ABSTRACT
Unlike most of his contemporaries, Nobel laureate Shmuel Yoseph Agnon (1887–1970) remained an Orthodox Jew throughout his life. The chapter shows that when it comes to the question of what one is allowed to say (or write) about God, Agnon tends to follow the medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides, who held that corporeal descriptions and predicates of God should be used in a manner that avoids attributing to God physical or material features. When it comes to describing God, Maimonides developed what became known as his theory of negative theology, according to which we are only allowed to use negative attributes in reference to God. Agnon relies on the Maimonidean solution in order to reconcile the theological prohibition and his literary agenda. For Agnon, God’s essence can be referred to only through negative attributes, i.e., by saying what he is not rather than what he is and by describing his actions rather than his essence. Through a literary mechanism rooted in the Rabbinic (and Biblical) concept of “measure for measure” (mida ke-neged mida), Agnon represents God’s actions while avoiding depicting his attributes. Questioning this very mechanism particularly in his later works serves Agnon as a subtle form of criticism of divine justice.
