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e.r. Malachi. Vivid descriptions of life in the Zeitlin household are found in Zeitlin’s son elkhonen’s memoir, In a Literarishn Shtub, published posthumously in Buenos aires, 1946. see now arthur Green, Hasidic Spirituality for a New Era: The Religious Writings of Hillel Zeitlin, classics of
collections, for the spiritual work within Judaism and its most decisive centers, that has motivated us to take these steps.” Gershom Scholem to Leo Baeck, 2 June 1946, in Scholem, A Life in Letters , 336. 47 For an introduction to Scholem’s relationship to the Hebrew language, see Schatz, “Hebräisch,” esp
a “forger” who was motivated by monetary gain, as Graetz would have it. This strategy, however, of occupying the middle ground was simply too weak a defense in the face of Graetz’s standing at the time, which was prior to Scholem’s successful grounding of the field of Jewish mysticism. In his 1926
. It is this same flow that, from the very beginning of creation, never ceased and therefore constantly produces life. According to the theosophical doctrine with which Genazzano seems to be familiar, such an emanation does not have a chronological development, because it is eternal and continuous
, as I have noted, one Zoharic text tells us that there is a bad, “left” form, a form which “is death to the world,” and a good, “right,” form, a ḥivya of “life” – both of which always accompany every human being and who thus seem, in this text, to be more like shedim, the demonic spirits who
deeply Christian, specifically Pietist, commitment to the purity of the inner life. Self-actualization is key; one is born a neutral being (though perhaps with a propensity for good) who generates oneself as a moral being through moral choice. Free choice is not just important; it lies at the heart of
perspectives on Buber’s perhaps unexpected after life today. “A Bitter Irony” Moses Herzog is in the midst of a religious crisis. An old friend, the dubious Valentine Gersbach—incidentally also his wife’s lover—drops in to deposit a bundle of books, and Herzog, not knowing how else to save himself, begins
the seminary in his comprehen- sive book about the Zohar.6 In all these publications, Bension waxed poetic about the yeshiva’s way of life and its past leaders, but the present did not merit a faithful representation. Of course, he had nothing positive to say on Beit El’s continued existence or any
. This is simply because early 20th century scholars of mysticism are less motivated by a perennialist agenda and therefore more careful readers of the texts of mysticism. Steven T. Katz’s critical work on mysticism can be read as ruling out the compar- ative study of ineffability discourse. On one
so forth. In fact all who grab a book and desire to partake from the fruit of the tree must traverse the river [i.e., the RaShaSh’s book Nahar Shalom – Shalom’s River], where he will find a haven to illuminate the eyes of the wise, and his words are living and binding.” Abulafia, “Approval for Eṣ