The Book of Job: Aesthetics, Ethics, Hermeneutics

235 Pages·2015·1.8 MB·English

by  Leora Batnitzky

TheBookofJob
Aesthetics,Ethics,Hermeneutics
Perspectives on Jewish Texts
and Contexts
Edited by
Vivian Liska
Editorial Board
Robert Alter, Steven Aschheim, Richard I. Cohen, Mark H. Gelber,
Moshe Halbertal, Geoffrey Hartman, Moshe Idel, Samuel Moyn,
Ada Rapoport-Albert, Alvin Rosenfeld, David Ruderman, Bernd Witte
Volume 1
The Book of Job
Aesthetics, Ethics, Hermeneutics
Edited by
Leora Batnitzky and Ilana Pardes
DE GRUYTER
ISBN978-3-11-033383-1
e-ISBN(PDF)978-3-11-033879-9
e-ISBN(EPUB)978-3-11-039398-9
ISSN2199-6962
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BibliographicinformationpublishedbytheDeutscheNationalbibliothek
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Acknowledgments
ThisbookhaditsbeginningsinaconferenceontheBookofJobthatwasheld
at Princeton University in October 2012 as part of a collaborative project be-
tweentheUniversityofAntwerp,theHebrewUniversity,andPrincetonUniver-
sity. We are grateful to the Program of Jewish Studies and the Department of
Religion at Princeton University for hosting the conference. We also wish to
thankJeremySchreiberforhisfinecopyediting,KatjaLehmingandDeGruyter
Press for their support, and Vivian Liska for her energetic intellectual leader-
shiponthisbookseries.
L.B.andI.P.

Contents
Acknowledgments v
LeoraBatnitzkyandIlanaPardes
TheBookofJob:Aesthetics,Ethics,andHermeneutics 1
ArielHirschfeld
IstheBookofJobaTragedy? 9
MosheHalbertal
Job,theMourner 37
NaphtaliMeshel
WhoseJobIsThis?DramaticIronyanddoubleentendreintheBook
ofJob 47
YosefaRaz
ReadingPainintheBookofJob 77
IlanaPardes
Melville’sWallStreetJob:TheMissingCry 99
VivianLiska
Kafka’sOtherJob 123
GalitHasan-Rokem
JobanTransformationsoftheWanderingJewinJosephRoth’sHioband
DerLeviathan 147
RobertAlter
HebrewPoemsRewritingJob 173
FreddieRokem
TheBibleontheHebrew/IsraeliStage:HanochLevin’sTheTormentsofJob
asaModernTragedy 185
viii Contents
LeoraBatnitzky
BeyondTheodicy?JobanThemesinPhilipRoth’sNemesis 213
NotesonContributors 225
Leora Batnitzky and Ilana Pardes
The Book of Job: Aesthetics, Ethics, and
Hermeneutics
The Book of Job has held a central role in defining the project of modernity
from the age of Enlightenment until today. What makes the Book of Job such
aprominenttextinmodernliteratureandthought?WhyhasJob’sresponseto
disaster become a touchstone for modern reflections on catastrophic events?
Whatsortofanswer(ifany)cantheVoicefromtheWhirlwindofferinapost-
theologicalage?Howhavemodernandpostmodernthinkersandartiststrans-
lated Job’s social critique to address ethical and political concerns? What are
theinterrelationsbetweentraditionalconceptionsofJobasaparableandmod-
ernJobanparables?HowdoesJob’saestheticlegacyfunctionasakeyelement
indefiningthecryofmodernwitnesses?Towhatextentcanaestheticinquiries
withinreligiousrealmsmodifyourperceptionsofreligioustextsandreligious
experience – and, vice versa, to what extent does religion allow or compel us
toopenuptheconceptofthe“aesthetic”?
The Bible has not always been venerated as an aesthetic touchstone. The
literary Bible emerged in the eighteenth century, in England and in Germany,
as the invention of scholars and literati who tried to rejuvenate the Bible by
transforming it from a book justified by theology to one justified by culture.
Theaimofthispost-theologicalprojectwasnotquitetosecularizetheBible–
thoughitwasnowconstruedastheproductofhumanimagination–butrather
to reconstitute its authority in aesthetic terms. The Book of Job played a vital
roleinenhancingthistransformation.JonathanSheehangoessofarastotrace
whathecallsa“Jobrevival”withinthecontextofEnglishandGermanEnlight-
enment,arevivalthatincludednumerousnewtranslationsandscholarlystud-
iesofthetext.1Indeed,theBookofJobacquiredsoprominentapositionasan
aesthetictouchstonethatEdmundBurkeevokedit,in APhilosophicalEnquiry
intotheSublimeandtheBeautiful(1757),asanexemplarytextfortheexplora-
tionofthesublimeexperienceinitsrelationtopowerandterror.
J.G.Herder,oneoftheGermanforerunnersoftheliteraryapproachtothe
Bible, devoted an entire section of his renowned The Spirit of Hebrew Poetry
(1782–1783)toJob.InresponsetoBurke,Herderreinterpretedthesublimityof
theBookofJobaspertainingtotherealmsoftheheart,ofvision,andofvivid
1 Sheehan, Jonathan, The Enlightenment Bible: Translation, Scholarship, Culture, Princeton
UniversityPress,Princeton2005.