These 3 sessions were highlights from my yesterday: [1] Angels and Labyrinths, [2] the Jewish Difference Group, and [3] Jewish Languages and Logics. I’ve never in my life seen a “Jericho labyrinth” or P.F. Strawson used at the AJS. Apparently you can recognize the Jewish labyrinths, not just by the Hebrew calligraphy but by Rahab the Harlot’s house, here at bottom left. Awesome to see senior scholars mixing it up with junior colleagues and graduate students at all 3 sessions.

ANGELS, AND LABYRINTHS: IMAGES IN DIFFERENT SETTINGS Chair: Katja Vehlow (University of South Carolina)

Lions and Serpents, a Rabbi and a Parnas: The Clash over Synagogue Decorations in Medieval Cologne Ephraim Shoham-Steiner (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)

Reigning Cats and Dogs: Animals, Astrology, and Angelology in Late Medieval Ashkenaz David I. Shyovitz (Northwestern University)

The Jericho Labyrinth: The Evolution and Meaning of a Jewish Visual Trope Daniel Stein Kokin (University of Greifswald)

THE JEWISH DIFFERENCE WORKING GROUP 

JEWISH LANGUAGES AND LOGIC Chair: Zachary J. Braiterman (Syracuse University)

The Kabbalistic Performative: Mystical Speech Acts and Scholem’s Philosophy of Language Asaf Angermann (Yale University)

“From Every Limb”: Language, Embodiment, and Historiography in Buber’s Interpretation of Hasidism Sam Berrin Shonkoff (University of Chicago)

Logical Methods in the Service of Nonrational Ethics: A View from Levinas Nechama Juni (Brown University)