LEADER 04129nam 2200709Ia 450 001 9910823982403321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a1-282-75941-8 010 $a9786612759413 010 $a0-520-93231-5 010 $a1-59875-916-7 024 7 $a10.1525/9780520932319 035 $a(CKB)1000000000246816 035 $a(EBL)254878 035 $a(OCoLC)475969718 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000100930 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11124512 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000100930 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10037041 035 $a(PQKB)11319200 035 $a(StDuBDS)EDZ0000084755 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC254878 035 $a(OCoLC)62861572 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse30933 035 $a(DE-B1597)521028 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780520932319 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL254878 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10106463 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL275941 035 $a(EXLCZ)991000000000246816 100 $a20050414d2006 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurnn#---|u||u 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aAlef, mem, tau $ekabbalistic musings on time, truth, and death /$fElliot R. Wolfson 205 $a1st ed. 210 $aBerkeley $cUniversity of California Press$d2006 215 $a1 online resource (346 p.) 225 1 $aThe Taubman lectures in Jewish studies ;$v5 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 0 $a0-520-24619-5 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $tFront matter --$tContents --$tPreface --$t1. Thinking Time / Hermeneutic Suppositions --$t2. Linear Circularity / (A)Temporal Poetics --$t3. Before Alef / Where Beginnings End --$t4. Within Mem / Returning Forward --$t5. After Tau / Where Endings Begin --$tConclusion --$tNotes --$tBibliography --$tIndex 330 $aThis highly original, provocative, and poetic work explores the nexus of time, truth, and death in the symbolic world of medieval kabbalah. Demonstrating that the historical and theoretical relationship between kabbalah and western philosophy is far more intimate and extensive than any previous scholar has ever suggested, Elliot R. Wolfson draws an extraordinary range of thinkers such as Frederic Jameson, Martin Heidegger, Franz Rosenzweig, William Blake, Julia Kristeva, Friedrich Schelling, and a host of kabbalistic figures into deep conversation with one another. Alef, Mem, Tau also discusses Islamic mysticism and Buddhist thought in relation to the Jewish esoteric tradition as it opens the possibility of a temporal triumph of temporality and the conquering of time through time. The framework for Wolfson's examination is the rabbinic teaching that the word emet, "truth," comprises the first, middle, and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet, alef, mem, and tau, which serve, in turn, as semiotic signposts for the three tenses of time-past, present, and future. By heeding the letters of emet we discern the truth of time manifestly concealed in the time of truth, the beginning that cannot begin if it is to be the beginning, the middle that re/marks the place of origin and destiny, and the end that is the figuration of the impossible disclosing the impossibility of figuration, the finitude of death that facilitates the possibility of rebirth. The time of death does not mark the death of time, but time immortal, the moment of truth that bestows on the truth of the moment an endless beginning of a beginningless end, the truth of death encountered incessantly in retracing steps of time yet to be taken-between, before, beyond. 410 0$aTaubman lectures in Jewish studies ;$v5. 606 $aTime$xPhilosophy 606 $aTime$xReligious aspects$xJudaism 606 $aCabala$xHistory 615 0$aTime$xPhilosophy. 615 0$aTime$xReligious aspects$xJudaism. 615 0$aCabala$xHistory. 676 $a296.1/6 700 $aWolfson$b Elliot R$01112371 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910823982403321 996 $aAlef, mem, tau$93927010 997 $aUNINA