hassidism as archaic. Pedaya is also one of the founders of what has been called “The Piyyut Revolution,” establishing “The Yonah (Dove) Ensemble” to create a renaissance of mystical and li- turgical music from the Near East, a move- Pedaya with her father, Chacham Eliyahu Ovadia, a few months before his death ment that has brought back Jewish liturgy, mostly Sephardi in origin, to the front stage. It was a dramatic move that created a sty- an emergency it was totally unprepared for. allowed to harness the collective state of listic change in Hebrew music, which some With some local variations, this involved emergency for his or her own interests. define as a revolution. Pedaya spoke to the the suspension of external public space Economically, no company or business may Report via Zoom, first addressing her views combined with stressful behavior, given the be allowed to take advantage of the state of on COVID-19. growing morbidity and mortality rates. emergency to hoard or overcharge for prod- When a single virus ignores petty human ucts in high demand such as masks, swabs Since the early days of the coronavirus distinctions between superpowers and ab- or foodstuffs; what (Canadian author and crisis, you have called for a new ethos to ject minorities, so too the new ethics we social activist) Naomi Klein called a “capi- face it. What are the guidelines of these new formulate should clearly be based on rules talism of disaster.” ethics you advocate? that fulfill our needs in these unprecedent- I called this event “the first global event,” ed times, and apply them to all nations and Are you pointing the finger of responsibil- because it is the first that unites the globe social classes. ity at Western civilization? behind a set of behaviors forced upon it by Politically speaking, no leader may be The West tends to focus on threats of a kind for which it is largely responsible, such as the migration waves following in- ternational power struggles and wars, and COURTESY the depletion of global resources. It has idolized the information revolution and ar- tificial intelligence, while geopolitical and ecological disasters destroyed the homes of millions worldwide, claiming the lives of myriads of lives. At the same time, and as the power centers of the Western world deafened their ears to the ever-louder siren approaching from ig- nored the planet’s socioeconomic margins, and the combination of the climate and en- vironment crisis change, a double-edged sword is being thrust right in the belly of the West, causing panic in its capitals. Now the West grapples with its own problems, while it disregard the rest of the world, that can be looted while ignoring its global implica- Pedaya with poet, Erez Biton, at a conference following the submission of the Biton tions on the world. It is all about the West Committee Report on ‘the empowerment of the Sephardi and Mizrahi heritage in the now, with no far-flung colony or rogue state education system,’ of which Pedaya was a member on which to lay the blame. THE JERUSALEM REPORT JUNE 8, 2020 11 Cover Story PELEG LEVY PELEG IRAD MARCIANO MARCIANO IRAD 5. Pedaya with artist Itzik Badash and singer Dikla at the premiere of ‘Hilula L’Em,’ the 6. Pedaya giving a lecture on Jewish music opera Pedaya wrote following her mother’s death at Bar-Ilan University Let’s go back to the beginning: How did lations. must immediately propose a New Deal, an you characterize the initial ethical respons- The global experience of the virus has emergency socioeconomic plan to help cit- es to the outbreak? essentially been a rare and unpredictable izens keep their heads above water, rather Some hope for or fantasize about a Dar- experience of re-territorialization: a with- than abandoning them to anonymous obliv- win-esque or a War of the Worlds-like re- drawal into the narrow boundaries of the ion like so many numbers under the guise of demption in the form of a “natural” vacci- nation state, the city and