BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Harvard Law School//NONSGML Events//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN X-WR-CALNAME:Harvard Law School - Events X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://hls.harvard.edu/calendar/ X-WR-CALDESC:Harvard Law School - Events BEGIN:VEVENT UID:20250818T1757Z-1755539867.9544-EO-717523-1@10.73.0.12 STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTAMP:20260508T084104Z CREATED:20250818T140733Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260217T193809Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251022T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251022T173000 SUMMARY: “Mystical Nihilism\, Theopolitics\, Ethics\, and the Law Beyond La w” with Elliot Wolfson DESCRIPTION: The lecture will explore the notion of venturing to the law be yond the law particularly as it is implied by mystical nihilism. My argumen t pivots around the assumption that the skepticism of faith\, endemic to ni hilistic encounter with the nothing on the part of mystics\, resonates with the insubordinate proclivity of the Jewish esoteric tradition\, […] X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

The lecture will explore the notion of ven turing to the law beyond the law particularly as it is implied by mystical nihilism. My argument pivots around the assumption that the skepticism of f aith\, endemic to nihilistic encounter with the nothing on the part of myst ics\, resonates with the insubordinate proclivity of the Jewish esoteric tr adition\, what I have referred to in my previous scholarship as the hyperno mian trespassing of the boundary that preserves the very boundary that is t respassed. The shift in nomenclature from antinomianism to hypernomianism c onveys that the mystical does not coerce an anarchic suspension of the law but rather its irresolute overcoming through relentless undergoing\, the su rpassing of the path by suffering its unremitting abiding. Kabbalistic sour ces impart the truism that release from the law is not attained by discardi ng the law but by executing the law with an intensity that pushes past its perimeter even as that perimeter is preserved in the act of defiance. The l imitlessness of the hypernomian is thus confined within the limits of the n omos.
Elliot R. Wolfson is a Fellow of the American Academy of Jewish Research and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences\, is the Marsha and Jay Glazer Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies and Distinguished Professor of R eligion Emeritus at University of California\, Santa Barbara. He is the aut hor of many publications including Through a Speculum That Shines: Vision a nd Imagination in Medieval Jewish Mysticism (1994)\; Along the Path: Studie s in Kabbalistic Myth\, Symbolism\, and Hermeneutics (1995)\; Circle in the Square: Studies in the Use of Gender in Kabbalistic Symbolism (1995)\; Abr aham Abulafia—Kabbalist and Prophet: Hermeneutics\, Theosophy\, and Theurgy (2000)\; Language\, Eros\, Being: Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and Poetic Imag ination (2005)\; Venturing Beyond—Law and Morality in Kabbalistic Mysticism (2006)\; Alef\, Mem\, Tau: Kabbalistic Musings on Time\, Truth\, and Death (2006)\; Luminal Darkness: Imaginal Gleanings From Zoharic Literature (200 7)\; Open Secret: Postmessianic Messianism and the Mystical Revision of Men ahem Mendel Schneerson (2009)\; A Dream Interpreted Within a Dream: Oneirop oiesis and the Prism of Imagination (2011)\; Giving Beyond the Gift: Apopha sis and Overcoming Theomania (2014)\; The Duplicity of Philosophy’s Shadow: Heidegger\, Nazism\, and the Jewish Other (2018)\; Heidegger and Kabbalah: Hidden Gnosis and the Path of Poiēsis (2019)\; Suffering Time: Philosophic al\, Kabbalistic\, and Ḥasidic Reflections on Temporality (2021)\; The Phil osophical Pathos of Susan Taubes: Between Nihilism and Hope (2023)\; Noctur nal Seeing: Hopelessness of Hope and
Philosophical Gnosis in Susan Tau bes\, Gillian Rose\, and Edith Wyschogrod (2025)\; Apophasis and Envisionin g the Invisible: Unveiling Veils of Infinity (2026).

LOCATION:Hauser Hall\; 102 Malkin Classroom GEO:0;0 ORGANIZER;CN="API User":MAILTO:api@law.harvard.edu URL;VALUE=URI:https://hls.harvard.edu/events/mystical-nihilism-theopolitics -ethics-and-the-law-beyond-law-with-eliot-wolfson/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 DTSTART:20250309T070000 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR