CAS RN 326/626/STH Hillel Levine

Jewish Mystical Movements, Piety and Pluralism

Fall, 2011, [email protected], 617 353 4428, 147 Bay State Road Office hours: M 3-4 PM, T, Th 12:30AM-2PM and by appointment

Religion and religionists are too often seen as the singular source of “fanaticism,” “radicalization,” and the like in the contemporary world. Might the situation not be more complex?

This course will examine Jewish Mysticism, its origins, its proliferation and its unanticipated consequences. It will focus on the social conditions under which it manifests what Gershom Scholem calls “conservative” and “revolutionary” tendencies and combinations.

Following introductory statements on messianism, mysticism, and a historiographic assessment, specific developments in the late middle ages will provide points of departure. These include: 1492 and the reactions to the decline of Iberian Jewry as well as the middle to late 16th century leadership of the “third generation” of survivors of the expulsions and massacres. Affinities with the Kulturkampf that is precipitated by the popularization of the Zohar, the Maimonidean and anti-Maimonidean attitudes towards rationalism, and early attitudes towards the rise of empirical science in different sectors of European, Middle Eastern, and North African Judaism will be considered. A closer look will be taken at how some of these intellectual movements are refracted by developments in the Court of Rudolph II in the mid-16th century, and the rise and dissemination of Protestantism and Christian apocalyptic and reformist movements in West, Central, and Eastern Europe. Messianic movements among Ashkenazi and Sefardi Jewries will be carefully analyzed in relation to new theodicies and epistemologies that influence other areas of Jewish living. “Unanticipated consequences” of Sabbatianism, Frankism, and Hasidism, well documented social movements with varying combinations of magical, mystical, and pietistic tendencies, will provide important case studies for understanding transformations that take place in the Jewish community as Jews partake in 19th and 20th century social, religious, political, and intellectual movements in a modernizing world.

Students arrive at this course at different levels of their education and with varied backgrounds in core fields that must be drawn upon for knowledge, understanding and interpretation. This course is an undergraduate and graduate seminar. It emphasizes not only a significant period in Jewish history but the methods and tools of basic research in history and the social sciences, particularly as applied to the study of religion. Students will benefit from it insofar as their preparation and participation is in accordance with standards of mature and fully engaged students. Students are required to attend office hours at the beginning of the semester and to keep the instructor fully informed of progress and any difficulties that develop. Reading circles developed by students will be

encouraged. The best research on student work satisfaction and success seems to support this simple device. There will also be informal opportunities to meet with fellow students and the instructor on and off campus and to discuss broader and more contemporary implications of issues that come up in class. Students also are responsible to be informed of all BU codes of behavior governing research, original work, and examinations. Please see www.bu.edu/academics.

There will be two one hour exams, one emphasizing basic knowledge, the other emphasizing larger trends. These will cover the major readings, audiovisual material, and class discussions. These exams will be discussed in class at an early point in the semester so that students can better incorporate these as part of the learning experience rather than unfortunately necessary “gatekeeping.”. Additionally, each student will prepare a brief research presentation on an issue, a development, an aphorism, an interpretation with which she/he feels a strong personal identification or rejects with particular vehemence. In preparing an oral presentation of 5 minutes, each student will read a book or 3 articles that will provide depth or comparative perspectives (not to include Wikepedia articles for reasons that, by the end of the semester if not sooner, students should well understand). Students will prepare a 1-2 page proposal that will include the three following components: a clearly stated thesis in less than 30 words beginning with the phrase “I want to prove that…”; elaboration and development of the thesis in one paragraph; an annotated bibliography. Students will return this proposal with whatever revisions the instructor proposed, at least three days before their oral presentations. Graduate students and students in the School of Theology will have special requirements in accordance with their individual interests and following consultations with the instructor.

Grades will be calculated on the following basis: 25% each one hour exam, 25% research, proposal, revisions, and oral presentation, 25% attendance and participation.