finally the home. maintaining public health. Effective imme- nation and “herd immunity.” The opposite This effect will not be soon forgotten, par- diately, such a plan must support laborers, view is held by the humanists, who perfect- ticularly as scientists warn that a second freelancers, small businesses and all those ly understand that the death of even many outbreak would increase the pressure on lacking assured income, as well as including thousands is incomparable to the disasters systems already in a state of emergency, the elderly. The same goes for the rest of the that strike our planet on a daily basis, yet whose degree of preparedness has yet to be world, and this will require global attention, remain pessimistic. Why? For the very sim- determined. particularly where the sounds of the siren ple reason that the statistician thinks of hu- Thus, we are now witnessing a simulta- have been most stubbornly ignored. Some manity in terms of nameless, alien numbers, neous back-and-forth movement, outwards blueprints for such a plan already exist. whereas the humanist, or Buddhist, sheds a in the direction of ongoing globalization, Proverbial pied pipers on both sides of the tear with and for every individual, as does and inwards as each country seeks to hide Atlantic have promised, implicitly at least, God. behind its national borders and individuals that we would survive the plague but this seek, or are forced to seek, safety in their time at the expense of the old rather than Let’s take one step further. What should be own homes. Unified to the extreme under the young. I suggest, rather, that instead of done the day after? the auspices of capitalist globalization and [US President Donald] Trump’s policy em- In a certain sense, we are already in the the wings of the imaginary, we are now bodied in the saying that “the cure can’t be beginning of a new era, and the gradual re- forced back to the real, to the body, the in- worse than the disease,” we adopt policies sumption of routine worldwide will flesh it dividual and collective body.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • List of Publications Meir Bar-Ilan
    March 2016 List of Publications Meir Bar-Ilan 1. Books: Sitrey Tefilah veHekhalot, Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1987 (Hebrew). Some Jewish Women in Antiquity, Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars Press, 1998. Genesis Numerology, Rehovot: Association for Jewish Astrology and Numerology, 2003 (Hebrew). Biblical Numerology, Rehovot: Association for Jewish Astrology and Numerology, 2005 (Hebrew). Astrology and Other Sciences among the Jews in the Land of Israel During the Hellenistic-Roman and Byzantine Periods, Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 2010 (Hebrew). Words of Gad the Seer, Rehovot: Shorashim, 2015 (Hebrew). 2. Articles in Journals: „Taqanat R. Abbahu in Caesarea‟, Sinai, 96 (1985), pp. 57-66 (Hebrew). „The Throne of God: What is under it, What is opposite it, What is near it‟, Da‘at’, 15 (1985), pp. 21-35 (Hebrew). „Writing Torah Scrolls, Teffilin, Mezuzoth and Amulets on Deer Leather‟, Beit-Mikra, 30/102 (1985), pp. 375-381 (Hebrew). „A Rock, a Stone and a Seat that Moses sat on‟, Sidra, 2 (1986), pp. 15-23 (Hebrew). „The Occurrences and the Significance of the Yoser Ha‟adam Benediction‟, HUCA, 56 (1985), pp. 9-27 (Hebrew). „The Significance and the Source of Megillat Ta‘anit‟, Sinai, 98 (1986), pp. 114-137 (Hebrew). „Observations on the Mahzor concerning the Angels‟, Or Hamizrach, 35 (1986), pp. 7-12 (Hebrew). „The Red Heifer in the Days of Hillel‟, Sinai, 100 (1987), pp. 143-165 (Hebrew). „Text Criticism, Erotica and Magic in The Song of Songs‟, Shnaton – An Annual for Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, 9 (1987), pp. 31-53 (Hebrew). 1 „Illiteracy as reflected in the Halakhot concerning the Reading of the Scroll of Esther and the Hallel‟, Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, 54 (1987), pp.
