Shaul Magid. Piety and Rebellion: Essays in Hasidism. Bloomington: Academic Studies Press, 2019. 580 pp. $34.00, paperback, ISBN 978-1-64469-115-1.

Reviewed by Jeremy Phillip Brown

Published on H-Judaic (December, 2019)

Commissioned by Barbara Krawcowicz (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)

The past few years have brought a series of sources range from the teachings of R. ben retrospective anthologies collecting the work of Eliezer, the Baʿal Shem Tov, or Besht (as preserved Hasidism scholars. Shaul Magid’s Piety and Rebel‐ by his earliest disciples) to early Habad-Lubavitch lion: Essays in Hasidism appears alongside recent prayer commentary, from the narrative realms of collections by Ada Rapoport-Albert, Naftali Reb Nahman of Bratslav’s stories to the sermons Loewenthal, and Arthur Green. It arrives in the and essays of twentieth-century Hasidic leaders same year as Magid’s The Bible, the , and wrestling with how to theologize the political real‐ the New Testament: Elijah Zvi Soloveitchik's Com‐ ities of Jewish life at the brink of destruction and mentary to the Gospels, on the heels of his 2014 the establishment of a Jewish state in the Middle book Hasidism Incarnate: Hasidism, Christianity, East. It takes on both the classical sources of Ha‐ and the Construction of Modern Judaism, and sidism and less-studied material issuing from the ahead of his much-anticipated spiritual biography contemporary Haredi world (such as the writings of Jewish Defense League and Kach Party ideo‐ of R. Shalom Noah Barzofsky of and R. logue Meir Kahana. Instead of a programmatic Aaron “Arele” Roth of ). anthology, the collection is an eclectic retrospec‐ The studies in Piety and Rebellion touch upon tive. It brings together previously published arti‐ themes as diverse as biblical hermeneutics, gen‐ cles in their original, unrevised form that have der, ritual, disability, pluralism, Jewish-Christian not been assimilated into Magid’s pathbreaking diference, law, , fundamentalism, monographs, as well as a few new pieces. Piety Americanism, et cetera. In other words, they re‐ and Rebellion is thus more a collection of “B- fect themes that have occupied Magid throughout Sides” benefting experts in the feld of Jewish his career, especially in 2005’s Hasidism on the mysticism than a “Greatest Hits” representative of Margin (adapted from the author’s Brandeis PhD the full breadth of Magid’s contribution, which, to thesis), the aforementioned Hasidism Incarnate, be sure, extends beyond Beshtian Hasidism to em‐ and 2013’s theologically constructive American brace an expansive repertoire of Jewish thought, Post-Judaism: Identity and Renewal in a Posteth‐ culture, and politics. Here, as elsewhere in the au‐ nic Society. The author not only interprets this thor’s large and daily-growing oeuvre, the collec‐ material with an extensive command of tradition‐ tion is full of penetrating insights into a wide se‐ al rabbinic sources, but brings to bear an inten‐ lection of traditional material. The primary sive expertise in Lurianic . Of course, H-Net Reviews

