Books by Ariel Evan Mayse
Stanford University Press, 2024
The compelling vision of religious life and practice found in Hasidic sources has made it the mos... more The compelling vision of religious life and practice found in Hasidic sources has made it the most enduring and successful Jewish movement of spiritual renewal of all time. In this book, Ariel Evan Mayse grapples with one of Hasidism's most vexing questions: how did a religious movement known for its radical views about immanence, revelation, and the imperative to serve God with joy simultaneously produce strict adherence to the structures and obligations of Jewish law? Exploring the movement from its emergence in the mid-1700s until 1815, Mayse argues that the exceptionality of Hasidism lies not in whether its leaders broke or upheld rabbinic norms, but in the movement's vivid attempt to rethink the purpose of Jewish ritual and practice. Rather than focusing on the commandments as law, he turns to the methods and vocabulary of ritual studies as a more productive way to reckon with the contradictions and tensions of this religious movement as well as its remarkable intellectual vitality.
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.
Bar Ilan University Press, 2022
האל בוקע מן השתיקה בנתיבי השפה. כל ההתגלות האלוהית, למן הבריאה ועד הופעת האל בסיני, מקורה בעולם פ... more האל בוקע מן השתיקה בנתיבי השפה. כל ההתגלות האלוהית, למן הבריאה ועד הופעת האל בסיני, מקורה בעולם פנימי קדם-מילולי הנפרש בהדרגה. הקוסמוס נוצר באמצעות דבר ה׳, אולי אפילו על ידי התורה עצמה. מאמרותיו הבוראים של ה׳ ממשיכים להיות חלק בלתי-נפרד מהקוסמוס; הם מחיים את הקיום כולו, ובזכותם העולם זוהר בכוח לשוני אלוהי. תהליך זה התלבש באופן שונה בסיני, כאשר חוכמתו האינסופית של ה׳ התעטפה בגלימת המילים. התורה, שזומנה בידי הנביא משה מהמאגר האינסופי של הדממה, צצה כמלבוש ארוג אותיות לכוח חיים אלוהי חסר גבולות זה. תהליכים אינם אירועים חד-פעמיים הנותרים אך ורק כזיכרון היסטורי, אלא נמשכים כאשר האל, ושפתו, נולדים
מחדש באמצעות כוחו של הדיבור האנושי.
Co-Authored Books by Ariel Evan Mayse
Edited Books and Special Issues by Ariel Evan Mayse
This volume presents the transcripts, based on a rare set of voice recordings, of a series of lec... more This volume presents the transcripts, based on a rare set of voice recordings, of a series of lectures delivered by Scholem in the Spring of 1966 while serving as Visiting Professor and Joseph and Helen Regenstein Chair at Hebrew Union College-Institute of Jewish Religion in Cincinnati.
Scholem's course would have been one among very few such classes on American soil, where Kabbalah had yet to become established as a central concern of Jewish Studies.
As transcripts of classroom discussions, these lectures give a sense of Scholem's complex personality as a teacher.
He was a scintillating speaker and an academic aristocrat; he was often jovial, sardonic--but also, and more than occasionally, something of an intellectual bully.
These transcripts offer a full picture of Scholem's charisma and power as a lecturer and are a living testament to Scholem's deep engagement, even enrapturement, with the messianic impulse at the heart of Judaism and his quest to impart that love to his students.
They are a fascinating portrait of his captivating presentation style, the dramatic power of his unfolding of narrative and historical drama, his attention to detail but also his interest in the realm of grand ideas.
They represent a light from the archive, the intellectual fruits of a towering scholar who, over the course of nearly six decades, shaped three generations of researchers and whose writings remain a cornerstone of Jewish Studies.
Bar Ilan University Press, 2023
Brandeis University Press, 2020
Hasidism has attracted, repelled, and bewildered philosophers, historians, and theologians since ... more Hasidism has attracted, repelled, and bewildered philosophers, historians, and theologians since its inception in the eighteenth century. In Hasidism: Writings on Devotion, Community, and Life in the Modern World, Ariel Evan Mayse and Sam Berrin Shonkoff present students and scholars with a vibrant and polyphonic set of Hasidic confrontations with the modern world. In this collection, they show that the modern Hasid marks not only another example of a Jewish pietist, but someone who is committed to an ethos of seeking wisdom, joy, and intimacy with the divine.
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.
Shofar, 2020
In the year 1777, a group of Eastern European Jews set sail in search
of a promised land, far awa... more In the year 1777, a group of Eastern European Jews set sail in search
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.
