Ariel Evan Mayse
Ariel Evan Mayse joined the faculty of Stanford University in 2017 as an assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies. He is the rabbi-in-residence at Atiq: Jewish Maker Institute, a lead fellow at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and Society, and a senior fellow at the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies at UC Berkeley. Previously he served as the Director of Jewish Studies and Visiting Assistant Professor of Modern Jewish Thought at Hebrew College in Newton, Massachusetts, and was a research fellow at the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies of the University of Michigan.
Mayse holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from Harvard University and rabbinic ordination from Beit Midrash Har’el in Israel. His current research examines the role of language in Hasidism, manuscript theory and the formation of early Hasidic literature, the renaissance of Jewish mysticism in the nineteenth and twentieth century, the relationship between spirituality and law in Jewish legal writings, and the resources of Jewish thought and theology for constructing contemporary environmental ethics.
He is the author of Speaking Infinities: God and Language in the Teachings of Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezritsh (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020; Hebrew translation, forthcoming in 2022), and the two-volume A New Hasidism: Roots and A New Hasidism: Branches, with Arthur Green (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society and University of Nebraska Press, 2019). He is completing a manuscript called The Shores of Devotion: Ritual and the Life of the Commandments in Early Hasidism, and his next project, As a Deep River Rises: Judaism, Ecology and Environmental Ethics, is under contract with Brandeis University Press.
Phone: 559 708 2571
Address: Berkeley, CA
Mayse holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from Harvard University and rabbinic ordination from Beit Midrash Har’el in Israel. His current research examines the role of language in Hasidism, manuscript theory and the formation of early Hasidic literature, the renaissance of Jewish mysticism in the nineteenth and twentieth century, the relationship between spirituality and law in Jewish legal writings, and the resources of Jewish thought and theology for constructing contemporary environmental ethics.
He is the author of Speaking Infinities: God and Language in the Teachings of Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezritsh (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020; Hebrew translation, forthcoming in 2022), and the two-volume A New Hasidism: Roots and A New Hasidism: Branches, with Arthur Green (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society and University of Nebraska Press, 2019). He is completing a manuscript called The Shores of Devotion: Ritual and the Life of the Commandments in Early Hasidism, and his next project, As a Deep River Rises: Judaism, Ecology and Environmental Ethics, is under contract with Brandeis University Press.
Phone: 559 708 2571
Address: Berkeley, CA
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Books by Ariel Evan Mayse
Mayse examines the full range of Hasidic texts from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, from homilies and theological treatise to hagiography, letters, and legal writings, reading them together with contemporary theories of ritual. Arguing against the notion that spiritual integrity requires unshackling oneself from tradition, Laws of the Spirit is a sweeping attempt to rethink the meaning and significance of religious practice in early Hasidism.
מחדש באמצעות כוחו של הדיבור האנושי.
Mayse shows how Dov Ber's vision of language emerges from his encounters with Ba'al Shem Tov (the BeSHT), the founder of Hasidic Judaism, whose teaching put forward a vision of radical divine immanence. Taking the BeSHT's notion of God's immanence as a kind of linguistic vitality echoing in the cosmos, Dov Ber developed a theory of language in which all human tongues, even in their mundane forms, have the potential to become sacred when returned to their divine source.
Analyzing homilies and theological meditations on language, Mayse demonstrates that Dov Ber was an innovative thinker and contends that, in many respects, it was Dov Ber, rather than the BeSHT, who was the true founder of Hasidism as it took root, and the foremost shaper of its early theology. Speaking Infinities offers an exploration of this introspective mystic's life, gleaned from scattered anecdotes, legends, and historical sources, distinguishing the historical personage from the figure that emerges from the composite array of textual and oral traditions that have shaped the memory of the Maggid and his legacy.
https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/16120.html
Co-Authored Books by Ariel Evan Mayse
Edited Books and Special Issues by Ariel Evan Mayse
While this volume focuses on Hasidism, it wrestles with a core set of questions that permeate modern Jewish thought and religious thought more generally: What is the relationship between God and the world? What is the relationship between God and the human being? But Hasidic thought is cast with mystical, psychological, and even magical accents, and offers radically different answers to core issues of modern concern. The editors draw selections from an array of genres including women’s supplications; sermons and homilies; personal diaries and memoirs; correspondence; stories; polemics; legal codes; and rabbinic responsa. These selections consciously move between everyday lived experience and the most ineffable mystical secrets, reflecting the multidimensional nature of this unusual religious and social movement. The editors include canonical texts from the first generation of Hasidic leaders up through present-day ultra-orthodox, as well as neo-Hasidic voices and, in so doing, demonstrate the unfolding of a rich and complex phenomenon that continues to evolve today.
of a promised land, far away from the internal and external conflicts
plaguing those souls seeking the infinite within this finite world. Some
who set sail identified with the burgeoning Hasidic movement. Others
seem to have come along just for the ride, perhaps excited by the vibrant
energy of the Hasidic masters or tempted by messianic expectations.
