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A Monotheistic Ethics: The Mishnah of Ben Zoma as a Case in Point

Ben Zoma's mishnah is astounding from a number of different but interrelated perspectives. He indirectly addresses four of the most central, vexing questions emerging out of human experience—What is wisdom, knowledge, truth? What is strength, power, courage? What is wealth, exalted status? What is honor, reputation?—and manages to turn the questions on their head and resist answering them. His first move in this strategy of resistance is to transform inquiry into these various qualities and attributes into an investigation of the person claiming or aspiring to possess them. This displacement is momentous. Instead of there being a known, finite, delimited...