Philip Kuhn

At Maimonides Table Philip Kuhn 2nd Revised edition

"At Maimonides Table" is constructed out of a complex series of unstable texts woven through four inter-locking books. Although there is no easily defined path through this work there is perhaps a half-remembered clew, in book two, which takes as its starting point the well known Talmudic story of the four who entered the garden - a parable which can also be read for the dangers confronting those who seek PaRaDiSe. Here is an exploration of an im/possible ethics of messianic faith promising earthly redemption through those four exegetical portals of Talmudic reading. But such messianic longing also sits uneasily when cast in the shadows of a history steeped in so much pain & suffering. Whilst this long book-length poem appears to confront specifically Jewish themes it can also be read and thought-through in non-denominational ways, not least because at its core lie questions concerning how we (individually and collectively) might still learn to become ourselves in peaceful relationship with others.