Hasidic Spirituality for a New Era : The Religious Writings of Hillel Zeitlin

by Green, Arthur

• ISBN13: 9780809147717
• ISBN10: 0809147718
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-09-30
• Publisher: Paulist Pr

Summary

A preeminent scholar of Jewish thought and spirituality presents the first-ever English translation of selected writings of the Hasidic martyr of the Warsaw Ghetto, Hillel Zeitlin (1871-1942).

Author Biography

Hillel Zeitlin (1871-1942), martyred in the Warsaw Ghetto, was the leading neo-Hasidic thinker in interwar Poland. He reconceived classic concepts of the Jewish mystical tradition to shape a Judaism that would appeal to a new generation of Jews in the early twentieth century who were liberated from the bonds of traditional society but seeking a profound, open-minded, and universalistic version of Jewish teachings. His work complements that of his contemporary, Martin Buber. While Buber looked primarily to the Hasidic tales for inspiration, Zeitlin offered a version of Hasidic theology addressed to seekers living outside the Hasidic community. Largely neglected in the postwar era, his writings have much to say to contemporary Jews in search of ways to reembrace mystical teachings as a part of their tradition, as well as to Christians interested in modern expressions of classic mystic truths that transcend conventional borders.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	p. xi
Foreword	p. xv
Hillel Zeitlin: A Biographical Introduction	p. 1
Hasidism Then and Now	p. 33
The Call for a New Hasidism:	p. 33
Translators Introduction	p. 33
What Does Yavneh Want?	p. 37
Admonitions for Every True Member of Yavneh	p. 43
Three Aramaic Chapters from Sifran shel Yehidim	p. 49
With Rabbi Israel BaÆal Shem Tov	p. 58
Two Letters: On Establishing Yavneh in Jerusalem	p. 68
The Fundaments of Hasidism	p. 71
Judaism and Universal Religion	p. 119
In the Soul's Secret Places: Religious Experience and Its Manifestations	p. 119
The Longing for Beauty	p. 163
Prayers: Songs to the Eternal
Introduced and Translated by Joel Rosenberg	p. 189
Love and Anguish: On the Poetry of Hillel Zeitlin	p. 189
Prayers (Tefillot)	p. 194
From Songs to the Boundless One	p. 222
Notes	p. 231
Index	p. 247
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