Historians debate the motives that led to this minor aliyah [immigration]
to the small Yishuv in the Land of Israel. But what is clear is
that, notwithstanding the considerable socioeconomic and geographic
challenges, some members of this emigrating group sought to establish
a new center for a burgeoning Hasidic ethos. Nothing found in the
sources produced by this community suggests any sort of national or
pan-diasporic aim, and in this way their group should be differentiated
from later modern movements of political renewal. But the Hasidic
émigrés maintained a close link with their communities in Eastern
Europe, stretching the intimate relationship between master and disciple
across thousands of miles. Their letters reveal a hope that the impact
of this small mystical fellowship and its rich devotional life would radiate
outward from its renewed center in the Holy Land in Palestine.
You are invited to enter the new-old pathway of Neo-Hasidism—a movement that uplifts key elements of Hasidism’s Jewish revival of two centuries ago to reexamine the meaning of existence, see everything anew, and bring the world as it is and as it can be closer together.
This volume brings this discussion into the twenty-first century, highlighting Neo-Hasidic approaches to key issues of our time. Eighteen contributions by leading Neo-Hasidic thinkers open with Zalman Schachter-Shalomi’s and Arthur Green’s Neo-Hasidic credos. Or Rose wrestles with reinterpreting the rebbes’ harsh teachings concerning non-Jews. Ebn Leader assesses the perils of trusting one’s whole being to a single personality: can Neo-Hasidism endure as a living tradition without a rebbe? Shaul Magid candidly calibrates Shlomo Carlebach: how “the singing rabbi” transformed him, and why Magid eventually walked away. Other contributors engage questions such as: How might women newly enter this hitherto gendered sphere created by and for men? How can we honor and draw nourishment from other religions’ teachings? Can the rebbes’ radiant wisdom guide those who struggle with self-diminishment to reclaim wholeness?
Together, these intellectually honest and spiritually robust conversations inspire us to grapple anew with Judaism’s legacy and future.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
Part I. Ahavat ha-Shem, The Love of God: Theology and Faith
1. Zalman Schachter-Shalomi–The Thirteen Aspirations of Faith
2. Arthur Green–A Neo-Hasidic Credo
3. Nehemia Polen–Touches of Intimacy: Leviticus, Sacred Space, Torah’s Center
4. Don Seeman–The Anxiety of Ethics and the Presence of God
5. Or N. Rose–Hasidism and the Religious Other: A Textual Exploration and Theological Response
6. David Seidenberg–Building the Body of the Shekhinah: Re-enchantment and Redemption of the Natural World in Hasidic Thought
