Locked up tight in the liturgical reading of Scripture in the synagogue as the haftarah on the second day of Shavuot, the holiday of revelation, the manifestation of God in the third chapter of Habbakuk signals total world disaster. In the mode of Shigionpth, the coming of God from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran is told in the form of brilliant light and pestilence, the earth bursting in streams and torrents of rain, the shattering of mountains and the loud roaring deep, a treading of the earth in rage and a trampling of nations in fury, the failure of grain, olive, fig, sheep, and cattle. The prophet’s bowels quake and his lips quiver; but his strength is God, who makes his feet like the deer’s striding upon the heights. And that I suggest is the most stunning image in the chapter, the fleet foot of the prophet. Able to run very fast, the prophetic as such is the violent surge of excellent writing, which the savvy reader knows to leave at that. Selah.
- Zachary Braiterman is Professor of Religion in the Department of Religion at Syracuse University. His specialization is modern Jewish thought and philosophical aesthetics. Facebook | Twitter | Academia.edu.
jewishphilosophy place @ Facebook
-
Recent Posts
- Anti-Black & White in Jewish Texts (Abraham Melamed)
- His Head, His legs, Your legs, Your head (Rashi Song of Songs)
- (Rashi Song of Songs) Israel is the Mother of God and Sister of Angels
- Trans-Torah (Dubbs Weinblatt)
- Slaves at the Passover Seder (2 Images)
- (One Little Goat) Chad Gadya (El Lissitzy)
- Bourgeois Passover (Domestic Judaism)
- (Post-Diasporist) Poyln (Alter Kacyzne)
- Religion Politics Grift
- (Israel) Has Changed Its Face (Judaism)
- (Zombies) Animated Jewish Philosophers
- (Israel) Purim Train (1949)
- (The Capitol Building) So Much American Civil Religion & The Problem of Evil
- Video From Mars
- Rush Limbaugh at Yeshiva Bubble
- Teaching the Holocaust (Jewish Difference)
- (Un/Civil Religion) The U.S. Capitol Is An Animal Being
- (Jacob Lawrence) Black Americans & the American Revolution (Struggle)
- (Rich Crimson Purple) The Color of Power in the Bible (אַרְגָּמָן)
- Uncivil Religion (Haredi) (Coronavirus)
- National Jewish Book Award Winners (2020)
- Online Holocaust Memorialization Platforms & Post-Holocaust Culture
- Bernie
- (Arendt) Fascist Insurrection & White Christian Nationalism (Trump)
- (Birthday) JPP is 9 Years Old (2020)
- (Jewish) Prayer (Gentile Kings and Democratic Country)
- Zachary Taylor (Trump Insurrection) (2021)
- “What is the Mishnah?” an International Zoom Workshop Sponsored by Harvard University
- (Rashi) Translation At Sefaria (FYI)
- God in the Poetics of Space (Bachelard)
- aesthetics
- affect
- American Judaism
- ancient Near East
- animals
- anti-Semitism
- architecture
- art
- Ashkenaz
- BDS
- Bible
- blog
- body
- Buber and Rosenzweig
- Buddhism
- China
- Christianity
- cinema
- cosmopolitanism
- death
- Deleuze
- ethics
- food
- gender
- God
- Heschel
- Holocaust
- Husserl
- image
- in-the-car
- India
- Islam
- Israel
- Jerusalem
- Jewish art
- Jewish Philosophy
- Jewish Studies
- Judaism
- Kabbalah-Hasidut
- law
- liberalism
- literature
- Maimonides
- Mendelssohn
- messianism
- Mordecai Kaplan
- Museums & Galleries
- music
- nature
- New York
- object
- Palestine
- parks & gardens
- Passover
- photography
- political theology
- politics
- race
- racism
- religion
- religion and science
- Religious Studies
- ritual
- science
- sculpture
- secularism
- Shabbat & holidays
- suffering
- synagogue
- Syracuse
- Syracuse University
- Syria
- talmud-midrash
- technology
- what i'm reading
Archives
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012