The Sefer as a Challenge to Reception Theories
The talmudic sages granted the legal status of sefer (book) to five texts: the Torah, tefillin, the get, the mezuzah, and the Scroll of Esther. These texts share two features: they have a ritualistic format and use, and they are the only sacred texts that demonstrate mise en abyme—the trait of liter...
| Published in: | The journal of Jewish thought & philosophy |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2018
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| In: |
The journal of Jewish thought & philosophy
Year: 2018, Volume: 26, Issue: 1, Pages: 67-93 |
| Further subjects: | B
Deleuze
Gadamer
ontology
rabbinics
literary theory
mise en abyme
open work
scriptures
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | The talmudic sages granted the legal status of sefer (book) to five texts: the Torah, tefillin, the get, the mezuzah, and the Scroll of Esther. These texts share two features: they have a ritualistic format and use, and they are the only sacred texts that demonstrate mise en abyme—the trait of literary self-containing. These two traits turn the rabbinic book into a radical case of “open work”: the sefer consists of both textual signs and the actual body of an empirical reader; its pragmatic level is not bracketed out in favor of the semiotic one. I argue that Deleuze’s reception theory best accounts for the sefer. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-285X |
| Contains: | In: The journal of Jewish thought & philosophy
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/1477285X-12341296 |