Part II. Ahavat Torah, The Love of Torah: Practice and Devotion
7. Ariel Evan Mayse–Neo-Hasidism and Halakhah: The Duties of Intimacy and the Law of the Heart
8. Nancy Flam–Training the Heart and Mind Toward Expansive Awareness: A Neo-Hasidic Journey
9. James Jacobson-Maisels–Neo-Hasidic Meditation: Mindfulness as a Neo-Hasidic Practice
10. Jonathan Slater–Neo-Hasidism for Today's Jewish Seeker: A Personal Reflection
11. Estelle Frankel–Sacred Narrative Therapy: Hasidism, Storytelling, and Healing
Part III. Ahavat Yisra’el, The Love of Israel: Leaders and Communities
12. Ebn Leader–Does A New Hasidism Need Rebbes?
13. Shaul Magid–Shlomo Carlebach: A Trans-National Jew in Search of Himself
14. Arthur Green–A Rebbe for Our Age?: Bratslav and Neo-Bratslav in Israel Today
15. Naama Zifroni, Bambi Sheleg, Arthur Green, and Ariel Horowitz–Spiritual Awakenings: An Interview with Haviva Pedaya
16. Elhanan Nir–The Turn to Hasidism in the Religious Zionist Israeli Yeshiva
17. Jordan Schuster–A Closing Conversation with the Editors
Contributor Biographies
Notes
This first-ever anthology of Neo-Hasidic philosophy brings together the writings of its progenitors: five great twentieth-century European and American Jewish thinkers—Hillel Zeitlin, Martin Buber, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Shlomo Carlebach, and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi—plus a young Arthur Green. The thinkers reflect on the inner life of the individual and their dreams of creating a Neo-Hasidic spiritual community. The editors’ introductions and notes analyze each thinker’s contributions to Neo-Hasidic thought and influence on the movement. Zeitlin and Buber initiated a renewal of Hasidism for the modern world; Heschel’s work is quietly infused with Neo-Hasidic thought; Carlebach and Schachter-Shalomi re-created Neo-Hasidism for American Jews in the 1960s; and Green is the first American-born Jewish thinker fully identified with the movement.
Previously unpublished materials by Carlebach and Schachter-Shalomi include an insider interview with Schachter-Shalomi about his decision to leave Chabad-Lubavitch and embark on his own Neo-Hasidic path.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Notes from the Editors
Preface
Introduction
1. Hillel Zeitlin
Introduction
What is Yavneh? (Untitled Manuscript, c. Mid-1920s)
What Does Yavneh Want? (1924)
Admonitions for Every True Member of Yavneh (1924)
The Fundaments of Hasidism (1910)
Mystery of Thought (1928)
Suggestions for Further Reading
2. Martin Buber
Introduction
The Life of the Hasidim (1908)
Spirit and Body of the Hasidic Movement (1922)
Interpreting Hasidism (1963)
Suggestions for Further Reading
3. Abraham Joshua Heschel
Introduction
Pikuah Neshamah: To Save a Soul (1949)
Hasidism as a New Approach to Torah (1972)
Dissent (Date Unknown)
Suggestions for Further Reading
4. Shlomo Carlebach
Introduction
Introduction to the “Torah of the Nine Months”
The Torah of the Nine Months (Undated, 1970s)
Suggestions for Further Reading
5. Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
Introduction
Hasidism and Neo-Hasidism (1960)
Toward an “Order of B’nai Or”: A Program for a Jewish Liturgical Brotherhood (1964)
Foundations of the Fourth Turning of Hasidism: A Manifesto (2014)
Selections from an Interview with Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (Circa 2000)
Suggestions for Further Reading
6. Arthur Green
Notes from the Jewish Underground: On Psychedelics and Kabbalah (1968)
After Itzik: Toward a Theology of Jewish Spirituality (1971)
“Where are We Going?”: An Address to the Neo-Hasidism Conference, New York City (2003)
Suggestions for Further Reading
Notes
Source Acknowledgments
Hasidism, a great movement of spiritual revival within Judaism, began in eighteenth-century Eastern Europe and continues to have great influence on Jewish life today. A key tool of this revival was the oral sermon, using novel mystical readings of the Torah to open people s minds to thinking more profoundly about the texts and how the wisdom relates directly to their own lives.
While Hasidic tales have become widely known to modern audiences, the teachings that stand at the very heart of Hasidism have remained a closed book for all except scholars. This fascinating selection--presented in two volumes following the weekly Torah reading and the holiday cycle, and featured in English and Hebrew--renders them accessible in an extraordinary way. Volume 1 covers Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus, and includes a history of early Hasidism and a summary of central religious teachings of the Maggid's school. Volume 2 covers Numbers and Deuteronomy and the holiday cycle, and includes brief biographies of the Hasidic figures. Each teaching is presented with a fresh translation and contemporary commentary that builds a bridge between the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries. And each teaching concludes with a dynamic round-table discussion between distinguished Jewish scholar Arthur Green and his closest students--the editors of this volume. They highlight the wisdom most meaningful for them, thus serving as a contemporary circle's reflections on the original mystical circle of master and disciples who created these teachings."
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles by Ariel Evan Mayse
crisis rests at the heart of the sugya in Bavli Ta’anit 10a–11a. This tractate,
as a whole, grapples with the ritual procedures and theological underpinnings of fast days, especially as decreed in response to drought
or other circumstantial factors (famine, plague, and so forth). These rabbinic traditions outline a set of physical practices and responses to
widespread suffering in which, as Julia Watts Belser has argued, “The
fasting body becomes a physical site for expressing the physical and
spiritual dangers of rain’s absence.” For this reason, the sugyot of Ta’anit can serve as a useful prompt for our contemporary reflections on human
agency—and fragility—in the wake of environmental calamity. They pro-
vide us with a possible moral vocabulary, and ritual grammar, for
considering social connectivity, communal response, and individual
choice in the wake of ecological catastrophe. The text of Bavli Taanit 10a–11a, in my estimation, offers a particularly repercussive opportunity for
reconsidering our assumptions about the nature of solidarity, empathy,
and obligation.
