[NGFP-BookClub] More responses from Professor Elior

[Aron Trauring]

Shalom David

You asked many questions. I will answer only on two:

 >Does the act of writing, and the firm belief in the power of  =

language, and the history of mystical and normative (Lamentations,  =

Jeremiah, Ezekial=85) response to catastrophe help create the  =

possibility for the Yiddish writers to even imagine such projects of  =

documentation?"

The Jewish people, who consecrated writing and reading from early  =

antiquity =96 kitvei kodesh and mikraei kodesh =96 taught the members of  =

their community the freedom of reading, and writing along with the  =

consolation and defiance in reading and writing. The fact that we  =

never had a Church instructing us what to read and what to write,  =

telling us what is prohibited and forbidden, contributed a great deal  =

to the fact that between the early printing press at the end of the  =

15th century to the end of the 19th century, 100,000 books were  =

printed by Jews all over the world. I refer to the 100,000 titles of  =

books that are recorded in the National Library in Jerusalem,  =

attesting to what survived the atrocities of exile and the hands of  =

time.

The Yiddish writers conceived their project of documentation following  =

in the footsteps of the Jewish literary heritage that documented  =

tragedies. For example, following the crusades, "books of tears" were  =

written. People wrote descriptions of the martyrdom and persecutions  =

and of tormented parents slaughtering their children out of despair.  =

They also wrote memorial lamentations recording the names of the  =

deceased (please read Simon Bernfeld, Sefer ha'Demaot, Robert Chazen,  =

Jeremy Cohen, Israel Youval and Ivan Marcus on the Jews and the  =

Crusades). In the 17th century Natan Neta Hanover wrote Yeven Metzulah  =

as a testimony to the massacres of more than 100,000 Jews in the  =

Ukraine in 1648-1649. The book chronicles the facts of the events. The  =

Yiddish writers followed these Jewish traditions. There are various  =

ways to encounter tragedies that you can not counter with physical  =

force. Writing is a central way to record, to commemorate, to defy and  =

to do justice. But not every writing is mystical writing.

 > Does this make Sefer Yetzira the blueprint of blueprints? The Ur  =

text so to speak?  A text that specifically shares the numinous  =

meaning of language =96 Of the six principles, most seem to have been  =

articulated after Sefer Yetzira. (I noticed a Bialik footnote that  =

might explore this topic). Making all the rest possible? How do you  =

think the tradition would have been different without Sefer Yetzira?   =

Would the idea of infinite freedom have developed?"

Sefer Yetzira is the first text in the Jewish library that reflects  =

upon language, upon its infinite nature, its endless compositional  =

possibilities, its creative divine nature, its bridging character  =

between the divine spirit and the human spirit and its grammatical  =

character and its connection to natural phenomena. The numinous  =

meaning of language allows us to transcend the border of the senses,  =

to frequent the imaginary realm, to share times of days gone by. These  =

features express themselves in writings which allows us be in places  =

that we have never visited, to meet writers of divine character or of  =

human inspiration, to read laws of divine origin and to experience  =

human freedom in times of constraint. All that would be impossible  =

without language.

You asked how the tradition would have been different without Sefer  =

Yetsira. Well, first of all this small book is the foundation for the  =

entire kabbalist library based on the 10 spheres of infinite  =

nothingness and the 22 letters of foundation. It is the foundation of  =

freedom to tell the story of creation from a new vantage point, that  =

combines divine and human inspiration. Interestingly, there is no book  =

like it. It is unique and much of the kabbalistic literature is about  =

expounding on its mysterious sayings.

The word "text" is related to the Latin root textere (known to us from  =

textile) which means "weaving" =96 every text is woven from previous  =

yarns and adds new threads. The Book of Creation is certainly among  =

the most richly woven texts. It has inspired endless dialogue between  =

people who are interested in the relation between the creative divine  =

language and the creative human language, between creativity, freedom,  =

memory, language and commemoration, in our conceptualization of  =

creation and many more related questions.

Reading Hayim Nachman Bialik's essay "Gilui ve-kisui ba-lashon"  =

available in English as mentioned in the bibliography of Jewish  =

Mysticism, would add interesting insights to this discussion.

Regards
Rachel Elior

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