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“Into Life”??! Franz Rosenzweig and the Figure of Death

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2009

Zachary Braiterman
Zachary Braiterman
Affiliation:
Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y.
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Extract

At the end of his short treatise Understanding the Sick and the Healthy, Franz Rosenzweig predicated the restoration of what he called healthy consciousness upon the recognition of death7apos;s sovereignty. “[One] must direct [one's] life to no other goal but death,” he wrote. “A healthy man has the strength to continue towards the grave. The sick man invokes death and lets himself be carried away in mortal fear.” Rosenzweig juxtaposed the Grim Reaper with weary life. The healthy understanding knows that death will dash life to the ground. Yet it takes comfort from knowing that death will accept it with open arms. In the end, eloquent life falls silent as the eternally taciturn one speaks, “Do you finally recognize me? I am your brother.”In his notes to the English translation, Nahum Glatzer remarks with shock, “This concluding chapter–on death–stands in a striking contrast to the final passage of The Star of Redemption.” As if to offset our text's more mordant tone, Glatzer then quotes verbatim the seemingly life-affirming paragraphs that conclude Rosenzweig's magnum opus. Glatzer is not the only commentator to emphasize the importance of life in Rosenzweig's system. Indeed, Else-Rahel Freund notes that The Star of Redemption begins with the phrase “from death” and concludes with the words “into life.”

Type
Articles
Information
AJS Review , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , November 1998 , pp. 203 - 222
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Jewish Studies 1998

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References

1. Rosenzweig, Franz, Understanding the Sick and the Healthy: A View of World, Man, and God (New York: Noonday Press, 1953), p. 91.Google Scholar

2. Ibid, pp. 101–102.

3. Freund, Else-Rahel, Franz Rosenzweig's Philosophy of Existence: An Analysis of “The Star of Redemption ” (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1979), pp. 3–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4. SeeMosès, Stéphane, “Franz Rosenzweig in Perspective: Reflections on His Last Diaries,” in The Philosophy of Franz Rosenzweig, ed. Paul, Mendes-Flohr (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1988), pp. 191–193. My analysis coincides with that of Moses in all but one respect. Moses also characterizes Rosenzweig as a quietist for whom love gives only spiritual life and mystical vision. However, he does so on the basis of Rosenzweig's latest, and unpublished, diary entries. Moses concedes that realism and terrestrial life constitute the ultimate word in The Star of Redemption. In contrast, we make no such concession.Google Scholar

5. Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, Signs (Evanston, 111.: Northwestern University Press, 1964), p.15.Google Scholar

6. Rosenzweig, Franz, The Star of Redemption, trans. Hallo, William W. (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1970), p. 238.Google Scholar

7. Ibid, p. 155.

8. Ibid, p. 193.

9. Ibid, pp. 242–245.

10. Rosenzweig, Franz, Der Mensch and sein Werk, Gesammelte Schriften, I Briefe und Tagebucher, 2 Bande, ed. Rachel, Rosenzweig and Edith, Rosenzweig-Scheinemann, (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1979), p. 778 (emphasis added).CrossRefGoogle Scholar See the discussion of this letter in Mosès, “Franz Rosenzweig in Perspective,” pp. 191–192. See also Marx, Werner, “Die Bestimmung des Todes im ‘Stern der Erlosung’” in Der Philosoph Franz Rosenzweig (1886–1929), ed. Wolfdietrich, Schmeid-Kowarzik, Internationaler Kongress (Munich: Verlag Karl Alber Freiburg, 1988), pp. 612–615.Google Scholar

11. Mosès, Stéphane, System and Revelation: The Philosophy of Franz Rosenzweig, trans. Tihanyi, Catherine (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1992), pp. 170–172, 223.Google Scholar

12. Rosenzweig, Star of Redemption, p. 253.

13. Ibid, p. 225 (emphasis added).

14. Ibid, p. 253.

15. Ibid, pp. 270–271.

16. Franz Rosenzweig, Der Mensch und sein Werk, I, p. 662

17. Gibbs, Robert, Correlations in Rosenzweig andLevinas (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992).Google Scholar Cf.Mosès, System and Revelation, and “Franz Rosenzweig in Perspective”; Cohen, Richard A., Elevations: The Height of the Good in Rosenzweig and Levinas (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), pp. 70–71.Google Scholar

18. Rosenzweig, Star of Redemption, p. 295.

19. Ibid, pp. 308–309.

20. Ibid, p. 295.

21. Ibid, p. 310.

22. Ibid, p. 314.

23. Ibid, pp. 315–316.

24. Ibid, pp. 321–322.

25. Ibid, p. 327.

26. Ibid, p. 328.

27. See Mosès, System and Revelation, pp. 284–286; Cohen, Elevations, pp. 241–267

28. Rosenzweig, Star of Redemption, p. 423.

29. Ibid

30. Ibid, p. 424.

31. Rosenzweig, Der Mensch und sein Werk, I, p. 1062

32. Ibid, pp. 921–922.

33. Ibid, p. 684.

34. Ibid, pp. 685–686.

35. Ibid, p. 74.

36. Ibid, p. 85.

37. Ibid, p. 358.

38. Ibid, p. 376.

39. Ibid, pp. 847–848.

40. Ibid, p. 788.

41. Glatzer, Nahum, Franz Rosenzweig: His Life and Thought (New York: Schocken Books, 1953), p. 115.Google Scholar

42. Rosenzweig, Der Mensch undsein Werk, I, pp. 121–122

43. Ibid, pp. 785–786.

44. Translated by Nahum Glatzer in Franz Rosenzweig: Life and Thought, p. 67 (emphasis added).

45. For a similar opinion, seeGalli, Barbara Ellen, “Placing the Halevi Book, Rosenzweig, and the Star,” in Franz Rosenzweig and Jehuda Halevi: Translating, Translations, and Translators, ed. Galli, Barbara Ellen (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1995), p. 289.Google Scholar

46. Ibid, pp. 202–204.

47. Ibid, p. 208.

48. Ibid, pp. 211–212.

49. See Braiterman, Zachary, (God) After Auschwitz: Tradition and Change in Post- Holocaust Jewish Thought, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), chap. 3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

50. Galli, Franz Rosenzweig andJehuda Halevi, pp. 219–223

51. Ibid, pp. 231–233.

52. Ibid, p. 233.

53. Ibid, pp. 234–235.

54. Ibid, pp. 285–6.