Mayse examines the full range of Hasidic texts from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, from homilies and theological treatise to hagiography, letters, and legal writings, reading them together with contemporary theories of ritual. Arguing against the notion that spiritual integrity requires unshackling oneself from tradition, Laws of the Spirit is a sweeping attempt to rethink the meaning and significance of religious practice in early Hasidism.
מחדש באמצעות כוחו של הדיבור האנושי.
Mayse shows how Dov Ber's vision of language emerges from his encounters with Ba'al Shem Tov (the BeSHT), the founder of Hasidic Judaism, whose teaching put forward a vision of radical divine immanence. Taking the BeSHT's notion of God's immanence as a kind of linguistic vitality echoing in the cosmos, Dov Ber developed a theory of language in which all human tongues, even in their mundane forms, have the potential to become sacred when returned to their divine source.
Analyzing homilies and theological meditations on language, Mayse demonstrates that Dov Ber was an innovative thinker and contends that, in many respects, it was Dov Ber, rather than the BeSHT, who was the true founder of Hasidism as it took root, and the foremost shaper of its early theology. Speaking Infinities offers an exploration of this introspective mystic's life, gleaned from scattered anecdotes, legends, and historical sources, distinguishing the historical personage from the figure that emerges from the composite array of textual and oral traditions that have shaped the memory of the Maggid and his legacy.
https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/16120.html
While this volume focuses on Hasidism, it wrestles with a core set of questions that permeate modern Jewish thought and religious thought more generally: What is the relationship between God and the world? What is the relationship between God and the human being? But Hasidic thought is cast with mystical, psychological, and even magical accents, and offers radically different answers to core issues of modern concern. The editors draw selections from an array of genres including women’s supplications; sermons and homilies; personal diaries and memoirs; correspondence; stories; polemics; legal codes; and rabbinic responsa. These selections consciously move between everyday lived experience and the most ineffable mystical secrets, reflecting the multidimensional nature of this unusual religious and social movement. The editors include canonical texts from the first generation of Hasidic leaders up through present-day ultra-orthodox, as well as neo-Hasidic voices and, in so doing, demonstrate the unfolding of a rich and complex phenomenon that continues to evolve today.
of a promised land, far away from the internal and external conflicts
plaguing those souls seeking the infinite within this finite world. Some
who set sail identified with the burgeoning Hasidic movement. Others
seem to have come along just for the ride, perhaps excited by the vibrant
energy of the Hasidic masters or tempted by messianic expectations.
Historians debate the motives that led to this minor aliyah [immigration]
to the small Yishuv in the Land of Israel. But what is clear is
that, notwithstanding the considerable socioeconomic and geographic
challenges, some members of this emigrating group sought to establish
a new center for a burgeoning Hasidic ethos. Nothing found in the
sources produced by this community suggests any sort of national or
pan-diasporic aim, and in this way their group should be differentiated
from later modern movements of political renewal. But the Hasidic
émigrés maintained a close link with their communities in Eastern
Europe, stretching the intimate relationship between master and disciple
across thousands of miles. Their letters reveal a hope that the impact
of this small mystical fellowship and its rich devotional life would radiate
outward from its renewed center in the Holy Land in Palestine.
You are invited to enter the new-old pathway of Neo-Hasidism—a movement that uplifts key elements of Hasidism’s Jewish revival of two centuries ago to reexamine the meaning of existence, see everything anew, and bring the world as it is and as it can be closer together.
This volume brings this discussion into the twenty-first century, highlighting Neo-Hasidic approaches to key issues of our time. Eighteen contributions by leading Neo-Hasidic thinkers open with Zalman Schachter-Shalomi’s and Arthur Green’s Neo-Hasidic credos. Or Rose wrestles with reinterpreting the rebbes’ harsh teachings concerning non-Jews. Ebn Leader assesses the perils of trusting one’s whole being to a single personality: can Neo-Hasidism endure as a living tradition without a rebbe? Shaul Magid candidly calibrates Shlomo Carlebach: how “the singing rabbi” transformed him, and why Magid eventually walked away. Other contributors engage questions such as: How might women newly enter this hitherto gendered sphere created by and for men? How can we honor and draw nourishment from other religions’ teachings? Can the rebbes’ radiant wisdom guide those who struggle with self-diminishment to reclaim wholeness?
