Letter to the Editor: Self-Effacement in the Bible
Replies to Dr. Kahn's objections to her earlier article on self-effacement, defending the claims that a person may be understood as part of God and may attain devekut, and marshaling Soloveitchik, the Tanya, Nefesh Hahayyim, the Zohar, Ibn Ezra, Ramban, and Or Hahayyim to show that both ideas are native to Jewish thought.
Responding to a critique of her earlier study of self-effacement, Wiederkehr-Pollack maintains that the two positions her critic rejected are in fact well rooted in Jewish sources. The doctrine of bittul ha-yesh, she writes, entails that nothing possesses an existence independent of God, and she cites Soloveitchik on the meaning of ehad along with passages from the Tanya on the nullification of body and soul. On devekut she assembles a chain of authorities from Nefesh Hahayyim, the Zohar, Ibn Ezra, Ramban, and Or Hahayyim who allow for genuine attachment to the Divine, suggesting that reticence about such teachings reflects their danger rather than their falsity.
Cite this article
Gloria Wiederkehr-Pollack. "Letter to the Editor: Self-Effacement in the Bible." Jewish Bible Quarterly 36, no. 2 (April – June 2008): 130–133.
Gloria Wiederkehr-Pollack. "Letter to the Editor: Self-Effacement in the Bible." Jewish Bible Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 2, 2008, pp. 130–133.