Magid is not alone among scholars of Hasidism scholarship is, or should be, autobiographical” (p. who also work in Kabbalah studies. But one dis‐ xl). It is certainly daring to state that all scholar‐ tinguishing element of the essays contained in ship—in particular, scholarship on religion, and this volume, and of Magid’s work more generally, especially Judaism—should be autobiographical. is a willingness to engage in interpretive play at Indeed, the placement of a vita in lieu of a themat‐ the intersections where Kabbalah and Hasidism ic introduction makes the collection a highly per‐ converge. In addition to its eclectic quality, anoth‐ sonal afair. But it also provokes important ques‐ er feature that distinguishes Piety and Rebellion is tions for scholars of Jewish mysticism—some who the book’s bold autobiographical introduction. publicly espouse the theological promise of their Here, Magid recounts his own captivating jour‐ subject matter, others who maintain a cautious ney. It is the story of a restless intellectual, who, distance, and still others like Magid who position fashioning himself both an insider and an out‐ their lives both within and without. For one, it sider, has sustained his soul on everything from begs the question of the epistemological viability macrobiotics and LSD to the of of collapsing a critical distance between the sub‐ , from the rabbinate to the Ivy League. ject and object of analysis, precisely when re‐ One of the riddles posed by Piety and Rebel‐ searching material that is inherently dogmatic lion is that it is organized according to two com‐ and acutely political. peting chronologies. On the one hand, the essays An additional avenue suggested by Magid for follow the chronology of their subject matter: they organizing these diverse studies is his claim that are divided into the categories of “Early Ha‐ they exhibit the “alterity” of Hasidism, rather sidism” and “Later Hasidism.” On the other hand, than its transcendental “essence.” “Unlike [Mar‐ the reader may take a cue from the book’s intro‐ tin] Buber,” he writes, “I am not looking for a ha‐ duction and read the essays as progressively ma‐ sidic essence. That was for a diferent time. In turing stations on author’s own intellectual itiner‐ these essays I am looking perhaps for an alterity ary. Or as the blurb by Pinchas Giller on the back that could open the texts to the world and shine of the book suggests: “This collection of essays light on the possible global implicactions [sic] at serves as the scholarly and intellectual diary of work in the recesses of a highly parochial tradi‐ the evolution of Shaul Magid, tempered in the tion” (pp. xli-xli). This is an intriguing possibility study of Kabbalah and Hasidism, now a scholarly that Magid evokes, albeit without connecting the and communal leader.” Yet one barrier to reading dots for his readers. What, concretely, are the the anthology for what it reveals about Magid’s global implications at work in the recesses of Ha‐ life path is that—short of a brief note acknowledg‐ sidism? Are these global implications data for the‐ ing the original publishers of these essays—the ology? For philosophy? For politics? Readers are volume does not date its contents, nor provide a left to intuit their own responses from between bibliography indicating where, when, and how the lines of the individual studies which follow. the essays frst appeared. Also, if it is no longer possible to distill “a hasidic What are the organizing principles guiding essence,” what can still be said about the general this collection of essays? The author cites the vol‐ character of Hasidism without compromising its ume’s autobiographical premise as its unifying el‐ heterogeneity? ement: “[These essays] illustrate my struggle with Another question that helps to illustrate the hasidic texts, my closeness to them, and my dis‐ bifocal expertise that Magid brings to the table: tance from them. In retrospect perhaps they re‐ what do these essays teach us about the relation fect more about me than about them, but all of Hasidism to Kabbalah? This question remains

2 H-Net Reviews important as ever, especially at a time when the Hasidism deviates from classical theosophical academic study of Jewish mysticism, which has Kabbalah, which more strictly limits access to God long presumed the categorical cohesion of the two through the mizvot” (p. 60n63). subfelds, is recalibrating itself to the ideological These are indeed subtle attempts to relate the criticism of Boaz Huss. In the opening essay on doctrinal and social conceptions of Hasidism to biblical interpretation in the writings of the those of Kabbalah. What they suggest (beyond the Besht’s amanuensis, Jacob Joseph of Polnoye, sense that Magid is sometimes operating with a Magid develops Rachel Elior’s assertions about more robust sense of the general character of Ha‐ the innovations introduced to Jewish mysticism sidism than suggested by his avowal of alterity) is by Beshtian Hasidism, generally construed. After that the two felds are mutually imbedded to an urging readers to appreciate the sundry and mul‐ extent that is sometimes obfuscated by isolating tivalent character of the tradition, Magid writes: Hasidism as an analytical object. But beyond the “Hasidism is surely a link in the chain of the Jew‐ negotiation of phenomenologically, chronological‐ ish mystical tradition but one that in some ways ly, or sociologically isolated types (Kabbalah-no‐ undermines or revises the basic metaphysical mian-early-elitist vs. Hasidism-hypernomian-late- framework of previous Kabbalah” (p. 4). A few populist—a set of oppositions which are by no pages on, we read more about what is new in Ha‐ means absolute), scholarly constructions of difer‐ sidism: the “new way of Hasidism, … though ence may also be conditioned by, for example, the pietistic in nature, departed signifcantly from the enthusiastic perpetuation of Kabbalah qua Kab‐ ascetic pietism of the past and ofered its readers balah on the part of major Hasidim (e.g., in the a way of serving God joyously” (p. 10). And a few Habad and Zhidachov-Komarno dynasties), as pages still further, Magid afrms: “The conven‐ well as the dissociation of others therefrom. tional model until Hasidism was one of pious as‐ Needless to say, I fnd Magid’s treatment of ceticism and the division of society between elites the Kabbalah-Hasidism relationship most com‐ and the masses. Hasidism suggests (at least in the pelling when his analysis does not hinge on typo‐ Besht’s portrayal imagined by his early disciples) logical disparity, but rather highlights categorical a non- or even anti-ascetic pietism and supports a intersections. The second essay, on zaddikism, more integrative relationship between the elite does this efectively. This study continues Magid’s and the masses” (pp. 15-16), In the third essay, on exploration of incarnational thinking in Hasidism the ontological signifcance of controversy —an avenue stimulated by Elliot Wolfson’s work (mahloket) in the teachings attributed to the on Kabbalah’s afnities to Christian theology. Besht, Magid explains that Hasidism, generally Here, Magid qualifes the incarnational thinking speaking, is founded upon a kabbalistic theosophy exemplifed by the Hasidic doctrine of the zaddik in which divine unity and plurality are not mutu‐ ’s preexistence as a “Case of Jewish Arianism.” ally opposed, but rather dialectically coordinated. That is, he represents zaddikism as akin to the Later, the same essay afrms (again, in general Christian heresy of Arianism in that it predicates terms) how the Hasidic doctrine of devekut difers of the zaddik (the righteous pillar of the religious from the construction of divine communion in community) what some fourth-century Christians classical Kabbalah. In Hasidism, according to predicated of Christ (see too Hasidism Incarnate, Magid, Jews’ access to the divine world is not sim‐ esp. 25-27). Accordingly, zaddikism afrms a pri‐ ply leveraged by their performance of the com‐ mordial human type who, though not coeternal mandments with mystical intention, but also by with God, subsists with the Godhead prior to cre‐ means of techniques which exceed the nomian ation. One twist in this essay’s approach to the framework of the commandments: “In this sense,