BE-RON YAHAD: Studies in Jewish Thought and Theology in Honor of Nehemia Polen, 2019
Academic Studies Press, 2019
The present volume honors Rabbi Professor Nehemia Polen, one of those rare scholars whose religio... more The present volume honors Rabbi Professor Nehemia Polen, one of those rare scholars whose religious teachings, spiritual writings, and academic scholarship have come together into a sustained project of interpretive imagination and engagement. Without compromising his intellectual integrity, his work brings forth the sacred from the mundane and expands the reach of Torah. He has shown us a path in which narrow scholarship is directly linked to a quest for ever-broadening depth and connectivity. The essays in this collection, from his students, colleagues, and friends, are a testament to his enduring impact on the scholarly community. The contributions explore a range of historical periods and themes, centering upon the fields dear to Polen’s heart, but a common thread unites them. Each essay is grounded in deeply engaged textual scholarship casting a glance upon the sources that is at once critical and beneficent. As a whole, they seek to give readers a richer sense of the fabric of Jewish interpretation and theology, from the history of Jewish mysticism, the promise and perils of exegesis, and the contemporary relevance of premodern and early modern texts.
Jewish Publication Society, 2019
About the Book
You are invited to enter the new-old pathway of Neo-Hasidism—a movement that upli... more About the Book
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
Jewish Publication Society, 2019
Neo-Hasidism applies the spiritual insights of the Hasidic masters—God’s presence everywhere, see... more Neo-Hasidism applies the spiritual insights of the Hasidic masters—God’s presence everywhere, seeking the magnificent within the everyday, doing all things with love and joy, uplifting all of life to become a vehicle of God’s service—to contemporary Judaism, as practiced by men and women who do not live within the strictly bounded world of the Hasidic community.
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
This new anthology of Jewish mystical literature presents diverse sources spanning nearly a thous... more This new anthology of Jewish mystical literature presents diverse sources spanning nearly a thousand years. New chapter introductions and updated footnotes help orient the reader and give background for those without extensive background in Jewish thought. Unlike other such collections, this volume is arranged chronologically and provides important historical context. The general introduction covers major developments in the history of Jewish Mysticism from its biblical origins until the 12th century, but also gives a phenomenological description of what Jewish mysticism is. The texts were selected for their historical importance, theological richness, relative accessibility, and potential interest to contemporary reader. The footnotes are scholarly, but not overwhelming, and the writing style is accessible, thorough and engaging. This is the perfect book for both scholars and spiritual seekers alike.
"The most powerful Hasidic teachings made accessible--from some of the world s preeminent authori... more "The most powerful Hasidic teachings made accessible--from some of the world s preeminent authorities on Jewish thought and spirituality.
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
Journal of Contemplative Studies, 2026
The present essay outlines some possible frameworks for developing and articulating a Jewish cont... more The present essay outlines some possible frameworks for developing and articulating a Jewish contemplative ecology. The resources for this work within Jewish literary and theological activity are many and vast, stretching from the Hebrew Bible to rabbinic literature and into medieval and modern Jewish thought and philosophy; here I pay special attention to the writings of Jewish mystics, to the works the Kabbalists and Hasidic thinkers who have guided so much of my own intellectual and spiritual journey. In drawing upon their writings, I explore a series of interlocking themes. First, I consider contemplative teachings that grapple with the meaning of communal and individual life in the face of devastation, fracture, and cataclysm. Second, I explore texts and practices that speak to the cultivation of an awareness that the world shimmers with divinity, including a vision of the animals around us as teachers, mentors, and friends. Here I argue that a strong Jewish contemplative ecology hinges upon the serious, reflective consideration of our spiritual, physical, and moral entanglements with the physical world. Finally, I turn to Jewish contemplative traditions and techniques that train our eyes upon local specificity, allowing us to develop a strong sense of place that is manifest in both aesthetic and spiritual commitments as well as ethical obligations.
The last three decades have witnessed a notable shift in sustainability research toward a more ho... more The last three decades have witnessed a notable shift in sustainability research toward a more holistic, integrated, and community-engaged approach. This transformation, often described as a relational turn, has fostered interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research that allows exploration and examination of the questions of climate change from a broader perspective. In this paper, we argue that these changes in sustainability research ought to inspire significant shifts in the ways that we, as scholars, gather to carry out research and scientific exploration. Academic conferences and workshops are field-configuring events that shape and guide the development of ideas, and we offer four design principles for planning relational gatherings: 1. Negative Space: Leaving “uninhabited” spaces in conferences, intentionally creating openings to foster spontaneous and collaborative creativity. 2. Embodied Practice and Choreography: Designing movement within the conference and acknowledging the embodied dimension of these gatherings, emphasizing the physical presence of bodies, spaces, and rituals. 3. Intentional Relational Work and Network-Making: Connecting people and ideas, encouraging networking and placing relational dynamics at the forefront of the gathering. 4. Ethics and Practices of Care: Integrating ethical aspects in the planning, ensuring the incorporation of relational values and ethics into the conference structures. To support innovative sustainability research, we must move beyond considering content and invest in reimagining the embodied aspects of the education systems that generate our knowledge. Relationally oriented conferences are designed to encourage the convergence of different fields--and of multiple types of participants--thus sparking generative tension along with fruitful conversation and long-standing collaborations.
