Aesthetics, Jewish Philosophy, and Post-Holocaust Theology (original) (raw)

2014, Journal of Jewish Thought & Philosophy

We now inhabit a time where most schools of thought are demarcated by the prefix post-. The apophasis-referring either to the divine or to Auschwitzthat once characterized much of modern Jewish thought now seems insufficient Is it more appropriate now to speak of post-modern Jewish thought? If so, what are the theological and political implications of such a move? How can post-modern Jewish thought address the salient issues of other/josi-forms of thought, such as post-secularism, post-foundationalism, post-structuralism, post-theism, post-metaphysics, and even postmodernism? Can it address post-Holocaust theology and the problem of the so-called limits of representation? In giving an affirmative answer in this essay, I hope to explain that the current move in modern Jewish thought toward aesthetics and away from conventional strands of phenomenology characterizes this post-modern Jewish position. This move, as we shall see, challenges the normative association of uniqueness that has characterized most writing and thinking about the Holocaust to date. As an event, the Holocaust had no historical precedent and broadened what was phenomenologically imaginable-the so-called limits of representation. People lacked a frame of reference through which to grapple with this new province of experience. The testimony of survivors was, a fortiori, radically unique, which meant that their experiences remained ««-communicable. Survivor testimonies revealed the darker, sordid dimensions of what it means to be human. This concept of radical uniqueness calls into question our current universal moral categories. Focusing on tbe burden assumed by classical apophatic theological language to contain the un-communicability of Auschwitz and, pari passu, of God, we have honed our current politicaltheological predicament by focusing on the paradox of two entities embodying true Einzigartigkeit (singularity). These two entities cannot be unique simultaneously-that is to say, singularities possess an ultimacy that challenges our sense that the ultimate must be one. The traditional singularity of the divine was compromised to allow for the singularity of Auschwitz. Theologically, we discovered the troubling reversal of biblical creation: darkness replaced light. God created something from nothing: presence. Humans