The Slayers of Moses: The Emergence of Rabbinic Interpretation in Modern Literary Theory

294 Pages·1983·21.623 MB·English

by  Susan A. Handelman

First I thought I was a writer. Then I realized I was a Jew. Then I no
longer distinguished the writer in me from the Jew because one and the
other are only torments of an ancient word.
-Edmond Jabes
SUNY SERIES ON MODERN JEWISH LITERATURE
AND CULTURE
Sarah Blacher Cohen, Editor
The
Slayer~f
Moses
THE EMERGENCE
OF RABBINIC
INTERPRETATION
IN MODERN
LITERARY THEORY
Susan A. Handelman
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
State University of New York Press
ALBANY
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 1982 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles and reviews.
For information, address State University of New York Press,
90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207
Library of Congress CatalcJglng In Publication Data
Handelman, Susan A.
The slayers of Moses.
(SUNY series on modern Jewish literature and culture)
Bibliography: p. 2.51.
I. Rabbinical literature-History and criticism.
2. Talmud-Inftuence-Civilization, Occidental.
3. Criticism. I. TItle. II. Series.
BM496 .. 5.H34 121'.68 81-16522
ISBN 0-87395-576-5 AACR2
ISBN 0-87395-577-3 (pbk. I
For my mother, Marian Handelman
In memory of my father, Milton Handelman

Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Methodological Preface xiii
Note to the Reader xix
I. Historical Background:
The Interpretive Agon of Greek, Jew, and Christian
1. Greek Philosophy and the Overcoming of the Word 3
Plato and Language: The Cratylus
Aristotle and the Problems ofP redication
Aristotle: Words and Things, Rhetoric vs. Philosophy
The Contemporary Critique: De"ida and Ricoeur
The Model ofM etaphor
2. Rabbinic Thought: The Divinity of the Text 27
The Bible and the Greeks
The Text
The Development of the Oral Law
3. Some Philosophic Aspects of the Rabbinic Interpretative System 51
Kal Ve-Chomer
The Other Twelve Middot: The Relations ofG eneral and Particular
Midrash
Metaphor and Metonymy in Interpretation
4. Escape from Textuality: The Fulfiller of Signs 83
The Letter and the Spirit
Philo
Origen
The Logos and the Letter
Unity, Trinity; Literal, Figurative
Augustine
Augustine's Theory ofS igns
vii
vIII The Slayers of Moses
II. The Slayers of Moses:
Freud, Lacan, Denida, Bloom and the Dark Side of Displacement
Prologue: The Book of Books and the Book of Nature 123
5. Solomon-Sigmund, the Son of Jakob 129
Undoing Moses
Heretic Hermeneutics: Re-writing Origins
Freud's Methodology: New Arrangements, Hidden Gaps
The Hybrid Science
6. The Analyst as Scribe: Jacques Lacan and the Return of the
Father's Name 153
7. Reb Denida's Scripture 163
Derrida vs. Lacan
The Curtained Torah
To Love the Torah More than God
8. The Critic as Kabbalist: Harold Bloom and the Heretic
Hermeneutic 179
From the Visionary to the Revisionary Company
The Revisionary Ratios
The Revisionary Warfare of Christian Exegesis
The Conflict of Literary Traditions: Genteel Classical versus Judaic
Antithetical
Satanic Criticism
Scholem, Kabbalah, and Heresy
Revelation and Tradition
Revisionary Blindness
The Theory of Literary /tifluence and Kabbalistic Terminology
Analogical Transformation
Appendix to Chapter 3: Rabbi Ishmael's Rules 225
Glossary 229
Notes 231
Selected Bibliography 251
Index 263