Required texts for the course will be available at the BU Bookstore. Shorter selections will be available on the web or distributed in class. I.B. Singer, Satan in Goray., Idel, Moshe, Messianic Mystics

Selected Bibliography:

Jacob Katz, Exclusiveness and Tolerance Evans, R. J. W. (1953). Rudolf II and his world: A study in intellectual history, 1576- 1612. Noah Efron, „Our forefathers did not tell us‟: Jews and natural philosophy in Rudolfine Prague Selections from Daniel Matt translation of the Zohar Ronit Meroz and Arthur Green on early Kabbalah Singer, IB, Satan in Goray Idel, Moshe, Messianic Mystics Scholem, Gershom, The Messianic Idea in Judaism

Dan, Joseph, The Christian Kabbalah Jonas, Hans, The Gnostic Religion Thrupp, Sylvia, Millennial Dreams in Action Cohn, Norman, The Pursuit of the Millennium Levine, Hillel, The Kronika: On Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement Levine, Hillel, Economic Origins of Antisemitism Sharot, Stephen, Messianism, Mysticism, and Magic Scholem, Gershom, Sabbati Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626 – 1676 Lanternari, Vittorio, The Religions of the Oppressed Hundert, Gershom, Anthology of Hasidism

Week of September 5- Overview: Mysticism as a spur to social movements

Singer, IB, Satan in Goray Encyclopedia Judaica, article on Messianism Moshe Idel, Messianic Mystics, pp 1-37

Week of September 12-In Pursuit of the Millennium, the Zohar and the history of Jewish book printing

Encyclopedia Judaica, article on Kabbala Idel, pp 58-125

Week of September 19-What was unique about 1492 and what turning points does it imply?

Idel, pp 126-154

Week of September 26-The Maimonidean legacy: Mysticsm, rationalism, and empirical science in the 16th century

Hillel Levine, “Science,” “Jewish Reactions to Copernicus in the Early Modern period.” R.J. Evans, Rudolf II and His World, introduction and chapts 1-3.

Week of October 3-Sefad and the promulgation of Lurianic Kabbala

Scholem, Sabbati Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626 – 1676, intro. Aron Rodrique, The Jews of the Balkans: The Judeo-Spanish Community, Fifteenth to Twentieth Century, chap. 1-3 Jonathan Israel, European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism, intro and chap. 1-3 Idel, pp 154-182 Apotheosis dreams of Joseph Karo and Hayim Vital

Week of October 10-1648: What turning points?

Dan, Joseph, The Christian Kabbalah

Week of October 17-The Making of a Messiah Claimant: Eccentricity and Public Meanings

Idel, 183-211 Scholem, Sabbati Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626 – 1676, pp 199-326

Week of October 24-The Making of a Disciple and the Making of a Movement

Scholem, Sabbati Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626 – 1676, pp 327-389; 461-518 Levine, Economic Origins of Antisemitism, pp. 1 - 74

Week of October 31--“Could God Have Fooled His People?” The Spread of Sabbatianism and Its Interpretation Among Non-Jews

Scholem, Gershom, Sabbati Sevi, pp. 603-686 Lanternari, Vittorio, The Religions of the Oppressed, pp v – viii, 19 – 100, 161 – 190

Week of November 7- Frankism: “What to Do Until the Messiah Arrives?” Making Sense of Profound Disappointment, Rejecting, Emulating, Hedging

Scholem, Gershom, Sabbati Sevi, pp 792-820; The Holiness of Sin Levine, The Kronika Thrupp, Sylvia, Millennial Dreams in Action, pp. 207 – 221

Week of November 14-18th Century “Confusion,” 19th and 20th Century piety and Pluralism: Jacob Frank, Israel Bal Shem Tov and the Re-establishment of Normative Boundaries

Frankist and Hasidic texts Hunter, Hasidism Idel, pp 212-247

Week of November 21- Hasidism

Hunter, Hasidic Anthology

Idel, pp248-294 Levine, “Frankism as a „Cargo Cult‟ and the Haskalah Connection: Myth, Ideology and the Modernization of Jewish Consciouisness

Week of November 28- Mysticism and Modernization, Piety and Pluralism: Three Case studies Revitalization of Hasidism after the Holocaust, Havurah culture, 1969-present, dissemination of the phrase, “tikkun olam”

Idel, pp 321-326 Elie Wiesel, Hasidic Masters Sam Heilman, The Rebbe Jewish Whole Earth catalogue Music of Shlomo Carlebach

December 5-Student Presentations