Lexington Books
Pages: 124
Trim: 6⅜ x 9
978-1-7936-5503-5 • Hardback • January 2022 • $95.00 • (£73.00)
978-1-7936-5504-2 • eBook • January 2022 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
Ron Naiweld holds a research position at the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; National Center for Scientific Research) and teaches at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS), in Paris, France.
Preface
Introduction: “Why Would the French be Interested in the Talmud?”
Chapter One: The Myth of Yhwh and its Monotheization
Chapter Two: The Beginning of the Conversation
Chapter Three: Experience in Sovereignty
Chapter Four: A New Great Story
Chapter Five: The Rabbinic Israel
Epilogue: A Nation of Monks
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Ron Naiweld’s thought-provoking new book reflects about the rabbinic knowledge that was excluded from Europe at the heart of Europe. Going beyond the oft-debated questions of anti-Semitism, Holocaust, and genocide, Naiweld asks what the West 'lost by excluding rabbinic knowledge as a discourse of truth': 'Where do we place rabbinic knowledge on the axis that extends from ancient Athens, through the Hellenistic and Roman philosophers, and Christian thinkers of late antiquity and the Middle Ages, to Kant and Hegel, and their critical demise by Nietzsche, Heidegger, Marx, and Freud?' By challenging the hegemonic scholarly treatment of rabbinic literature as a mere historical document for past life of gone Jews, by thinking not on Jewish bio-politics, but on rabbinic theo-politics, Naiweld’s book is a powerful act towards the decolonization of Jewish Studies.
— Elad Lapidot, University of Lille
Challenging and provocative, an attempt to attend to the discussions the rabbis entertained with the texts of their ancestors. Bible or Talmud, these texts were like a meeting room where conversations have been held between time and space. No need to be convinced to sit around the table and enjoy the talks.
— Sylvie Anne Goldberg, School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS)