Burnt Book

In a look at what it means for new generations to read and interpret ancient religious texts, rabbi and philosopher Marc-Alain Ouaknin offers a postmodern reading of the Talmud. Combining traditional learning and contemporary thought, Ouaknin dovetails discussions of spirituality and religious practice with such concepts as deconstruction, intertextuality, undecidability, multiple voicing, and eroticism in the Talmud. On a broader level, he establishes a dialogue between Hebrew tradition and the social sciences, which draws, for example, on the works of Levinas, Blanchot, and Jabes as well as Derrida. "The Burnt Book" represents the innovative thinking that has come to be associated with a school of French-Jewish studies, headed by Levinas and dedicated to new readings of traditional texts.

"This remarkable book ... is rich in suggestive ideas, including the proposal that thought has its highest ethical function when it refuses wisdom in favor of 'asking a question that it cannot answer.'"--Peter C. Brown, Canadian Philosophical Reviews "The gifts Ouaknin offers are many. His use of Kabbalistic thought simultaneously offers profound insight into the nature of the book and illuminates the concepts used... He offers multiple, useful paths forward in the study of the book, narrative, reading practices, community formation, religious thought, and the Talmud itself."--Journal of Communication Praise for the French edition: "Marc-Alain Ouaknin's book is a veritable gift for the heart and mind! ... [It] contains a radical criticism of the 'masters' who '[think] they control their language and the language of others.'"--Robert Maggiori, Liberation

Marc-Alain Ouaknin, an Associate Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Bar-Ilan in Israel, is a rabbi and has a doctorate in philosophy. He teaches Talmudic philosophy and directs the Center of Jewish Research and Studies in Paris.