Tag Archives: image

(Visual Theology) The Dome of the Rock (Oleg Grabar)

Posted on May 17, 2015 by zjb

As I make my way through a little Islamica, I feel that I need to justify each step. For such a vast and pitched phenomenon, there needs to be some justification for what I’m reading when and why. So if … Continue reading →

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Reclining Shabbes Buddha

Posted on May 15, 2015 by zjb

We stole this guy from my mother. She was between apartments and asked if we’d hold on to him. He never got returned. We put him up over the fake fireplace along with the Shabbat candlesticks under the Bridget Riley print. … Continue reading →

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Archaic Stone Modern Eruv

Posted on May 7, 2015 by zjb

I like these photographs of neolithic cult stones from the Aravah desert in Israel, about which you can read more here. They are both abstract and sexual at the same time, aniconic and iconic at once. Of interest to me has to do … Continue reading →

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Idol Worship? (West Semitic Material & Empty Space Aniconism)

Posted on May 6, 2015 by zjb

I took these from Trygge N.D. Mettinger’s No Graven Image?: Israelite Aniconism in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context, the point of which is to show that aniconic non-figurative “representation” of divinity was not, as is so often assumed, unique to … Continue reading →

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No Graven Image? West Semitic Aniconic (Reading T.N.D. Mettinger)

Posted on May 5, 2015 by zjb

Apparently, everything we thought is wrong, especially all highfalutin talk about icons, aniconism, and “representation.” I’ll say so on the authority of Tryggve N.D. Mettinger., whose  No Graven Image? Israelite Aniconism in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context I just recently … Continue reading →

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Iconodulic Judaism (Moshe Idel)

Posted on April 29, 2015 by zjb

Torah is an icon, the shape of God in physical form. This can refer to the individual graphic word or letter, or to the Torah scroll itself as a physical cult-object. Making a Torah scroll is to make an image … Continue reading →

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Iconic Letters & “Meaningless” Prayer (Pillar of Prayer)

Posted on April 24, 2015 by zjb

It came across my desk and I thought I should read Meanchem Kallus’ translation of the Pillar of Prayer (Amud ha’Tefilah). It’s a loosely organized anthology of sayings attributed to the Baal Shem Tov, but it seems that it was … Continue reading →

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Zigzag (Abraham Joshua Heschel & Visual Thinking)

Posted on April 9, 2015 by zjb

The author of Visual Thinking (1969), Rudolf Arnheim must have read The Earth is the Lord’s by Abraham Joshua Heschel. Arnheim writes about, “The gestures of ghetto Jews, whose mind are formed by the traditional sophistry of Talmudic thinking, ‘appear … Continue reading →

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Soloveitchik Iconodolic

Posted on April 2, 2015 by zjb

“At the moment the image of his father came to him and appeared before him in the window.” A lovely little framing device set in white space, the quiet little epigraph to Soloveitchik’s Halakhic Man,  which he took from the Babylonian … Continue reading →

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Image, Not Idol (Talk at Illinois Wesleyan)

Posted on March 23, 2015 by zjb

Honored to have been asked to present a paper at Illinois Wesleyan. More philosophical Talmud, this one was entitled: “Image, Not Icon: Judaism and the Disappearance of the Second Commandment” Lots of very bright undergraduates showed up. Could not have … Continue reading →

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