Turning to Jerusalem from the Exile

Until modern, liberal Jews revised it, the consciousness of living in diaspora, in exile from the ideal Jewish life in the Land of Israel, permeated Jewish liturgy. This trope only intensified as the exile grew longer. The prayers, some recited multiple times a day, shaped Jewish diaspora identity into one yearning for its ancient home. The various forms of modern Judaism have negotiated this heritage, with some revising the prayers, either to express positive understandings of the diaspora or to integrate the new realities of Jewish life in the land of Israel. At the other end of the spectrum, others have considered the diaspora and exile to persist so long as they live in the pre-messianic world, even if geographically in the land itself.

Judaism and Violence

This Element explores the potential in Judaism to incite Jews to engage in violence against non-Jews. The analysis proceeds in historical fashion, with sections devoted to the Hebrew Bible, rabbinic Judaism, medieval and early modern Judaism, and modern Zionism. The last topic is given special attention because of its relevance to the current Middle East conflict. This Element also draws on insights from social psychology to explain Jewish violence - particularly Social Identity Theory.

’Emet: The Paradox of Death and Afterlife

This article by Garber represents Jewish thoughts on death and dying that were presented at the 28th Annual Symposium on Jewish Civilization sponsored by the Philip M. and Ethel Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization, Creighton University, and other sponsors, and delivered at the University of Nebraska Omaha. Conference title, “`Olam Ha-Zeh v-`Olam Ha-Ba’: This World and the World to Come in Jewish Belief and Practice.” The section on “Jewish Martyrdom” is mainly influenced by thoughts expressed in Chapter 2 in Garber and Zuckerman, Double Takes: Thinking and Rethinking Issues of Modern Judaism in Ancient Contexts.

Narrentum and Being-Jewish: Kafka and Benjamin

This essay examines the notion of Narrentum (foolishness) in Franz Kafka’s writings, reflecting Walter Benjamin’s engagement with the legacy of Kafka’s fools. The Narr, associated with playfulness, irony, and resistance, provides a comic perspective on the question of being-Jewish. Alongside its Germanic, mostly Baroque, heritage, the Narr incorporates traditional Jewish tropes, primarily rooted in Aggadic traditions. However, in Kafka’s world, the Narr embodies performative skills also linked to Yiddish theatre. In Benjamin’s readings, Kafka’s Narr is associated with the crisis of modern Judaism and with different modes of wisdom. The Narr signifies particular sorts of nihilistic freedom, which Benjamin refers to as redemptive.

Narrentum and Being-Jewish: Kafka and Benjamin

This essay examines the notion of Narrentum (foolishness) in Franz Kafka’s writings, reflecting Walter Benjamin’s engagement with the legacy of Kafka’s fools. The Narr, associated with playfulness, irony, and resistance, provides a comic perspective on the question of being-Jewish. Alongside its Germanic, mostly Baroque, heritage, the Narr incorporates traditional Jewish tropes, primarily rooted in Aggadic traditions. However, in Kafka’s world, the Narr embodies performative skills also linked to Yiddish theatre. In Benjamin’s readings, Kafka’s Narr is associated with the crisis of modern Judaism and with different modes of wisdom. The Narr signifies particular sorts of nihilistic freedom, which Benjamin refers to as redemptive.

Political Economy as a Test of Modern Judaism

According to a common narrative, Jews entered the modern world at a steep price. From an autonomous corporation, ruling themselves internally according to their own standards and law, Judaism became a “religion,” divested of political power and responsible only for the internal sphere of “faith” or belief. The failure of this project, in turn, gave rise to the sharp split between Jewish nationalism and religion-based conceptions of Judaism. Many modern Jewish thinkers sought to resolve this antinomy by imagining ways for Judaism to once again form the basis of a “complete life”. This essay seeks to challenge this narrative by examining the extent to which economics, another one of the “spheres” emerging together with modernity and often considered under the same broadly Weberian process of rationalization, ever truly formed part of the holistic, self-contained Jewish autonomous life for which modern thinkers expressed so much nostalgia. It will argue that rather than forming part of the internal world of Judaism and then being fragmented outward into a separate sphere under the pressure of modernity, the “economic sphere” was imagined and defined for the first time in modernity, and projected backwards into earlier eras. This projection was then taken as proof of Judaism’s ability to “be about everything,” whether in a religious or nationalist idiom.