Together, these intellectually honest and spiritually robust conversations inspire us to grapple anew with Judaism’s legacy and future.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
Part I. Ahavat ha-Shem, The Love of God: Theology and Faith
1. Zalman Schachter-Shalomi–The Thirteen Aspirations of Faith
2. Arthur Green–A Neo-Hasidic Credo
3. Nehemia Polen–Touches of Intimacy: Leviticus, Sacred Space, Torah’s Center
4. Don Seeman–The Anxiety of Ethics and the Presence of God
5. Or N. Rose–Hasidism and the Religious Other: A Textual Exploration and Theological Response
6. David Seidenberg–Building the Body of the Shekhinah: Re-enchantment and Redemption of the Natural World in Hasidic Thought
Part II. Ahavat Torah, The Love of Torah: Practice and Devotion
7. Ariel Evan Mayse–Neo-Hasidism and Halakhah: The Duties of Intimacy and the Law of the Heart
8. Nancy Flam–Training the Heart and Mind Toward Expansive Awareness: A Neo-Hasidic Journey
9. James Jacobson-Maisels–Neo-Hasidic Meditation: Mindfulness as a Neo-Hasidic Practice
10. Jonathan Slater–Neo-Hasidism for Today's Jewish Seeker: A Personal Reflection
11. Estelle Frankel–Sacred Narrative Therapy: Hasidism, Storytelling, and Healing
Part III. Ahavat Yisra’el, The Love of Israel: Leaders and Communities
12. Ebn Leader–Does A New Hasidism Need Rebbes?
13. Shaul Magid–Shlomo Carlebach: A Trans-National Jew in Search of Himself
14. Arthur Green–A Rebbe for Our Age?: Bratslav and Neo-Bratslav in Israel Today
15. Naama Zifroni, Bambi Sheleg, Arthur Green, and Ariel Horowitz–Spiritual Awakenings: An Interview with Haviva Pedaya
16. Elhanan Nir–The Turn to Hasidism in the Religious Zionist Israeli Yeshiva
17. Jordan Schuster–A Closing Conversation with the Editors
Contributor Biographies
Notes
This first-ever anthology of Neo-Hasidic philosophy brings together the writings of its progenitors: five great twentieth-century European and American Jewish thinkers—Hillel Zeitlin, Martin Buber, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Shlomo Carlebach, and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi—plus a young Arthur Green. The thinkers reflect on the inner life of the individual and their dreams of creating a Neo-Hasidic spiritual community. The editors’ introductions and notes analyze each thinker’s contributions to Neo-Hasidic thought and influence on the movement. Zeitlin and Buber initiated a renewal of Hasidism for the modern world; Heschel’s work is quietly infused with Neo-Hasidic thought; Carlebach and Schachter-Shalomi re-created Neo-Hasidism for American Jews in the 1960s; and Green is the first American-born Jewish thinker fully identified with the movement.
Previously unpublished materials by Carlebach and Schachter-Shalomi include an insider interview with Schachter-Shalomi about his decision to leave Chabad-Lubavitch and embark on his own Neo-Hasidic path.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Notes from the Editors
Preface
Introduction
1. Hillel Zeitlin
Introduction
What is Yavneh? (Untitled Manuscript, c. Mid-1920s)
What Does Yavneh Want? (1924)
Admonitions for Every True Member of Yavneh (1924)
The Fundaments of Hasidism (1910)
Mystery of Thought (1928)
Suggestions for Further Reading
2. Martin Buber
Introduction
The Life of the Hasidim (1908)
Spirit and Body of the Hasidic Movement (1922)
Interpreting Hasidism (1963)
Suggestions for Further Reading
3. Abraham Joshua Heschel
Introduction
Pikuah Neshamah: To Save a Soul (1949)
Hasidism as a New Approach to Torah (1972)
Dissent (Date Unknown)
Suggestions for Further Reading
4. Shlomo Carlebach
Introduction
Introduction to the “Torah of the Nine Months”
The Torah of the Nine Months (Undated, 1970s)
Suggestions for Further Reading
5. Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
Introduction
Hasidism and Neo-Hasidism (1960)
Toward an “Order of B’nai Or”: A Program for a Jewish Liturgical Brotherhood (1964)
Foundations of the Fourth Turning of Hasidism: A Manifesto (2014)
Selections from an Interview with Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (Circa 2000)
Suggestions for Further Reading
6. Arthur Green
Notes from the Jewish Underground: On Psychedelics and Kabbalah (1968)
After Itzik: Toward a Theology of Jewish Spirituality (1971)
“Where are We Going?”: An Address to the Neo-Hasidism Conference, New York City (2003)
Suggestions for Further Reading
Notes
Source Acknowledgments
Hasidism, a great movement of spiritual revival within Judaism, began in eighteenth-century Eastern Europe and continues to have great influence on Jewish life today. A key tool of this revival was the oral sermon, using novel mystical readings of the Torah to open people s minds to thinking more profoundly about the texts and how the wisdom relates directly to their own lives.
