Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg

Brilliant, but (for me, only an amateur reader of literary commentary who has not read all the classics of English literature) tough going at times. Densely packed with insights, so occasionally rereading it to see more would probably be helpful. She includes a lot of Midrash and rabbinic commentaries. The Introduction contains many of the concepts that she expands on in the rest of the book.

A few things I learned this time around. I hope Ms. Zornberg will agree with me:
* God wanted Moses to speak in his own voice when he returned to Egypt; having Aaron talk in his place meant that something was lost in translation (as it were). Even with Moses' stuttering and stumbling, his message would have been more authentic and, perhaps, better heard and acted on.

* When Moses pleads with God to let him enter Canaan, God abruptly ends the conversation. Zornberg asks why this is included in the Deuteronomy and suggests that Moses hoped, desperately needed, wanted the people to then entreat God to let Moses go with them. But he can't ask them to do this, the request must arise from them on their own or it is not sincere.

* Perhaps Moses smashes the tablets when he descends from the mountain and sees the people partying around the Golden Calf so that he is also guilty of disobeying God. When God then offers to destroy the people and start fresh with Moses, Moses can show that things would not work out any better because he is like the people.… (mehr)

Zornberg's beautifully written reading of Exodus is at the same time a reading of reading, a reading of writing, and a remarkably effective engagement with both midrashic and psychoanalytic traditions. It is likely to prove a challenging introduction for general readers, drawing as it does on a spectacular array of literary sources, centuries of interpretation, and a complex biblical text that, like Zornberg, delights in playing with fire; but readers who take up the challenge will be richly rewarded. Readers who appreciate the creative fire at the heart of poetic language will find much to savor here—and they may be startled by the lyrical power of the familiar text on which Zornberg's meditation is based. They will come away with a better understanding of Exodus, certainly, but also of midrash, of psychoanalytic contributions to the study of language and narrative, and of a tradition of Jewish mysticism that is unsurpassed in its appreciation of the creative power to see (in an image borrowed, like Zornberg's title, from Wallace Stevens) "nothing that is not there and the nothing that is."… (mehr)