Further Details

Title: Black Fire on White Fire
Condition: New
Subtitle: An Essay on Jewish Hermeneutics, from Midrash to Kabbalah
Author: Betty Rojtman
Translator: Steven Randall
Contributor: Steven Randall (Translated by), Moslie Idel (Preface by)
Format: Paperback
ISBN-10: 0520203216
EAN: 9780520203211
ISBN: 9780520203211
Publisher: University of California Press
Genre: Language & Reference
Topic: Philosophy & Spirituality, Society & Culture, Social Sciences
Release Date: 27/02/1998
Description: Using the tools of contemporary semiotic theory to analyze classical rabbinic hermeneutics and medieval mystical exegesis, Betty Rojtman unveils a striking modernity in these early forms of textual interpretation. The metaphor from rabbinic literature that describes the writing of the Torah - black fire on white fire - becomes, in Rojtman's analysis, a figure for the differential structures that can be found throughout rabbinic discourse. Moving through the successive levels of traditional commentary, from early Midrash to modern Kabbalah, Rojtman examines the tension between the fluidity and nuance of the biblical text and the fixed commitment to ideological and theological content. To examine this strain between open text and sacred language, Rojtman scrutinizes the demonstrative, "this," as a word whose significance changes with every change in context. Her analysis suggests a double-layered meaning for "this," which refers to the existential world in its multiplicity but also to transcendence and the eternal presence of God.
Language: English
Country/Region of Manufacture: US
Item Height: 210mm
Item Length: 140mm
Item Width: 15mm
Item Weight: 272g
Book Series: Contraversions: Critical Studies in Jewish Literature, Culture, and Society
Release Year: 1998

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