While Hasidic tales have become widely known to modern audiences, the teachings that stand at the very heart of Hasidism have remained a closed book for all except scholars. This fascinating selection--presented in two volumes following the weekly Torah reading and the holiday cycle, and featured in English and Hebrew--renders them accessible in an extraordinary way. Volume 1 covers Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus, and includes a history of early Hasidism and a summary of central religious teachings of the Maggid's school. Volume 2 covers Numbers and Deuteronomy and the holiday cycle, and includes brief biographies of the Hasidic figures. Each teaching is presented with a fresh translation and contemporary commentary that builds a bridge between the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries. And each teaching concludes with a dynamic round-table discussion between distinguished Jewish scholar Arthur Green and his closest students--the editors of this volume. They highlight the wisdom most meaningful for them, thus serving as a contemporary circle's reflections on the original mystical circle of master and disciples who created these teachings."
crisis rests at the heart of the sugya in Bavli Ta’anit 10a–11a. This tractate,
as a whole, grapples with the ritual procedures and theological underpinnings of fast days, especially as decreed in response to drought
or other circumstantial factors (famine, plague, and so forth). These rabbinic traditions outline a set of physical practices and responses to
widespread suffering in which, as Julia Watts Belser has argued, “The
fasting body becomes a physical site for expressing the physical and
spiritual dangers of rain’s absence.” For this reason, the sugyot of Ta’anit can serve as a useful prompt for our contemporary reflections on human
agency—and fragility—in the wake of environmental calamity. They pro-
vide us with a possible moral vocabulary, and ritual grammar, for
considering social connectivity, communal response, and individual
choice in the wake of ecological catastrophe. The text of Bavli Taanit 10a–11a, in my estimation, offers a particularly repercussive opportunity for
reconsidering our assumptions about the nature of solidarity, empathy,
and obligation.
The notion of obligation as the heart of an ethical and jurisprudential system provides a powerful corrective to the post-Enlightenment West’s centering of the “individual moral adventure” and the privileging of individual rights that has gone hand-in-hand with this ethos. The pre-modern roots of halakhah (Jewish law) permit a powerful challenge to this paradigmatic hegemony, as the Jewish legal tradition precedes liberalism and thus predates conceptions of the individual that undergird much of modern thinking, even as Jewish jurisprudence embodies a deep commitment to protecting individuals. Engagement with this tradition need not supplant liberalism. Rather, it presents a complementary ethical framework that can work within and enrich post-Enlightenment Western discourse. Reflecting this opportunity, revisiting Cover’s work provides a conceptual frame that is sufficiently flexible and capacious to provide an additional legal vocabulary and set of jurisprudential values that can help confront the greatest challenges of our age.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.tourolaw.edu/lawreview/vol37/iss4/16
of Kalisk provide a robust portrait of the spiritual orientation of the
Tiberian Hasidic community, capturing a critical moment—or series of
moments—in the evolution of Hasidic thought as articulated by former
disciples of Rabbi Dov Ber Friedman, the Maggid of Mezritsh. The
present essay argues that these epistles yield valuable insights into the
complex, often stormy relationship between these two Tiberian masters
and their younger student and colleague Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady.
Furthermore, I suggest that both these Tiberian masters and Rabbi
Shneur Zalman of Liady sought to enumerate mystical systems that
led to an immediate and intimate experience of the divine. Although
a vast chasm separates their methods for attaining this goal as well
as the distinctive vocabularies they use to describe it, both of these
fundamentally disparate spiritual paths emerged from the teachings of
the Maggid.
פרשנות גמישה ועדכנית.
במסה שלפנינו פורש הרב פרופ' אריאל אבן־מעשה, רב אורתודוקסי המלמד בחוג למדעי הדתות באוניברסיטת סטנפורד, את קווי ה ִמתאר של תפיסה תיאולוגית־הלכתית זו ופותח לקורא הישראלי צוהר לשיחה דתית ֵערנית המתרחשת כיום ביהדות ארצות הברית. חלקה הראשון של המסה התפרסם בגיליון הקודם ועסק בתפיסה העקרונית של
ההלכה הניאו־חסידית.
