Monthly Archives: February 2014

Nietzsche & Rosenzweig (Birth of Tragedy & Chorus) (Modern Jewish Philosophy Ur-Text)

Posted on February 21, 2014 by zjb

Of course it can’t, but by way of an exercise, if it all could come back to one single text, then Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy is the ur-text of modern Jewish philosophy. About this I’ve already commented in a … Continue reading →

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Delaware Water Gap Winter (Drops, Edges, Segments)

Posted on February 20, 2014 by zjb

I like the precipitous drops, the edge of the sky, and the hilly geological segmentations. The Delaware River cuts through the Delaware Water Gap at the New Jersey-Pennsylvania border on rt. 80. It’s one of my favorite places. I took … Continue reading →

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Nietzsche & Buber (Birth of Tragedy Modern Jewish Philosophy Ur-Text)

Posted on February 20, 2014 by zjb

Re-reading Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy has convinced me that it should stand out as the ur-text of modern Jewish philosophy. The polarity between Appolinian form and Dionysian force will re-appear throughout Buber’s body of writing, the tension between form … Continue reading →

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Snow (Drama) Drive Upstate New York

Posted on February 19, 2014 by zjb

Needless to say, this winter commute has been full of high drama on the road. Safe and sound in the car, Upstate New York is sublime in a mild little snow storm.

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Nietzsche Art Nouveau (Birth of Tragedy & Apollinian Bodies)

Posted on February 19, 2014 by zjb

Art Nouveau reminds me of Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedy. As an art movement, art nouveau belongs to that period at the fin de siècle very much under the influence of Lebensphilosophie and vitalism. The perfectly formed body stands … Continue reading →

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Bugs Bunny & Joseph Soloveitchik

Posted on February 18, 2014 by zjb

I thought this note from my TA is very funny. I’m sharing with her permission, and will explain later, how I see their sitz im leben in 1950s America. From: xxxx Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2014 2:29 PM To: Zachary J Braiterman … Continue reading →

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Nietzsche Dionysus Christian-All-Too-Christian

Posted on February 17, 2014 by zjb

I’m not sure I want to call Nietzsche a religious thinker, but cannot help but feel that his thought as a whole and Birth of Tragedy, in particular, are steeped in religious categories, religious consciousness, religious dreaming. Ritual, the art … Continue reading →

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bds ~BDS

Posted on February 16, 2014 by zjb

What’s a liberal Zionist to do except to grab both horns of a dilemma? You can support bds and reject BDS. By lower case bds, I mean a phenomenon. These include decisions made by both individual persons and financial institutions … Continue reading →

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(Israel-Palestine) The Zero-Sum-One-State-No-State Solution

Posted on February 16, 2014 by zjb

I’m trying to make sense of this sinking feeling of mine that it’s impossible to say anything reasonable or right about Israel and Palestine. Above and beyond the occupation, I would trace this specifically to the first Netanyahu-Lieberman-Barak government and … Continue reading →

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Friedrich Nietzsche & Moses Mendelssohn (Not So Naive)

Posted on February 14, 2014 by zjb

I hadn’t thought it possible to square or at least complement Nietzsche and Moses Mendelssohn, two philosophers who mean a great deal to me. It was a contradiction that I was always happy to let stand, like the one between … Continue reading →

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