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Ontological Uncertainties: Ṣimṣum and Science in the Oracular Hermeneutics of Chabad's Seventh Rebbe
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Ontological Uncertainties: Ṣimṣum and Science in the Oracular Hermeneutics of Chabad's Seventh Rebbe
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Journal Article
Ontological Uncertainties: Ṣimṣum and Science in the Oracular Hermeneutics of Chabad's Seventh Rebbe
2025
Overview
At the heart of this paper is the tension between interpretive openness, on the one hand, and dogma on the other hand. I begin by explaining what I mean by oracular hermeneutics, and how it helps us conceptualize the genre of the Hasidic sermon, and specifically the oeuvre of Chabad's Seventh Rebbe (\"Ramash\"). I will proceed to the latter's concept of synthesis as the defining feature of Hasidism's metaphysical and hermeneutical innovation, then turn to the particular forms this synthesis took when he applied it to historical controversies relating to simsum and science. Ramash developed a set of metaphysical theories that allowed for mutually exclusive interpretations to coexist as truths. His theorization of atika kadisha, I argue, implies a hermeneutical capaciousness rooted in an uncertainty that is not epistemological, but ontological. This resonates with the view that Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, which Ramash explicitly referenced, reflects the fundamental ontological incoherence of quantum reality. Ramash's hermeneutical project is thus seen to extend its metaphysical synthesis into the realm of physics too.
Publisher
Purdue University Press
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