From: "Rachel Steiner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: new book "Faith and Heresy"
________________________________________________ From: "Mark Steiner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Emune un Apikorses Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I don't know if this list is aware of the recent publication, by Yeshiva University Press, of my translation of what is perhaps the only original philosophical work ever written in Yiddish (of course there is a huge Yiddish literature about other philosophers, such as Marx). The author, a Lithuanian "iluy" from the yeshiva world, emigrated to the United States in 1929. Supporting himself by giving lessons in gemore to children, not having a family himself, he spent long hours in his niche at the New York Public Library, pondering philosophical issues. Usually autodidacts in philosophy produce nothing of value; in this case, the results have been praised by one of the most prominent philosophers in the English speaking world, Harry Frankfurt of Princeton. Before his untimely death in 1953, Agushewitz published three philosophical works in Yiddish: "Ancient Greek Philosophy"; "Principles [of Philosophy]"; "Faith and Heresy," the current work. The book is a sustained attack on the influential philosophy of materalism, ancient and modern. It contains discussions and criticisms of a startling number of philosophers, including Democritus, Herakleitos, Plato, Descartes, Kant, Hobbes, Russell, Cantor [!], Zeno, Bergson, Buechner, and, of course Spinoza. It contains a discussion of Free Will, which is one of the most interesting ever written in any language. (This chapter was published in the Torah U-madda Journal, and is accessible through the website www.yu.edu. The Spinoza chapter was published in an international Spinoza journal.) I am the translator, and have no financial interest in sales of this book, but it is intended as a memorial to Rabbi Agushewitz, a figure unjustly forgotten by lovers of Yiddish literature, by philosophers, and religious thinkers. In that sense, I have an interest that this goal be achieved. _______________________________________________ Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