3 H-Net Reviews problem of incarnational thinking in Jewish mys‐ that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. maligned as ticism is that he likens zaddikism to the specifc “gradualism,” it is worth marking here what ap‐ heresy of Arianism. It thus stakes a somewhat pears to be a rhetorical intensifcation in Magid’s fxed position in relation to a broader spectrum of prose. incarnational thinking, such as discussed by Wolf‐ The issue of Jewish ethnocentrism has special son vis-à-vis medieval Kabbalah (ranging from interest for the author, who, in 2013’s American docetism to post-Nicene doctrine). Though some Post-Judaism, has prescribed a postethnic theolo‐ may be wary of afrming the ecclesiastical au‐ gy for “American Judaism” even as race philoso‐ thority of heresiological categories, Kabbalah and pher George D. Yancy, among many others, has Hasidism prove themselves to be quite close in cautioned against adopting a postracial paradigm their respective afnities to a range of Christian for contemporary thought. As Giller is correct to belief. Chapter 8, which presents Magid’s take on note, Magid has, in recent years, stepped up his the embattled question of Habad messianism, also public engagement as both a critic and partisan of examines the messianic dimensions of zaddikism, Jewish politics. This may be gleaned from the con‐ highlighting its relationship to “the Zohar-Luria tinuous fow of writing Magid is now publishing kabbalistic trajectory” (p. 219), as well as its an‐ on online platforms (at least one of the new es‐ cient precedents in binitarian strains of Jewish says printed in Piety and Rebellion—his poignant worship that found expression in early Christiani‐ study of Kalonymous Kalman Shapira as the Ha‐ ty. sidic [!] originator of post-— Another facet of Wolfson’s work on Kabbalah has evolved from a popular piece originally pub‐ that Magid amplifes in his interpretation of Ha‐ lished online). The public vocation of Magid’s sidism is the problem of how various thinkers work may also be seen in his explorations of the have constructed the ethno-religious particular‐ political in Hasidic and Haredi thought. More ism of the Jewish people. The culminating study, than other critics who dismiss the antimodernism on “American Jewish Fundamentalism,” discusses of ultra- as an intellectually va‐ how the Tanya (the 1797 compendium of teach‐ cant strain of reactionary politics, Magid is thor‐ ings by the “Alter ” of Habad-Lubavitch, oughly respectful of the intellectual complexity Shneur Zalman of ) “makes a categorical dis‐ and exegetical rigor undergirding the political tinction between the divinity of the Jewish soul theology of contemporary Hasidism. The sixth es‐ (neshamah elohit) in contrast to the pure corpore‐ say, on faith and modernity in the teachings of ality (neshamah behamit) of the gentile soul” (p. Reb Arele Roth of Shomer Emunim (the Hungari‐ 281). Magid goes on to write: “While Habad has an-born proponent of anti-Zionist Haredi ideology often been accused that its doctrine constitutes a in the neighborhood of Jerusalem), form of spiritual racism, Elliot Wolfson has exemplifes this, as does the fnal study, which shown that this doctrine is not exclusive to Habad maintains that not only Habad, but also , Hasidism or Hasidism more generally but perme‐ and the ArtScroll publishing enterprise should be ates much of kabbalistic literature upon which considered forms of “American Jewish Funda‐ the Tanya is based” (p. 281, my emphasis) In fact, mentalism.” Wolfson has deployed the term “rabbinic xeno‐ The basic argument of this fnal study, the phobia” to explain the demonization of non-Jew‐ longest in the collection, is that even when these ish nations in medieval Kabbalah, rather than “fundamentalist” movements claim that Jews ex‐ “spiritual racism,” as suggested here.[1] While perience the same obstacles in the United States critics may object that diferentiating between the that they have encountered elsewhere, they have, two terms is tantamount to the apologetic strategy

