Hasidism: Writings on Devotion, Community, and Life in the Modern World

H-Judaic EVENT: Hasidism: Writings on Devotion, Community, and Life in the Modern World

Discussion published by David Briand on Thursday, April 15, 2021 The Tauber Institute at Brandeis University is pleased to announce the publication ofHasidism: Writings on Devotion, Community, and Life in the Modern World. To mark the publication of this volume, editors Mayse and Shonkoff will be joined by Eugene Sheppard, associate director of the Tauber Institute and editor of the BLMJT, to discuss the book and its selections, which consciously move between everyday lived experience and the most ineffable mystical secrets, reflecting the multidimensional nature of this unusual religious and social movement. This book launch event will take place Thursday, April 15, 2021 at 01:30 PM EST. Register to attend this event virtually here.

About the Book:

Hasidism has attracted, repelled and bewildered philosophers, historians and theologians since its inception in the 18th 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.

About the Editors:

Ariel Evan Mayse, assistant professor at Stanford University, holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from Harvard University and rabbinic ordination from Beit Midrash Har'el in Israel. He is the author of From the Depth of the Well: An Anthology of Jewish Mysticism and coauthor with Arthur Green of the forthcoming A New Hasidism: Branches.

Sam Berrin Shonkoff is Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in

Citation: David Briand. EVENT: Hasidism: Writings on Devotion, Community, and Life in the Modern World. H-Judaic. 04-15-2021. https://networks.h-net.org/node/28655/discussions/7574907/event-hasidism-writings-devotion-community-and-life-modern-world Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-Judaic

Berkeley, California. He is the editor of Martin Buber: His Intellectual and Scholarly Legacy. His book on Buber's interpretations of Hasidic sources is forthcoming.

Table of Contents

Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction

I. Emergence, Challenge, and Renewal (1736-1815) 1. The Ba‘al Shem Tov: Disciples and Descendants 2. Yiddish Supplications (Tkhines) 3. Dov Ber of Mezritsh 4. The Brody Proclamation of 1772 5. The Maggid’s Family 6. Chernobil and Zhitomir 7. Shmuel and Pinhas Horowitz, Levi Yitshak of Barditshev, and ’Uziel Meizels 8. Hasidism in Lithuania, White Russia and Tiberias 9. Nahman of Bratslav 10. Beyond the Maggid’s Circle 11. Early Hasidism in Poland

II. Ascendancy and Dominance (1815-1881) 12. Avraham Yehoshu‘a Heshel of Apt 13. The Dynasties of Ruzhin and Talna 14. Menahem Mendel Schneersohn 15. Kalonymous Kalman Epstein of Krakow 16. Hayim Halberstam and Sandz Hasidism 17. Malka Rokeah of Belz and Eydel Rubin of Brody 18. The Dynasties of Dinov, Zhidachov, and Komarno 19. The Dynasties of Pshiskhe, Kotsk, Izhbits, Warka and Ger

III. Decline, Renaissance, and Destruction (1881-1945) 20. Ger in Warsaw: Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter 21. Sokhachev and Ger 22. Tsadok ha-Kohen of Lublin 23. Munkatsh Hasidism 24. Toledot Aharon 25. Sholom Dov Ber Schneersohn 26. The Hasidic Yeshivah 27. Sarah Schenirer 28. Three Hasidic Memoirs: Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, Yitshak Nahum Twersky and Malka Shapiro 29. The Belzer Rebbe’s Sermon and Holocaust Testimonies 30. The Rebbe of Piaseczno

IV. Renewal and Reconstruction (1945–present) 31. Hasidic Theology and the Holocaust 32. Zionist Hasidism 33. Satmar Hasidism 34. The Seventh Rebbe of Habad 35. Zelda Schneurson Mishkovsky 36. Slonim Hasidism in Jerusalem 37. Voices of Contemporary Hasidic Women

Index

Contact Info:

David Briand

Contact Email: [email protected] URL: https://brandeis.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEtd-CrqTIsEtw-_zrFnePlt2F-BjstTprX