Judaism, LiberaLism, and PoLiticaL theoLogy This page intentionally left blank Judaism, Liber aLism, and PoLiticaL theoLogy edited by randi rashkover & martin Kavka indiana university Press bloomington & indianapolis This book is a publication of indiana university Press office of scholarly Publishing herman b Wells Library 350 1320 east 10th street bloomington, indiana 47405 usa iupress.indiana.edu Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931 © 2014 by indiana university Press all rights reserved no part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The association of american university Presses’ resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the american national standard for information sciences— Permanence of Paper for Printed Library materials, ansi Z39.48-1992. manufactured in the united states of america cataloging information available from the Library of congress. isbn 978-0-253-01027-8 (cloth) isbn 978-0-253-01032-2 (paper) isbn 978-0-253-01039-1 (ebook) 1 2 3 4 5 19 18 17 16 15 14 contents acknowledgments vii introduction \ randi rashkover and martin Kavka 1 Part 1. Judaism and Liberalism 1 spinoza and the Possibility condition of modern Judaism \ 37 Jerome e. copulsky 2 “Plato Prophesied the revelation”: 66 The Philosophico-Political Theology of strauss’s Philosophy and Law and the guidance of hermann cohen \ dana hollander 3 What do the dead deserve? toward a critique of 108 Jewish “Political Theology” \ martin Kavka 4 The Zionism of hannah arendt: 1941–1948 \ eric Jacobson 127 Part 2. Messianism, Miracle, and Power 5 Power and israel in martin buber’s critique of carl schmitt’s 155 Political Theology \ gregory Kaplan 6 The Political Theology of ethical monotheism \ daniel Weidner 178 7 The miraculous birth of the given: reflections on 197 hannah arendt and Franz rosenzweig \ daniel brandes Part 3. Ethics, Law, and the Universal 8 bad Jews, authentic Jews, Figural Jews: badiou and the Politics of 221 exemplarity \ sarah hammerschlag 9 The Patient Political gesture: Law, Liberalism, and talmud \ 241 Zachary braiterman Part 4. The Mosaic Distinction 10 reason within the bounds of religion: assmann, cohen, and the 269 Possibilities of monotheism \ robert erlewine 11 The impossibility of the Prohibition of images: 289 idolatry in adorno, Levinas, and schoenberg \ oona eisenstadt 12 F rom distortion to displacement: 305 Freud and the mosaic distinction \ brian britt 13 monotheism as a Political Problem: 321 The critique of Political Theology out of the sources of Judaism \ bruce rosenstock contributors 345 index 349 acknowledgments t his volume has its origins in randi rashkover’s desire in 2008 to put forth a definitive response from the field of modern Jewish philosophy and thought to the resurgence of interest in the humanities in carl schmitt and political theol- ogy. neither of us expected the outpouring of interest from this book’s contribu- tors and from other scholars who were unable to contribute. such cohesion and energy should never be taken for granted and reminds us how lucky we are to do work in a subfield that has been a site of such creative thinking over the last generation. The department of religious studies and the college of humanities and so- cial sciences at george mason university funded a symposium featuring some of the contributors to this volume that took place in october 2009. shaul magid and aryeh cohen, co-chairs of the study of Judaism section of the american academy of religion, and the members of that section’s steering committee were kind enough to accept a proposal for a panel featuring other contributors that took place the following month at the aar’s annual meeting held in montreal. at a time when academic presses are publishing fewer and fewer edited vol- umes, we are deeply grateful for the support that dee mortensen has shown for this project. she and her chickens have a permanent place in our hearts. We are also appreciative of the skill and dispatch of other members of the staff of indiana university Press—including debra corman, angela burton, and sarah Jacobi, in bringing this volume to press. Finally, Josh Lupo stepped in amid other projects to do a wonderful job on the index. most importantly, we would like to thank our families—andy Zimmerman, anna rashkover, Kamila Kavka, and tip tomberlin—for their patience during all the phone calls. vii This page intentionally left blank Judaism, LiberaLism, and PoLiticaL theoLogy