4 H-Net Reviews in fact, benefted in constitutional ways from their Notwithstanding my reservations about this adoptive political, cultural, and economic envi‐ fnal study, I fnd Piety and Rebellion to be a stim‐ ronment. With respect to Satmar Hasidim, he ulating addition to the scholarship on Hasidism writes: “while Satmar proclaims … that ‘America by one of its most energetic, creative, and politi‐ is no diferent,’ its history in America, including cally engaged interpreters. There is much to its post-1967 stance on and the establish‐ praise in these studies, which are as varied as the ment of its rural enclave in upstate New York, variegated corpus of Hasidism itself. Though the Kiryas Joel, points to the fact that even for those essays open many trajectories that will stimulate who proclaim that American is not diferent in future research, the collection will most likely be principle, in practice, America is diferent” (p. remembered for its candid “cards on the table” in‐ 172). While I admire this study for shifting the troduction, which certainly breaks with genre. dominant narrative about the creative potentia‐ Jeremy Phillip Brown is Simon and Ethel tion of Judaism in its US (and Canadian) context— Flegg Postdoctoral Fellow in Jewish Studies at from a story about the triumph of “liberal Ju‐ McGill University daism” to one about the incubation of “Jewish Note fundamentalisms” which buck against the main‐ stream—I fnd his use of the term “America” and [1]. Elliot R. Wolfson, Venturing Beyond: Law the framework of “Americanization” troubling. and Morality in Kabbalistic Mysticism (New York: This is because the analysis recapitulates the un‐ Oxford University Press, 2006), 40. critical usage of “America” in the same reifed and monopolizing sense used by the protagonists of his study, namely, as a hypostasized designation for the liberal-democratic administration, Anglo- Protestant culture, free-market economy, and geo‐ graphical attributes of the United States (and sometimes Canada) all amalgamated into one. What this usage obviously does not encompass is the Latin-Catholic world to the south where Ha‐ sidic life is certainly a reality, though one often eclipsed by both scholarly bias and the substan‐ tially greater demographic distribution of Ha‐ sidim north of the Rio Grande. In other words, while Magid quite reasonably objects to the idea that ultra-Orthodox Judaism in United States (and Canada) has somehow remained impervious to its surroundings, he implicitly agrees to his protago‐ nists’ infated and boreocentric understanding of what “America” is. Moreover, the reiteration of Menahem Mendel Schneerson’s claim that “Amer‐ ica is diferent,” albeit in a scholarly register, is still beholden to the comparative premise that “America” is diferent from Europe or elsewhere, and thus reproduces a set of uncritical premises about the history of Judaism in the diaspora.

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Citation: Jeremy Phillip Brown. Review of Magid, Shaul. Piety and Rebellion: Essays in Hasidism. H- Judaic, H-Net Reviews. December, 2019.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54106

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