Language:
English
Year of publication:
2021
Titel der Quelle:
Hebrew Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
62 (2021) 231-246
Keywords:
Zeʾev Wolf,
;
Bible. Criticism, interpretation, etc., Jewish 18th century
;
History
;
Bible. Philosophy
Abstract:
he book, Or haMe’ir, by Ze’ev Wolf of Zhitomir (d. 1800), a student of the Maggid of Mezheretz, clearly stands out from among other Hasidic texts of the same period, and this study seeks to define the seer’s non-conventional understanding of the basic Jewish sacred text.The author, who viewed the natural world as but a thin garment barely cladding Divinity, defined his central core-conception, t’midi’ut ( תמידיות ) from the word, תמיד – always and true of all time) as the understanding that the events of the biblical narrative, properly understood, refer not to any particular point in the past but rather to every person and to all of time. To the mind of Ze’ev Wolf, with spiritual perception the Divine can be ‘seen’ within everything at all times, while the seemingly timebound stories in the Torah are a concession to those whose more limited understanding is unable to grasp the Torah’s more sublime level. Even the manna which, in the Torah is said to have fallen to earth from the heavens, is understood as a continuous and even contemporary happening.תמידיות, understood in that sense, refers also to the author’s radical understanding of עבוד ה (‘avodah). The Zhitomir sage understood the cultic worship commanded in the Torah in a way that clearly transcends a physical tabernacle or temple or even time itself. In his interpretation of the cult, the author understood the real meaning of the cultic sites and practices not in a literal, concrete way, but rather as the realization of the ideal spiritual psyche of the Jew in all facets of life and in every point-in-time.
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