Journal of Jewish Education , 2025
This essay argues that Hasidic texts can serve as thought-partners and stimulants for moral and s... more This essay argues that Hasidic texts can serve as thought-partners and stimulants for moral and spiritual reflection in higher education. I explore reading Hasidic sources within the university classroom as "ethical prompts"-not as a nudge to do the right thing, but as texts that spark a process of thinking, reflection, and discernment. Hasidic sources are helpful to this work because they model a compelling way of reading, of interpretation that is surprising, novel, and engaged. The encounter with Hasidic teachings can deepen our capacities for reading and reasoning while expanding our understanding of the spiritual and intellectual affordances of education.
Dibur Literary Journal, 2025
This essay explores the conception of animals as teachers and revealers of divine wisdom, an ofte... more This essay explores the conception of animals as teachers and revealers of divine wisdom, an often-overlooked theme in the study of Jewish thought. I highlight Jewish traditions that draw a porous and permeable boundary between human and nonhuman creatures-one not defined by hierarchy and incommensurate power. Rather than depicting animals purely as sources of danger or passive objects of extraction and compassion, these traditions treat animals as creative subjects, possessing their own wisdom and discernment, revealing divinity, and serving as a source of learning and education for those around them. Reconceiving animals as agents of revelation offers a striking way to rethink the nature of creaturely being and the possibilities of interspecies communication. But this perspective also places significant moral and behavioral demands upon us. Becoming sensitive to the ongoing process of sacred revelation requires us to actively reattune and reclaim our capacity for careful and empathetic listening, rethinking communication and kinship across species lines as bonds that entail an obligation of care and reciprocity.
Religions, 2024
Abstract: The contemporary American university largely operates as an agent of domestication, tas... more Abstract: The contemporary American university largely operates as an agent of domestication, tasked more with enforcing the social and economic order than with expanding the horizons of possibility. The dawn of the Anthropocene, however, demands that we reconceive of the humanities not as self-sufficient, hierarchical, or divided away from other modes of seeking knowledge but as core to what human being and responsibility ought to mean in the more-than-human world. The present essay makes a case for reworking—and rethinking—the American university along the lines of Mark C. Taylor’s prompt to reconceive of the academy as a multidisciplinary forum for the “comparative analysis of common problems”. I suggest that religious teachings—and religious traditions themselves—can offer models for the intertwining of the humanities (literature, poetry, philosophy, the expressive and applied arts), the social sciences (the study of governance, political thought, the study and formulation of law), and the natural sciences as well as mathematics and engineering. Further, I argue that when faced with radical and unprecedented changes in techno-logical, social, economic, and environmental structures, we must, I believe, engage with these tra-ditional texts in order to enrich and critique the liberal mindset that has neither the values nor the vocabulary to deal with the climate crisis. We must begin to sow new and expansive ways of thinking, and I am calling this work the “rewilding” of our universities. Parallel to the three Cs of rewilding as a conservation paradigm, I suggest the following three core principles for the re-wilding of higher education: creativity, curriculum, and collaboration. Though I focus on the in-terface of religion, ecology, and the study of the environmental, social, and moral challenges of climate change, I suggest that these categories of activity should impact all domains of inquiry to which a university is home.
Journal of Textual Reasoning, 2024
The interface of communal and individual responsibility in times of
crisis rests at the heart of ... more The interface of communal and individual responsibility in times of
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.
Uploads
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.
Co-Authored Books by Ariel Evan Mayse
Edited Books and Special Issues by Ariel Evan Mayse
Scholem's course would have been one among very few such classes on American soil, where Kabbalah had yet to become established as a central concern of Jewish Studies.
As transcripts of classroom discussions, these lectures give a sense of Scholem's complex personality as a teacher.
He was a scintillating speaker and an academic aristocrat; he was often jovial, sardonic--but also, and more than occasionally, something of an intellectual bully.
These transcripts offer a full picture of Scholem's charisma and power as a lecturer and are a living testament to Scholem's deep engagement, even enrapturement, with the messianic impulse at the heart of Judaism and his quest to impart that love to his students.
They are a fascinating portrait of his captivating presentation style, the dramatic power of his unfolding of narrative and historical drama, his attention to detail but also his interest in the realm of grand ideas.
They represent a light from the archive, the intellectual fruits of a towering scholar who, over the course of nearly six decades, shaped three generations of researchers and whose writings remain a cornerstone of Jewish Studies.
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.