Slayers of Moses, The: The Emergence of Rabbinic Interpretation in Modern Literary Theory

Abstract

The leopards the rebellious, profaning, heretical forces have become part of the holy ritual itself, through interpretation. Displacement not only describes such extreme misreading, is not only a technique of interpretation; it is the only way to survive the endless displacements of Jewish history. Displacement is a necessary re-vision and re-creation of a text which is the only anchor of a people displaced in space. Displacement, in other words, is both the condition of and answer to exile. The leopards become part of the ritual. In the school of heretic hermeneutics, holy and profane intermingle; there is something sacred about writing, commentary, and texts, yet these notions are displaced into the profane fields of literature, philosophy, and psychoanalysis. At the same time, under the guise of revisionary interpretation, the Temple and Scripture are profaned. The lines become crossed: who knows now which is the holy, and which the profane: which the leopards and which the priests?

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