Rosenzweig's Ontology and the Rabbinic Doctrine of Creation via the Name

What is it about?

It has been argued that traces of a creation doctrine involving the Name YHWH can be found in some extra- canonical and rabbinic texts, pointing to a long-standing tradition regarding the role of the Name in creation which persisted from Second Temple times. This chapter offers a new analysis of this theory and the texts on which it is based in order to disentangle the facts and discover what may stand at the heart of the notion of ‘sealing with the Name’ – a concept which implies the role of the name in forming identity and difference. This will be highlighted and interpreted in terms of Franz Rosenzweig’s work on the role of language in regard to manifestation and transcendence, and the utility of logic versus human language’s inability to describe the being of otherness.

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