The Politics of Pure Means: Divine Dislocation and the De-Expiating Moment

This article engages with the possibility of performing a critique of violence without (re)producing violence. By wrestling with Walter Benjamin’s idea of pure means, I want to enable a reimagination of critique. In the article, I engage with theological and religious concepts in a creative conversation with Benjamin’s essay Critique of Violence, in order to understand the political praxis that can be called: the politics of pure means. Focusing on the Kabbalistic concept of Tzimtzum and the passage about Jacob’s transformation into Israel in the Torah helps me engage with central Benjaminian concepts such as critique, strike, divine violence, and pure means. The relationship between (divine) creation and destruction, as well as guilt and expiation, will be considered in relation to the reproduction of violence. All this to break the cycle of violence and enable a critique of violence without violence.