Elliot R. Wolfson (*1956 - )
Today, it is again time to present a long passage from a book by Elliot R. Wolfson. Last time (click here) I have already informed my dear readers, that he is one of my most admired scholars, who should be known and read around the globe. Often, when I want to refocus my thoughts, I pull out one of his books or essays by chance out of my book shelf and start to read. Nearly instantly, my thoughts were absolutely revitalized.
Yesterday I have chosen his book "Open Secret" (Columbia UP 2009) again, which should be considered as one of the most important books about Habad and the secret ever written. Its lecture is even more rewarding than the lecture of Derrida's often awkward reflections on the secret.
The passage that I would like to present today is taken from the "Introduction" entitled "Behind the Veil Unveiled" of the aforementioned book:
"Consider for example, the formulation of the sixth Rebbe: "It is impossible for there to be a disclosure of the intellect without the garment of thought, and thus, when the light of the intellect is disclosed, letters are produced, but above there can be a disclosure of light without any garment."
The phenomenological question that beckons to be asked, however, concerns the nature of what is disclosed in this disclosure of light without any garment. Can such disclosure be anything but occlusion?
I think it is closer to the spiritual marrow of Habad, as it were, to surmise that the seeing without a garment consists of coming to see that there is nothing ultimately to see but the garment that there can be a seeing without any garment. The very notion of removing all garments, in other words, is the ultimate garment, and, consequently, what is seen of the light without any garment is the very garment through which the light is (un)seen. The soteriological promise of a gnosis that consists of the disclosure of the essence (gilluy ha-asmuth) does not betoken the revelation of an entity subject to representational replication, but rather the event of unconcealment in which the manifest ceases to be hidden in its manifestation.
In the epochal metamorphosis of the eschaton, the concealment, as such, is unconcealed, the withdrawal itself withdrawn, and hence the nature of being will not be thought of as what abides as concealed in its unconcealment but as what transpires in the concealing of the concealment. [...]
As Epstein put it elsewhere, in the days of the week, which figuratively symbolize the fragmented time of history, "the divine light is intentionally hidden and concealed", so that there might be the semblance of an autonomous nature, but on the Sabbath, which symbolizes the atemporal time of redemption, one can comprehend the light in its essence, and the differentiated beings are revealed to be, in truth, aspects of the Infinite, which yields the paradox that "in relation to the Infinite, concealment is also disclosure, as disclosure is infinite".
To be exposed, the Infinite must be camouflaged, to be forthcoming, it must be withheld. Envisioning the essence in Habad tradition may be cast as apprehending the "absolute nonbeing of the event", which "results from an excess of the ultra-one", the oneness beyond the distinction of one and many.
The unicity consigned to the end is a visual attunement to the void of all being, the void of all things fully void, the breach of unity by which the unity of the breach (dis)appears in and through the cleft of consciousness. In this temporal crevice and spatial hiatus, the symbolic is imagined as real, the real as symbolic."
Yesterday I have chosen his book "Open Secret" (Columbia UP 2009) again, which should be considered as one of the most important books about Habad and the secret ever written. Its lecture is even more rewarding than the lecture of Derrida's often awkward reflections on the secret.
The passage that I would like to present today is taken from the "Introduction" entitled "Behind the Veil Unveiled" of the aforementioned book:
"Consider for example, the formulation of the sixth Rebbe: "It is impossible for there to be a disclosure of the intellect without the garment of thought, and thus, when the light of the intellect is disclosed, letters are produced, but above there can be a disclosure of light without any garment."
The phenomenological question that beckons to be asked, however, concerns the nature of what is disclosed in this disclosure of light without any garment. Can such disclosure be anything but occlusion?
I think it is closer to the spiritual marrow of Habad, as it were, to surmise that the seeing without a garment consists of coming to see that there is nothing ultimately to see but the garment that there can be a seeing without any garment. The very notion of removing all garments, in other words, is the ultimate garment, and, consequently, what is seen of the light without any garment is the very garment through which the light is (un)seen. The soteriological promise of a gnosis that consists of the disclosure of the essence (gilluy ha-asmuth) does not betoken the revelation of an entity subject to representational replication, but rather the event of unconcealment in which the manifest ceases to be hidden in its manifestation.
In the epochal metamorphosis of the eschaton, the concealment, as such, is unconcealed, the withdrawal itself withdrawn, and hence the nature of being will not be thought of as what abides as concealed in its unconcealment but as what transpires in the concealing of the concealment. [...]
As Epstein put it elsewhere, in the days of the week, which figuratively symbolize the fragmented time of history, "the divine light is intentionally hidden and concealed", so that there might be the semblance of an autonomous nature, but on the Sabbath, which symbolizes the atemporal time of redemption, one can comprehend the light in its essence, and the differentiated beings are revealed to be, in truth, aspects of the Infinite, which yields the paradox that "in relation to the Infinite, concealment is also disclosure, as disclosure is infinite".
To be exposed, the Infinite must be camouflaged, to be forthcoming, it must be withheld. Envisioning the essence in Habad tradition may be cast as apprehending the "absolute nonbeing of the event", which "results from an excess of the ultra-one", the oneness beyond the distinction of one and many.
The unicity consigned to the end is a visual attunement to the void of all being, the void of all things fully void, the breach of unity by which the unity of the breach (dis)appears in and through the cleft of consciousness. In this temporal crevice and spatial hiatus, the symbolic is imagined as real, the real as symbolic."
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Have a nice week !
Stay tuned and expect the unexpected!
(P.S. This photo is used with the very kind permission of Prof. Elliot R. Wolfson. Thank you very much)
