The Poetics of Concealment: “Theaetetus” and “Hagigah”

Abstract

The paper analyzes the metaphoric systems of Plato’s dialogue “Theaetetus” and the Talmud’s treatise “Hagigah” against the foil of Philonic philosophy and Christian theology (the
New Testament, Origen). Behind the discursive logic, there is the system of metaphors in the Plato and the Talmud, the texture, which is both hiding and revealing the truth (the major idea) of the text. Both Plato and the Talmud combine discursive logic with metaphoric thinking. That combination would bring Plato and the framers of the Talmud to poetical-mythical esotericism.