Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam > Blaise Pascal Instituut > Girard Studiekring > COV&R 2007 > Abstracts Papers 

Sandor Goodhart     

The Anti-Sacrificial and the Ethical: Reading Vulnerability and Tolerance in Genesis 32 and 33

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Abstract

I will examine the episode of Jacob wrestling all night with "the man" (the iysh) in which Jacob is wounded and after which he is able to meet face to face his brother Esau. 

I will argue that the Biblical passages offer a foundation for the giving up of the sacrifical (and the enactment of the anti-sacrificial) in the encounter with the face of the other individual, which is also an encounter with the "face of God" (Peniel), after which the place comes to be named.  In this way I will argue that an anti-sacrificial view (as defined by RenĂ© Girard) and an ethical view (as defined by a Jewish thinker like Emmanuel Levinas) are entirely compatible.

 

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