    [Show full text]
  • Jews Have the Best Sex: the Hollywood Adventures of a Peculiar Medieval Jewish Text on Sexuality
    Journal of Religion & Film Volume 14 Issue 2 October 2010 Article 8 October 2010 Jews Have the Best Sex: The Hollywood Adventures of a Peculiar Medieval Jewish Text on Sexuality Evyatar Marienberg University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf Recommended Citation Marienberg, Evyatar (2010) "Jews Have the Best Sex: The Hollywood Adventures of a Peculiar Medieval Jewish Text on Sexuality," Journal of Religion & Film: Vol. 14 : Iss. 2 , Article 8. Available at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol14/iss2/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Religion & Film by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Jews Have the Best Sex: The Hollywood Adventures of a Peculiar Medieval Jewish Text on Sexuality Abstract According to quite a few books and films produced in the last few decades in Europe and North America, sex is widely celebrated in Jewish sources. In “authentic Judaism,” kosher sex between husband and wife is a sacred endeavor and a key to heavenly bliss both on earth and beyond. This representation of Jewish attitudes about sex is highly problematic and is often based on only one medieval Jewish source commonly known as The Holy Letter. This paper discusses the use of this text in two Hollywood films: Yentl (1983), and A Stranger Among Us (1992). This article is available in Journal of Religion & Film: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol14/iss2/8 Marienberg: Jews Have the Best Sex Since the fourteenth century, a Hebrew kabbalistic text on marital sexuality, known as Iggeret ha-Kodesh (may be translated as The Holy Letter or The Epistle on/of Holiness), or Hibur ha-Adam ve-Ishto (The Union of Man and His Wife), has been evoked in various works.
    [Show full text]
  • Light in a Socio- Cultural Perspective
    Light in a Socio- Cultural Perspective Edited by Ruth Lubashevsky and Ronit Milano Light in a Socio-Cultural Perspective Edited by Ruth Lubashevsky and Ronit Milano This book first published 2017 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2017 by Ruth Lubashevsky, Ronit Milano and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-7907-X ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-7907-1 CONTENTS List of Figures............................................................................................ vii Introduction ................................................................................................ ix Part 1: Between Image and Truth Chapter One ................................................................................................. 3 From the Overview Effect to the Data Sublime: Stargazing in the Twenty- First Century Romi Mikulinsky Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 19 Cartesian Illuminations: Transfers of Light between the Physics and Philosophy of Descartes Stephan Gregory Part 2: Exposing Reality Chapter Three ...........................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • On Jerusalem As a Feminine and Sexual Hypostasis: from Late Antiquity Sources to Medieval Kabbalah*
    On Jerusalem as a Feminine and Sexual Hypostasis: From Late Antiquity Sources to Medieval Kabbalah* Moshe IDEL 1. Introduction Modern scholarship of Jewish mysticism has addressed the status of the feminine within the divine realm in different ways. Unlike the more standard views of some Jewish theologians, like Maimonides, who envisioned Jewish thought as subscribing to a stark abstract monotheistic vision, scholars started recently to elaborate on a variety of diverging visions of the deity, some of which include feminine elements that played an important role in medieval Jewish sources known as Kabbalah. The origins of these elements are a mat- ter of dispute. Some scholars trace them to biblical times, as there are de- scriptions of the divinity or divinities in feminine terms in ancient Judaism.1 Gershom Scholem, however, opted for the importance of Gnostic sources as a major clue for understanding the background of early Kabbalistic discussions, and focused his explanation in a shift of the understanding of a Rabbinic 1 * This study is part of a more comprehensive book dealing with the emergence of the Kab- balistic views of femininity in preparation. For the vast scholarly literature on YHWH and the Asherah see, for example, the studies of Moshe Weinfeld, “Feminine Features in the Imagery of God in Israel; the Sacred Marriage and the Sacred Tree,” Vetus Testamentum, vol. 46 (1996), pp. 515–529, Mark S. Smith, “God Male and Female in the Old Testament: Yahveh and His ‘Asherah’,” Theological Studies, vol. 48 (1987), pp. 333–340, or J. A. Emerton, “‘Yahweh and his Asherah’: The Goddess or Her Symbol?,” Vetus Testamentum, vol.
