Language:
English
Year of publication:
2020
Titel der Quelle:
Journal of Jewish Thought & Philosophy
Angaben zur Quelle:
28,1 (2020) 28-94
Keywords:
Zeitlin, Aaron, Criticism and interpretation
;
Greenberg, Uri Zvi, Criticism and interpretation
;
Cabala in literature
;
Mysticism Judaism 20th century
;
History
;
Yiddish poetry History and criticism 20th century
Abstract:
This article presents an analysis of Aaron Zeitlin’s Metatron: Apokaliptishe poeme, published in Warsaw in 1922. Written at the height of the Yiddish avant-garde, the book-length poem represents the highpoint of Zeitlin’s “neo-kabbalistic” phase. Focusing on the mythopoesis and mystical messianism in the composition, I situate Zeitlin’s thought in the context of Uri Tsvi Greenberg’s Mefisto as well as Hillel Zeitlin’s messianism and ruminations on duality and evil. Paul Tillich’s writings about the divine-demonic provide another lens. Uncovering Zeitlin’s kabbalistic sources reveals the depth of his mythopoetic imagination, which I locate amidst divergent attitudes to myth in Yiddish literature in the early 1920s.
DOI:
10.1163/1477285X-12341305
URL:
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