On Sacrifice - Softcover

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Moshe Halbertal

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"Moshe Halbertal has a tremendous knack for turning arcane topics and esoteric texts into the most exciting and topical ideas to think about. On Sacrifice moves from biblical practices of animal sacrifice to modern ideas about self-sacrifice in war. The book is at its most profound in sorting out the relation between violence and sacrifice. Altogether, this is a very moving and deep book--philosophically, anthropologically, and religiously."--Avishai Margalit, author of On Compromise and Rotten Compromises

"A rich, fresh, and gently intense meditation, and one that will engage anyone interested in what the author calls 'the most primary and basic form of ritual' known to humankind. Halbertal is especially compelling in his treatment of the slippery dynamics between the violent and transcendent aspects of sacrifice, and their echoes across moral and political registers of the real."--Peter Cole, translator and editor of The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950--1492

"This is an important book, full of wonderful ideas about biblical sacrifice, which demonstrates Halbertal's unique ability to conceptualize biblical and rabbinic texts, drawing philosophically interesting implications from their language and narratives. His account of sacrifice as a gift in a hierarchically asymmetric structure provides a corrective to those who would simply appropriate Mauss' theory, and Halbertal's take on the relation between sacrifice and violence reverses in many ways Girard's approach."--Josef Stern, University of Chicago

"Halbertal's brilliant book unearths deep connections between practices of religious sacrifice and modern sacrifice for the state in war and peace."--David J. Luban, Georgetown University