בחלקה השני של המסה, המונח לפנינו, מתבארים כמה היבטים מפורטים של ההלכה הניאו־חסידית: אופייה הדינמי והיצירתי; תשומת הלב למצבים האישיים והסינגולריים של האינדיבידואל הדתי; השילוב ההדוק בין ההלכה והאגדה; ותפיסת המנהיגות
הדתית והסמכות ההלכתית.
מעניקה להם פרשנות גמישה ועדכנית.
במסה זו, הצועדת בכיוון אחר מהדיון בהלכה ובריטואלים שנערך בגיליון הקודם של "רליגיה", פורש הרב פרופ' אריאל אבן־מעשה, רב אורתודוקסי המלמד בחוג למדעי הדתות באוניברסיטת סטנפורד, את קווי ה ִמתאר של תפיסה תיאולוגית־הלכתית זו ופותח לקורא הישראלי צוהר לשיחה דתית־ ֵערנית המתרחשת כיום ביהדות ארצות
הברית.
לפנינו חלקה הראשון של המסה, המתמקד בתפיסה העקרונית של ההלכה הניאו־ חסידית. בגיליון הבא יפורסם חלקה השני של המסה, שיעסוק בהיבטים שונים של ההלכה הניאו־חסידית הנובעים מתפיסה עקרונית זו: אופייה הדינמי והיצירתי; תשומת הלב למצבים האישיים והסינגולריים של האינדיבידואל הדתי; השילוב ההדוק בין
ההלכה והאגדה; ותפיסת המנהיגות הדתית והסמכות ההלכתית.
A version of this article appeared in four-part series on The Lehrhaus (December, 2018–February, 2019).
My dissertation is a diachronic study illustrating the ways in which Dov Baer’s sermons creatively interpreted and developed conceptions of language in rabbinic, philosophical and kabbalistic literature, but devotes careful attention to his social and historical context as well. This project models a novel approach to the study of mystical texts that interfaces with contemporary issues like the study of language and epistemology, as well as broader methodological questions of the relationship between orality, authorship, and textuality. Dov Baer did not transcribe any of his own sermons, and all homilies attributed to him were recorded in writing by his disciples. Instead of attempting to reconstruct the historical sermons that have been forever lost, my dissertation draws upon the full spectrum of his teachings as they appear in printed books, manuscripts, and quotations by students in the decades after his death. The task is not to determine the veracity of these traditions in order to reconstruct Dov Baer’s “authentic” sermons, since no such Urtext ever existed in written form. I examine his theology of language as presented in early Hasidic literature, acknowledging their diversity while tracking their consistency, seeking to understand the ways in which they shaped emerging Hasidic thought.
In the aftermath of the groundbreaking research of Yosef Weiss and Rivka Schatz-Uffenheimer, R. Dov Ber’s philosophy was researched by many scholars, including Moshe Idel, Rachel Elior, Jonathan Garb, Elly Moseson, Ron Margolin, Norman Lamm, Netanel Lederberg, Menachem Lorberbaum, Haviva Pedaya, Mendel Piekarz, and Tsippi Kauffman, among others. Mayse’s book presents a new reading of the so-called Maggid of Mezritsh who is rightfully known as the “Architect of Hasidism.” This comprehensive monograph stands astride all recent scholarly research in the field and is dedicated to exploring R. Dov Ber’s philosophy though his unique conception of language…
This course assumes no prior background of Judaism or any other religious traditions. All readings will be made available in English. Students are, however, invited to challenge themselves with the “optional/advanced” readings of sources both primary and secondary.
Course Goals
¬ To introduce students to the core ideas of Jewish mysticism and spirituality, and to chart the development of key themes throughout various periods and contexts.
¬ To improve text skills and facility in reading primary sources, critically and carefully.
¬ To understand the major issues of method and historiography in the study of Jewish mysticism, and their implications for the study of other religious phenomena.
¬ To reflect on how encountering such texts may inform our own self-fashioning and consider their importance within the intellectual life of the humanities.
Come explore the social and spiritual power of Jewish mysticism through the poetry of the award-winning writer Yehoshua November. Learn some Torah, prepare for the High Holidays, and enter a world of sacred language suffused with presence.
https://bit.ly/IJSS_Farbrengen_Series
Join us for a day of reflection and study in memory of our dear friend and colleague Rabbi Ellen Bernstein, a trailblazing educator, a thoughtful scholar, and a pioneer in the field of religious environmental work. This virtual summit provides an opportunity to explore a set of interwoven themes connected to questions of spiritual ecology. Bridging between ancient wisdom and present crisis, our panelists will speak about the religious values, ideas, and traditions that continue to inform and animate their ecological work and social activism.
