Conversation with Gavi Kutliroff | The Limits of Rationality, Mysticism, Identity & Self-Alienation

Gavi Kutliroff is a writer, poet and musician and a firm believer in the necessity of an artistic Jewish renaissance. After studying East Asian Studies and Psychology at Brandeis University, he served as a madrich at Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusalem. Gavi is pioneering the comparative study of Chinese and Jewish Mysticism, particularly between the Daoist (Zhuangzi) and Hasidic traditions (Rabbi Nachman). He also has a strong affinity for aquariums.  Forget what you know about knowing as we explore, the Limits of Rationality, Rationalism and Mysticism, Identity, Self-Alienation and Dancing around the Infinite Nothingness.  “Knowledge in limitless. The human capacity for knowledge is limited. To use what is limited to pursue what is limitless is dangerous.”   

Timestamps:  02:45 Conversation begins  

04:29 Scepticism of Rationalism 

08:50 Gavi’s Story - Who is Gavi? - Identity Crisis  

16:51 Mysticism and Rationalism  

19:03 Scepticism and Subjectivity, Information vs Wisdom  

21:31 Gavi’s Religious Identity  

29:33 Finding Jewish Mysticism  

31:45 Self-Alienation in the Universality of Mysticism 

 41:03 Difference in Similarity, Diversity in Unity  

44:14 Difference in Similarity in Self-identity and God’s identity  

56:25 Gavi’s thesis: A Comparison of Judaism and Daoism, Rabbi Nachman and Zhuangzi  

1:09:18 Playing with Reality  

1:13:00 Capital N Nothingness  

1:21:05 A Chinese Nothing and a Jewish Nothing  

1:26:09 Messianic Paradigms  

1:28:25 What Gavi’s up to  

1:31:52 Closing words

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