Jewish Culture Between Canon and Heresy

David Biale is the Emanuel Ringelblum Distinguished Professor of Jewish History at the University of California, Davis.

"Over the course of his career, David Biale has distinguished himself for both his critical acumen and his capacious interests. Written in the contrarian spirit of "counter-history," these essays exemplify his singular passion for unsettling conventional ideas concerning the norms and boundaries of the Jewish past. A superb, thought-provoking collection."—Peter E. Gordon, author of Migrants in the Profane: Critical Theory and the Question of Secularization "David Biale has always been a trailblazer. This collection highlights the many ingenious roads he has opened for scholars of the Jewish past. Rigorous in method, delicate in touch, Biale sheds light on corners of history that others deemed marginal or taboo, inviting us to engage in an exploration of "counter-history" that remains directly at the field's heart."—Sarah Abrevaya Stein, co-editor of Wartime North Africa: A Documentary History 1934-1950 "Intellectually exciting and a pleasure to read, the essays in this collection are a fine introduction to many important thinkers in the Jewish tradition."—Bob Goldfarb, Jewish Book Council "Taking a constructivist approach, Biale'sexamination of historical contexts includes the Tanakh, the midrash, myth, politics, and more to arrive at a complex exploration of radicalism embedded within Jewish traditions. His genealogical methodology traces critical topics from their historical or textual origins to present understandings, exploring and connecting diverging exegeses along the way.... Recommended."—A. Lieberman, CHOICE "Throughout the essays in this compilation, Biale traces diverse voices that some might call counter-canonical or even 'heretical,' or as Biale puts it, 'feature inversions of convention or hidden traditions that challenge the canon.' ...For those familiar with Jewish history, these essays provide interesting perspectives and alternative views."—David Tesler, Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews

• Introduction: Between Canon and Counterhistory1. The God with Breasts: El Shaddai in the Bible2. Korah in the Midrash: The Hairless Heretic as Hero3. Counterhistory and Jewish Polemics against Christianity: The Sefer Toldot Yeshu and the Sefer Zerubavel4. "The Torah Speaks the Language of Human Beings": Abraham Ibn Ezra's Radical Interpretation of the Bible5. Between Melancholy and a Broken Heart: A Note on Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav's Depression6. The Kabbalah in Nachman Krochmal's Philosophy of History7. Masochism and Philosemitism: The Strange Case of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch8. Historical Heresies and Modern Jewish Identity9. Shabbtai Zvi and the Seductions of Jewish Orientalism10. Leo Strauss: The Philosopher as Weimar Jew11. Arendt in Jerusalem: Hannah Arendt on the Eichmann Trial12. Gershom Scholem's "Ten Unhistorical Aphorisms on the Kabbalah": Text and Commentary13. The Threat of Messianism: An Interview with Gershom Scholem (August 14, 1980)14. Mysticism and Politics in Modern Israel: The Messianic Ideology of Abraham Isaac Ha-Cohen Kook15. The End of Enlightenment?Epilogue: By the Waters of San Francisco: A Partial Autobiography