Theology: Our first panel will discuss what it means to read scripture or sacred text in this time of pressing ecological and looming environmental disaster. They will grapple with the question of how we might “do” theology in our day, considering how religious narratives can help us construct a better future.
Contemplation: The second session will highlight the power of contemplative ecology, examining how the practices of coming to attention can help us build spiritual sensitivity to see the world with new eyes while stretching our moral imagination.
Education and Activism: Our third and final panel will be devoted to exploring the relationship between scholarship, spiritual education, and activism. Approaching study and application as essentially intertwined, our speakers will share their experiences as teachers and practitioners both in the classroom and in the field.
We will be meeting from 10:30am to 12pm at the Stanford Humanities Center Boardroom. Coffee and refreshments will be served! If you can make it, please RSVP either through the flier or using this form: https://forms.gle/9pSgk22WUbVJ75jz7 Dr. Mayse’s paper will be circulated a week in advance of the workshop to all who RSVP.
Event will be hybrid, and Zoom information will be sent out to those who RSVP.
Looking forward to a great conversation!
Mayse examines the full range of Hasidic texts from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, from homilies and theological treatises to hagiography, letters, and legal writings, reading them together with contemporary theories of ritual. Arguing against the notion that spiritual integrity requires unshackling oneself from tradition, Laws of the Spirit is a sweeping attempt to rethink the meaning and significance of religious practice in early Hasidism.
Receive 20% off at www.sup.org with code MAYSE20
https://events.zoom.us/ev/AoumbKeatwk40p9UKqGBOQhh0Cp6hsBuBhgmtRKgEBhsxAbZTZHg~AqSH_1v_9qS_ToNYQeIfRobOBgPfvLQUrYZb54DbSKdfpp3BYx-SgEbrug
Rivkah Slonim, Associate Director of the Rohr Chabad Center for Jewish Student Life at Binghamton University will sit down with Elaine (Sneierson) Leeder, author of My Life with Lifers and Dean Emerita of the School of Social Sciences at Sonoma State University for a conversation entitled "Radical Chasidism: A Dialogue About Restorative Justice."
Both Chasidism and Jewish mystical traditions have fierce (and unexpected) views on social justice, incarceration, and the role of education in healing society. This conversation asks us to consider what the Lubavitcher Rebbe meant when he said that Torah does not legislate any punishment that takes literally “an eye for an eye”—is this a rejection of modern society's notion of justice itself?
The conversation, followed by a Q & A session, will take place via Zoom on Sunday, March 17th at 12pm EST. Please click here for more information or to register for this extraordinary free event.
Wednesday Feb 21, 2024
05:00 - 06:00 PM PT = 8:00pm-9:00pm ET
Episode #4: How can Jewish Spiritual Traditions Help Us Survive the Modern World?
These lectures draw upon the strengths of academic life while seeking to unite the heart and mind. Bringing scholars and practitioners together with members of the community, we create a space for gathering, learning, and reflection. Our mission is to advance scholarship and social transformation, bringing Jewish spiritual knowledge to bear on the toughest challenges of contemporary society. We break down the barriers between spheres of knowledge and practice, enabling long-term collaboration among scholars, social researchers, and human services practitioners. We invite you to be part of this powerful conversation! Find out more at: https://www.ijss.org.
Overturning perceptions of Baḥya as the shaper of an ethical-religious form of life that exceeds halakha, Michaelis offers a pioneering historical and conceptual analysis of the category of "inner commandments" developed by Baḥya. Interiority and Law reveals that Baḥya's main effort revolved around establishing a new legal formation—namely, the "duties of the hearts"—which would deal entirely with human interiority. Michaelis takes up the implications of Baḥya's radical innovation, examining his unique mystical model of proximity to God, which he based on an increasingly growing fulfillment of the inner commandments. With an integrative approach that puts Baḥya in dialogue with other medieval Muslim and Jewish religious thinkers, this work offers a fresh perspective on our understanding of the interconnectedness of the dynamic, neighboring religious traditions of Judaism and Islam.
Contributing to conversations in the history of religion, Jewish studies, and medieval studies on interiority and mysticism, this book reveals Baḥya as a revolutionary and demanding thinker of Jewish law.
About the author
Omer Michaelis is Senior Lecturer of Jewish Philosophy at Tel Aviv University.