Orthodoxy and the Challenge of Biblical Criticism

Series

Orthodoxy and the Challenge of Biblical Criticism

The Potential Contribution of the Allegorical Interpretation of Tzimtzum to the Dilemma of Post-Liberal Theology

SBL Style

Click to copy

"The Potential Contribution of the Allegorical Interpretation of Tzimtzum to the Dilemma of Post-Liberal Theology." TheTorah.com, March 25, 2014. https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-potential-contribution-of-the-allegorical-interpretation-of-tzimtzum-to-the-dilemma-of-post-liberal-theology.

APA Style

Click to copy

"The Potential Contribution of the Allegorical Interpretation of Tzimtzum to the Dilemma of Post-Liberal Theology" (2014, March 25). TheTorah.com. https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-potential-contribution-of-the-allegorical-interpretation-of-tzimtzum-to-the-dilemma-of-post-liberal-theology

Prof. Tamar Ross
The Potential Contribution of the Allegorical Interpretation of Tzimtzum to the Dilemma of Post-Liberal Theology

Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler (1892 – 1953)

Categories:

Modern Faith

Published: March 25, 2014

|

Last Updated: September 7, 2026

  1.  Eliyahu Dessler, Michtav Me-Eliyahu III, pp. 257.

  2.   Supra, towards the end of section XII.

  3.  Although I have not succeeded in locating a verbatim source for this statement in the writings of R. Nachman, it does indeed capture and paraphrase some of his teachings.  See, for example, the account of the heart of the world and its longing for the well-spring in “The Tale of Seven Beggars” (Hebrew) in his Sippurei Ma’asiyot, or his identification of human lack with that of the Shekhina [divine presence] (to wit: “might there be any greater honor than this?”) his Likkutei Moharan (Hebrew) part I, teaching 89.

  4.  “Zar’onim”, Orot, (Jerusalem: Mosad Ha-rav Kook, 1963),pp.124-125

  5.   For discussion of a comparable attitude to conceptual idolatry in the writings of R. Mordekhai Yosef of Izbica, see Herzl Hefter, “Idolatry: A Prohibition for Our Time”, Tradition42:1, 2009, pp. 15-28.  See also Robert Merrihew Adams, “Idolatry and the Invisibility of God”, in Interpretation in Religion, edited by Shlom Biderman & Ban-Ami Scharfstein (Leiden/New York/Koln: E.J. Brill, 1992), pp. 39-52 for a Christian formulation of the same idea. Both Adams and Hefter relate to theologian Paul Tillich’s insistence upon the necessity of  broken myths.

Prof. Tamar Ross is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Jewish philosophy at Bar Ilan University. She continues to teach at Midreshet Lindenbaum. She did her Ph.D. at the Hebrew University and served as a post-doctoral fellow at the… Read More
Related Topics:Heresy