    [Show full text]
  • Identity and Gender in the Poetry of Amira Hess I
    Identity and Gender in the Poetry of Amira Hess Almog Behar *This article is based on the first chapter of my master's thesis, submitted to the Department of Hebrew Literature at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I would like to thank Dr. Tamar Hess, who supervised me gently and with sensitivity, Prof. Sasson Somekh, Prof. Ruth Carton-Bloom, and Prof. Hannan Hever for their insights and comments regarding the subjects my work. Thanks to the Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies at The Hebrew University, the Leifer Center for Women's and Gender Studies, the Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities of the East, Jerusalem, the Misgav Institute, Jerusalem, the Center for the Research and Teaching of Sephardic and Eastern Jewish Heritage, the Dov Sadan Foundation for the Study of Literature, the Jewish Studies School at Tel Aviv University, The Naime & Yehoshua Salti Center for Ladino Studies at Bar-Ilan University, and the Sephardic and Mizrahi Communities Committee, Jerusalem. And finally, yet first and foremost, thanks to Amira Hess. All translations in this article are by Hannah Adelman Komy Ofir, unless otherwise noted. The original Hebrew article was published in full in Pa'amim 127-125, Fall-Spring 2011, Ben-Zvi Institute, pp. 317-375. I. "As if the umbilical cord of your soul had been severed" Amira Hess was born in 1943 in Baghdad, and emigrated with her family in 1951 from Iraq to the Yokneam transit camp in Israel. Next, her family moved to Mazmil/Kiryat Yovel, in Jerusalem. She completed her studies at the Seligsberg Vocational School, and worked as a secretary in the Government Press Office of the Foreign Ministry's and for a brief period as a Hebrew teacher in East Jerusalem.
    [Show full text]
  • Sephardic Identity and Material Culture
    The 8th Annual Conference of the Society for Sephardic Studies Sephardic Identity and Material Culture 6th-8th November 2018 W.A. Minkoff Senate Hall (bldg. 71) Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Marcus Family Campus, Beer-Sheva Moshe David Gaon Center Moshe David Gaon Center Ben-Gurion University of the Negev for Ladino Culture Department of Hebrew Literature J.R. Elyachar Center for Studies in Sephardic Heritage th 12:00 - 12:30 November 6 Narmina Abdulaev, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Nasreddin (Juha :״!He looks like a real person״ Statues as a Part of Collective Memory 12:30- 13:00 Tamar Alexander, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev The Ring – A Living Sephardic Tradition of a Marriage to a She-demon 13:00 - 15:00 Lunch Session III: Keynote Speaker Chairperson: Tamar Alexander 15:00 - 15:45 Nenad Makuljević, University of Belgrade Dress Culture as a Transcultural Aspect of Sephardic Visual Identity in the Balkans (19th-20th Century) 09:15 - 10:00 Registration 15:45 – 16:15 Coffee Break Session I: Inauguration 10:00 - 10:15 Opening Remarks Eliezer Papo, President of the Society Tamar Alexander, Member of the Executive Committee 10:15 - 11:00 Keynote Speaker Shalom Sabar, Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Sarajevo Haggadah – History and Art 11:00 - 11:30 Coffee Break Session II: A Token For a Word Chairperson: Itzhak Ben-Mordechay 11:30 - 12:00 Peter Sh. Lehnardt, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev The Evolution of the Sephardic Prayer Book - Some Material Aspects of the Development of Liturgy Promotion/Excursion November 7th 16:15 - 18:00 Session IV: Tombs and Testaments For Hebrew speakers: For those who do not Promotion of the new speak Hebrew: Chairperson: Ricardo Muñoz Solla issue of El Prezente Optional Guided 09:00 - 09:30 (Senate Building) Excursion to the Ottoman José Alberto R.
