This volume offers an examination of varied forms of expressions of heresy in Jewish history
thought and literature. Contributions explore the formative role of the figure of the heretic
and of heretic thought in the development of the Jewish traditions from antiquity to the 20th
century. Chapters explore the role of heresy in the Hellenic period and Rabbinic literature
the significance of heresy to Kabbalah and the critical and often formative importance the
challenge of heresy plays for modern thinkers such as Spinoza Freud and Derrida and literary
figures such as Kafka Tchernikhovsky and I.B. Singer. Examining heresy as a boundary issue
constitutive for the formation of Jewish tradition this book contributes to a better
understanding of the significance of the figure of the heretic for tradition more generally.
