Approaching God Aesthetically in Modern Jewish Thought

Abstract

AbstractDrawing on the writings of the twentieth‐century rabbi‐philosopher Joseph Soloveitchik (1903‐93), and in particular his observations on the nature and value of the aesthetic, this article sketches one element of a larger project that will explore an aesthetic approach to God and religion. The claim here is that bringing Soloveitchik into dialogue with Friedrich Nietzsche, and in particular Nietzsche’s claims in The Birth of Tragedy regarding how the world and existence can only be justified as “aesthetic phenomena,” can act as a springboard for constructing a picture whereby: (1) the experience of the halakhic life can play a life‐affirming role for its more sophisticated practitioners, parallel to that played by aesthetic phenomena in Nietzsche’s thought; (2) it is the aesthetic element of halakhic practice that explains how it can do this; and (3) these aesthetic elements of halakhic practice enable its practitioners, in varying ways, to experience halakhah as mediating a relationship with a God who cannot be comprehended propositionally.