    [Show full text]
  • Jewish – Muslim Mystical Encounters in the Middle Ages with Particular Attention to Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain)
    Mysticism among Jews in the Islamic Middle Ages until 1500 For the Cambridge History of Judaism vols. 5 and 6 Jewish – Muslim Mystical Encounters in the Middle Ages With Particular Attention to al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) Sara Sviri (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) 1. Introduction In the thirteenth century, Judaism and Islam gave birth to two monumental works which had a lasting impact on their respective mystical systems: within Judaism and the Kabbalistic tradition it was the Zohar, the Book of Splendor, ‚which was destined to overshadow all other documents of Kabbalist literature by the success and the fame it achieved and the influence it gradually exerted‛.1 According to Yehuda Liebes, who has studied the method and process of its compilation and the identity of those who participated in this process, it seems to have been compiled by ‚the mid-thirteenth century circle of ‘Gnostic Kabbalists’ in Castile.‛2 Within the Muslim mystical tradition, it was the work of the Andalusia born Ibn al-ÝArabÐ (d. 1240), in particular his Meccan Revelations (al-FutÙÎÁt al-makkiyya), in which ‚he was to express in writing that vast range of esoteric knowledge, which, until his time, had been transmitted orally or by way of allusions only‛.3 That these two thirteenth-century mystical works, which mark turning points in the history of Jewish and Islamic mystical traditions, were conceived within 1 See Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York: Schocken Books, 1961), 156. 2 See Yehuda Liebes, ‚How the Zohar was written,‛ in his Studies in the Zohar, trans.
    [Show full text]
  • Haviva Pedaya – Cultural Profile
    Haviva Pedaya – Cultural Profile Haviva Pedaya is a philosopher, researcher of Judaism, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Hasidism, and is engaged in writing a mass of criticism and culture. She is also a creator in theater, music and poetry. She regularly conducts academic series and evenings of poetry and culture. She regularly writes essays and articles that gets extensive echoes. Besides her academic work in the Department of the History of Israel and her role as the Head of the J.R. Elaychar Center for Studies in Sephardi Heritage at Ben Gurion University, she is a lecturer and teaches in many institutes and at various events around the country and receives many invitations to write and teach. General reviews and appraisals: Generally regarding her cultural profile: ‘a poet, a scholar … Brilliant publicist and renews and revitalizes the mizrahi music from Rabbi Israel Najara of the 16th century to the present … a brilliant Intellectual … an investigator of mysticism, Kabbalah and Hasidism leading and breaking through’ (Hezi Mehlav [reporter for the first channel],’ Ha’oketz’) ; ‘Pedaya in her analysis manages to reach depths of the mechanisms of cultural production … and soar brilliantly with reasoned formulation, formulations that are backed by broad knowledge and deep acquaintance with the objects of her writing … Prof. Haviva Pedaya is today one of the most important and most fascinating figures in the academic and cultural fields in Israel’ (Shira Ohayon, ‘ on poetry and struggles in the intellectual field’, ‘ Ha’oketz’). And more: ‘the creation of Haviva Pedaya, a work with mercy, knowledge and science. Intelligent graceful language, multi-layered, is echoing Jewish and Hebrew.
    [Show full text]
  • After the Fact: Potential Collectivities in Israel/Palestine by Shaul Setter A
    After the Fact: Potential Collectivities in Israel/Palestine By Shaul Setter A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Chana Kronfeld, Chair Professor Anne-Lise François Professor Michael Lucey Professor Stefania Pandolfo Fall 2012 After the Fact: Potential Collectivities in Israel/Palestine ©2012 by Shaul Setter 1 Abstract After the Fact: Potential Collectivities in Israel/Palestine by Shaul Setter Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature University of California, Berkeley Professor Chana Kronfeld, Chair This dissertation inquires into the question of collectivity in texts written in and about Israel/Palestine from the middle of the 20th century to the present day. In light of the current crisis in the configuration of both Israeli and Palestinian national collectivities, it explores the articulation of non-national collective formations in literary and cinematic texts. I read these texts not as sealed works that represent historically realized collectivities, but as creative projects whose very language and modalities speculatively constitute potential collectivities. Rejecting the progression of teleological history ruled by actualized facts, these projects compose a textual counter-history of Israel/Palestine. I therefore propose reading them outside of the national and state-centered paradigm that governs most political and cultural inquiries into Israel/Palestine, and suggest instead that they amount to an anti-colonial trajectory. The Hebrew and French texts discussed in the dissertation challenge their own fixed political positioning within the colonial matrix and offer a critique of European political dictates and artistic forms.
