Tsimtsum and Modernity:
Lurianic Heritage in Modern Philosophy & Theology
31 May – 1 June, 2016
University of Cambridge
(For full conference description, please click here.)
Day 1 (31st of May)
9.00 Welcome
9.15 Opening Lecture
Christoph Schulte (Universität Potsdam), Tsimtsum: Media and Arts
10.00 Panel 1 Tsimtsum and the Jewish Tradition
Daniel H. Weiss (University of Cambridge), Tsimtsum Between the Bible and Philosophy
Reuven Leigh (University of Cambridge) Hasidic Thought and Tsimtsum’s Linguistic Turn
11.30-12.00 Coffee break
12.00 Panel 2 Timtsum and Modern Philosophy
Paul Franks (Yale University), Contraction and Withdrawal: The Midrashic Roots of Philosophical Conceptions of Tsimtsum
Kenneth Seeskin (Northwestern University), Tsimtsum and the Root of Finitude
13.30 Lunch break
14.30 Panel 4 Tsimtsum after Schelling
Alex Ozar (Yale Univeristy), Unfolding the Enfolded: Schelling and Lurianic Kabbalah
Elliot Wolfson (University of California, Santa Barbara), Tsimtsum in Heidegger
16.00-16.30 Coffee break
16.30 Panel 5 Tsimtsum in Weimar
Martin Kavka (Florida State University), A Political Theology of Tzimtzum
Benjamin Pollock (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), 'The Kabbalistic Problem is not Specifically Theological': Franz Rosenzweig on Tsimtsum
Day 2 (1st of June)
10.00 Panel 6 Tsimtsum after Scholem
Eli Friedlander (Tel Aviv University), Walter Benjamin on the Work of Art and the Created
Adam Lipszyc (IFIS PAN, Warsaw), Taking Space Seriously: Tehiru, Khora and the Freudian Void
11.30-12.00 Coffee break
12.00 Panel 7 Tsimtsum after the Holocaust
Christian Wiese (Universität Frankfurt am Main), Tsimtsum in Post-Holocaust Thought
Asaf Angerman (Yale Univeristy). Tsimtsum as Eclipse in Buber and Horkheimer
13.30 Lunch break
14.30 Panel 8 Tsimtsum in Ethics
Michael Fagenblat (Open University of Israel), Phenomenology and Tsimtsum: ‘la contraction créatrice de l'Infini’
Michael Morgan (Indiana University), Traces of Tsimtsum: Fackenheim, Berkovits, and Levinas
16.00-16.30 Coffee break
16.30 Panel 9 Tsimtsum and Poststructuralism
Przemysław Tacik Tsimtsum as the Traumnabel of Modern Jewish Philosophy: Is History Real?
Agata Bielik-Robson The Smiling Spectre: Tsimtsum in Derrida
18.00 – 18.15 Coffee Break
19.00 Closing remarks
Location: The Wood-Legh Room, Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge
Free and Open to the Public
To RSVP, or for any questions, contact:
Dr Daniel Weiss (dhw27@cam.ac.uk)
Prof Agata Bielik-Robson (Agata.Bielik-Robson@nottingham.ac.uk)
