erw public

library

“siempre imaginé que el paraíso sería algún tipo de biblioteca.”
― jorge luis borges

welcome to the erw library

elliot wolfson began a career of textual interpretation as a young boy studying talmud with his father. almost as early, the songs in his head began to translate into poems on the page, later finding expression as color on canvas. drawn particularly to esoteric traditions of mysticism and philosophy, he has repeatedly found himself not only working across media but also traversing established boundaries of religious and scholarly identities and disciplines.

wolfson received bachelor and master of arts degrees from queens college of the city university of new york, where he pursued the study of philosophy, focusing especially on phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. he received master of arts and doctor of philosophy degrees from brandeis university, where he specialized in the study of the kabbalistic texts and traditions that have remained central to his scholarly work.

staff picks

here are a few books from professor wolfson’s oeurve that should be of interest to anyone interested in judaism, kabbalah, or philosophy.

through a speculum that shines

“winner of the 1994 excellence in book publishing award, american academy of religion”

“winner of the 1995 sarah h. and julius kushner award, national jewish book council”

the book is a dazzling accomplishment, a landmark study from one of our most gifted scholars.

– elliot ginsburg, university of michigan

language, eros, being

“winner of the 2005 nahum m. sarna award for scholarship, national jewish book council”

elliot wolfson’s new volume is massive in every respect: it is massive in scope, in intellectual reach, in methodological range, and in thematic sweep.
readers will be especially interested in his formulation of a poetics of Jewish mystical language, and in the new and strong articulation of his insights into the topics of gender and the dialectics of absence and presence in the sources. This is a major work that will certainly stimulate much discussion
and interest.

– michael fishbane, nathan cummings professor of jewish studies the university of chicago

heidegger and kabbalah

a real intellectual wrestling with one of the towering figures of twentieth-century thought. It shows an important thinker at the top of his game: we learn about heidegger and we learn about kabbalah, but most of all we are offered an original philosophical study on the nature of language, being, and the art of revelation and concealment.

– aaron w. hughes, author of rethinking jewish philosophy

open secret

elliot r. wolfson’s dark brilliance is itself an open secret, unfolding mesmerizing rhythms of chiastic paradox. The relevance of his commentary cannot be confined to the study of a particular movement, religion, or discipline. In this philosophical meditation on a controversial strand of recent messianism, a profound historical kabbalism appears edged with a postmodern kafkaesque ironyin the legacy of a ‘future that is already present as the present that is always future.’

– catherine keller, drew university

lectures by elliot r wolfson

the following are a selection of lectures that are available online.

mysticism: the path beyond the path

rothko chapel houston, tx

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