'Iggrot ha'Ari Volume 2, Issue 2
Spring 2002/5762

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Conflict From Within:
Origins, Gradations and Implications of Post-Zionism

by Yoni Goldberg

The Art of Interpretation:
Emmanuel Levinas’ Interpretation of the Talmud

by Alison Hirsh

The Synagogue as a Reflection of Decentralization in Late Antiquities
by Justin Rubin

Tavra:
A Clue Into the Redaction of the Mishna

by Jason Rogoff

"Up Against the Wall, Shmucks”:
The Jewish Liberation Project, Ethnic Consciousness and Americanization

by Anne Lainer


Conflict From Within:
Origins, Gradations and Implications of Post-Zionism

Yoni Goldberg

Israel’s ongoing territorial conflict from without has obscured her ideological conflict from within even though this internal phenomenon, marked by its battle of iconoclastic ideas and ideals, stands to reshape the state more profoundly than any war or treaty. My independent study on post-Zionism—the loosely constituted movement in Israel aiming to replace the “Jewish State” with a “State of Jews”—began as a foray into this neglected realm half in hopes of dispelling some of my uncertainties about what the average Israeli believes ideologically and theologically. Yet all I found was more uncertainty. More than 50 years have passed since Israel’s inception and still the fundamental questions over her raison d’ętre persist: Is Israel qua its Jewishness necessary or even moral? Should Zionism be the cornerstone of a democratic nation? I quickly understood that there are no monosyllabic answers, but only more speculation, evaluation and argumentation. Ironically, however, herein lies the beauty of it all: John Stuart Mill implored all societies to engage in spirited debates on anything and everything sacred, lest dead dogma or half-truths dictate a course of action. If nothing else, Israel is making good on his philosophy and as a result, on her own future as well.

I hope that the following pages will serve as a small window into the complexities that sometimes unite, often divide and always invigorate Israeli Jewry as they quest to define and eventually experience ‘normalization.’


The Art of Interpretation:
Emmanuel Levina's Interpretation of the Talmud

Alison Hirsh

This paper seeks to explain the connection between Levinas’ seemingly secular philosophy of ethics, as defined by his philosophy of the other, and his work as a Talmud scholar. Judaism, as represented in the Talmud, is the quintessential religion of the other, and, Levinas’ interpretation of the Talmud represents his fulfillment of his responsibility to the absolute other – to God.


The Synagogue as a Reflection of Decentralization in Late Antiquities

Justin Rubin

The goal of this paper is to look at the development of the Synagogue as it relates to the decentralization of Judaism. To do this, paper will look at the concept of the Synagogue as a special building and what that meant. There is a concept within Judaism that something that is set aside, made holy for God is K’dushah. The Temple, as God’s resting place on Earth, was considered by many the peak of that K’dushah. Did the Synagogue replace the Temple in terms of K’dushah as well as practice or did take on its own type of special status? How did this develop? The answer to these questions will reflect and show overall changes within Jewish communities post-70 as well as Judaism’s decentralization.


Tavra: A Clue into the Redaction of the Mishna

Jason Rogoff

Through a careful examination of the “terminus technicus” Tavra we can find an important clue into Rabbi Judah the Prince’s creation of the Mishna. Rebbi saw his role as an editor and not a redactor. He felt compelled to preserve the traditions that he received and to faithfully transmit them in a reorganized fashion. The Amoraic use of Tavra is their reaction to this editorial methodology.


"Up Against the Wall, Schmucks":
The Jewish Liberation Project, Ethnic Consciousness and Americanization

Anne Lainer

It is generally considered that entrance into the dominant culture is a mark of triumph for an American ethnic group. But as the story of the Jewish Liberation Project (JLP), a Jewish radical group that lasted from 1968-1972, reveals, the stakes of this integration are high. It often necessitates the shedding of a community’s cultural distinctiveness. The Jewish Liberation Project used ethnic consciousness, the rhetoric of their political milieu, in order to come to terms with the confusing social transitions their community had undergone over the past two decades. Like African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans, the JLP participated in the ethnic consciousness that increasingly characterized the American Left in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

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