tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post581142970812982784..comments2024-03-28T11:33:16.271-05:00Comments on Adventus: Of pearls and pigsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post-18862975030804926562014-09-16T12:56:46.618-05:002014-09-16T12:56:46.618-05:00Mysticism involves a certain amount of mystery; bu...Mysticism involves a certain amount of mystery; but how central that is to the religion is another question.<br /><br />Christianity encompasses mysticism, but few Christian figures were true mystics. The story is Aquinas had a vision after he'd finished the Summa which, he said, made all his works appear like straw. I think Augustine longed for such an experience, but I don't think he ever had it.<br /><br />A long way around trying to make a short point: Patocka emphasis (and so Derrida's) on the secret is tied up with Platonism, or maybe more accurately Neo-Platonism. There is a great deal of Christianity which is inextricably Platonic, therefore Hellenistic; and I was trying to suggest a distinction between that and Hebraic thought.<br /><br />Although by now no doubt Judaic thought has its Hellenistic roots, too.<br /><br />In fact, I can back up and clarify, with a sentence I didn't include in the post: "In the authentic sense of the word, religion comes into being the moment that the experience of responsibility extracts itself from that form of secrecy called demonic mystery."<br /><br />Derrida goes on to explain "demonic" in this context means irresponsibility. He puts it particularly in the context of ecstasy, of the kind of loss of self to the moment that we associate with religious frenzy: "It belongs to a space in which there has not yet resounded the injunction to <i>respond</i>...."<br /><br />I hear echoes of Paul admonishing the Corinthians in that. If I catch an echo of it in Judaism, it's the Golden Calf scene that upset Moses so much.<br /><br />Mostly I'm trying to extricate the Platonic roots, based in part on this:<br /><br />"The secret that the event of Christianity takes to task is at the same time a form of Platonism--or Neoplatonism--which retains something of the thaumaturgical tradition, and the secret of the orgiastic mystery from which Plato tried to deliver philosophy."<br /><br />And to keep Christianity and Judaism clear of each other, without seeing the latter wholly through the lens of the former.<br /><br />The ineffability of God is not a secret in that sense, then. But your comment helps me distinguish in my own thinking what I'm trying to get at.<br /><br />Thanks.Rmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811456254443706479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post-2444216368899685532014-09-16T12:30:30.658-05:002014-09-16T12:30:30.658-05:00If there is a true secret in rabbinic Judaism (as ...<i> If there is a true secret in rabbinic Judaism (as opposed to Temple Judaism and the Holy of Holies), I'm not aware of it. </i><br /><br />Well, if you were aware of it, it wouldn't be a very well kept secret, would it? ;)<br /><br />Seriously, though, the traditional rubric for Biblical interpretation in Judaism is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardes_(Jewish_exegesis)" rel="nofollow">PaRDeS (Persian-derived Hebrew for "Garden").</a>. One level of PaRDeS is indeed Sod, which means secret and refers to mystical readings of the text, such as those expounded upon in the Kabbalah. Indeed, certain texts (the creation stories, the chariot vision of Ezekiel) beg for a mystical interpretation. Of course, the idea that God's true name is unpronouncible is critical in mystic Jewish thought.<br /><br />I guess one can make a distinction between mystical Jewish thought and Rabbinic thought, but certainly many of the thinkers involved are the same -- a rationalist Rabbi such a Maimonides was also a mystic, for example. In fact, the ineffibility of God's name is a touchstone not only for Jewish mysticism but even for as humanistic and rationalist of a thinker as Erich Fromm.<br /><br />I don't know if esoteric eisegeses of Biblical passages (Sod) and their associated metaphysics (whether mystical or humanistic) count as "secret" in the sense that this post uses the term, though. Certainly, within the context of Rabbinic Judaism, the purpose of the secret (Sod) is not to avoid observance of sacred duties (Mitzvoth), although some passages e.g. relating to R. Meir in the Talmud seem to indicate the existence of a "higher Judaism" that transcends Torah observance, but to place that observance in a meaningful context, although that context can also provide a justification for less stringent observance of certain Mitzvoth by giving them a "spirit of the law" which can be observed even if the letter cannot be so observed.alberichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03852752646926946626noreply@blogger.com