Absence as Presence: Semiotic Hermeneutics of the Absent Letters in the Writings of German Pietists

This article embarks upon a pioneering examination of the hermeneutical methods and techniques developed by the esoteric group known as the “German Pietists.” Of the semantic and semiotic mechanisms used to decipher scripture, one of the most common and methodological is the technique of “absent letters” (‏אותיות נעלמות‎), or lipograms. This method is dedicated to finding and interpreting the meaning behind letters omitted from a given text of the scripture. Although some scholarly voices question its value, pietistic hermeneutics display both coherence and cohesion. The absence of a letter from the text becomes an element rich with interpretive possibility. The lipogram was developed as an exclusive tool to decipher the meaning of the concept of absence. It is far from homogenous, however, and a panoramic selection of various themes reveals that the subtheme of absence remains a diversified focal point throughout.