Tag Archives: cosmopolitanism

Reason, Religion, Style (Lessing in Jerusalem)

Posted on August 28, 2012 by zjb

2012 was an extraordinarily busy year for me regarding publications, mainly by accident. There was a huge backlog of old material prepared and/or submitted years ago that have finally seen the light of day. This one was not in the … Continue reading →

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The Mountain of God and the Nations of the World (Universalism in the Zohar)

Posted on July 23, 2012 by zjb

[Mont St Victoire] I didn’t see this one coming. I’ve been primed to expect the worst from pre-modern sources when it comes to “the other.” In the Zohar, gentiles are associated with impurity and the demonic. But here you have, … Continue reading →

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“After Jews and Arabs: Remaking Levantine Culture”

Posted on March 18, 2012 by zjb

Levant Fair, Tel Aviv, 1934 (http://www.middle-east-pictures.com/middle-east/Levant-fair-1934-Aviv-002.htm)   Just read Ammiel Alcalay’s After Jews and Arabs: Remaking Levantine Culture. Published in 1993 ahead of its time, I can’t think of a more timely meditation from some time ago for anyone today … Continue reading →

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“Space,” “Place,” “World”

Posted on February 1, 2012 by zjb

(image posted at http://www.tokyogreenspace.com)   An earlier comment by my dear friend “esque” has made me realize that I need to clarify terms central to Jewish Philosophy Place (JPP). These terms are: “space,” “place,” and “world.” “esque” had this to say … Continue reading →

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Levantine

Posted on January 22, 2012 by zjb

This post’s really a coincidence. It’s not as if I have Egypt on the mind. It just looks that way, having now run two successive posts on…Egypt. But I just happened to finish Mongrels or Marvels: The Levantine Writings of … Continue reading →

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The World

Posted on January 20, 2012 by zjb

I like these two images because of their everyday character. There’s the quotidian task of tending for the dead at the cremation ghats at the holy city of Varanasi on the Ganges. And there’s the view from my brother’s window … Continue reading →

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