    [Show full text]
  • Noa Bar.Book
    UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Contemporary Mizrahi Authors and The Limits of the Postsecular “Masorti” Response to Jewish National Sovereignty Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9jn3m74j Author Bar, Noa Publication Date 2018 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Contemporary Mizrahi Authors and the Limits of the Postsecular “Masorti” Response to Jewish National Sovereignty A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature by Noa Bar 2018 © Copyright by Noa Bar 2018 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Contemporary Mizrahi Authors and the Limits of the Postsecular “Masorti” Response to Jewish National Sovereignty by Noa Bar Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature University of California, Los Angeles, 2018 Professor Gil Hochberg, Co-Chair Professor David W. MacFadyen, Co-Chair This dissertation demonstrates how the work of three contemporary Mizrahi authors (Haviva Pedaya, Albert Swissa, and Dvir Tzur) challenges the postsecular framing of Mizrahi Jewish practice as masortiyut (“traditionism”), which refers to the flexible form of Jewish observance associated with Arab-Jews in Israel/Palestine. Postsecular critics have mobilized this position to challenge the terms of Jewish national sovereignty. This study claims that, while these writers refuse “masortiyut” as a coherent subject position, they extend certain of its challenges by reconsidering the interaction of the secular and the theological within the nationalist narrative of Shivat Tzion (“the return to Zion”). By means of an allusive engagement with mystical texts, these ii authors reconceive of exile as a reparative condition rather than as a defective state.
    [Show full text]
  • Interdisciplinary Handbook of Trauma and Culture
    Interdisciplinary Handbook of Trauma and Culture Yochai Ataria • David Gurevitz Haviva Pedaya • Yuval Neria Editors Interdisciplinary Handbook of Trauma and Culture Editors Yochai Ataria David Gurevitz Department of Neurobiology The Interdisciplinary Center Herzelia Weizmann Institute of Science Herzelia, Israel Rehovot , Israel Yuval Neria Haviva Pedaya Columbia University Medical Department of the History of Israel Center and the New York State Ben Gurion University Psychiatric Institute Beer-Sheva, Israel New York , NY , USA ISBN 978-3-319-29402-5 ISBN 978-3-319-29404-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-29404-9 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016939236 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.
    [Show full text]
  • V Abulafia's Kabbalah Versus Other Kabbalists
    VAbulafia’sKabbalahversus other Kabbalists 24 Prophecy and Individuality The emphasis on the readingofthe parable thatviews it as dealingwith Abulafia’s own role as the son of God and the possessor of the pearl is part of the more indi- vidualistic propensity of his general approach. Under the pressureofthe noetic vi- sions he adopted from the Greek sources as mediated by Muslim and Jewish texts, Abulafia regards the paramount processes as amatter of an individual’smind and as reversible events that an aspirant mayre-experience if he so chooses. He also al- legorised collective events such as the Exodus from Egypt and the Sinaitic revelation. As Abulafia explicitlystates:Sinai, Paradise, and the Land of Israel are analogous to alower entity,just as the Seat of Glory,Jerusalem, and the supernal academyall rep- resent the same entity on high, although they are reinterpreted as being related to the experience of aliving person.¹ Ipropose to designatethis type of allegory as spiritu- alistic exegesis,² which also reverberatesinhis followers’ writings.³ AccordingtoAbulafia’sunderstanding,his Kabbalah had two mains goals: one is union with God and the other is the attainment of prophecy.The formerisunder- stood as the goal of the Torah,⁴ and the various expressions of Abulafia’sunitive vi- sion have been analysed in detail elsewhere.⁵ The second one, which Ihaveanalysed in aseparate study,isdiscussed in numerous instances in Abulafia’stexts.⁶ However, Iwould like to adduce one more expression of the centrality of this ideal. In the in- troduction
    [Show full text]