Speaking Torah

by Green, Arthur; Leader, Ebn (CON); Mayse, Ariel Evan (CON); Rose, or N. (CON)

• ISBN13: 9781580236683
• ISBN10: 1580236685
• Edition: Bilingual
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-07-31
• Publisher: Jewish Lights Pub

Summary

The most powerful Hasidic teachings made accessible& 014;from some of the world& 019;s preeminent authorities on Jewish thought and spirituality.& ; Hasidism, a great movement of spiritual revival within Judaism, began in eighteenth-century Eastern Europe and continues to have great influence on Jewish life today. A key tool of this revival was the oral sermon, using novel mystical readings of the Torah to open people& 019;s minds to thinking more profoundly about the texts and how the wisdom relates directly to their own lives. & ; While Hasidic tales have become widely known to modern audiences, the teachings that stand at the very; heart of Hasidism have remained a closed book for all except scholars. This fascinating selection& 014;presented in two volumes following the weekly Torah reading and the holiday cycle, and featured in English and Hebrew& 014;renders them accessible in an extraordinary way. Volume 1 covers Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus, and includes a history of early Hasidism and a summary of central religious teachings of the Maggid& 019;s school Volume 2 covers Numbers and Deuteronomy and the holiday cycle, and includes brief biographies of the Hasidic figures. Each teaching is presented with a fresh translation and contemporary commentary that builds a bridge between the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries. And each teaching concludes with a dynamic round-table discussion between distinguished Jewish scholar Arthur Green and his closest students& 014;the editors of this volume. They highlight the wisdom most meaningful for them, thus serving as a contemporary circle& 019;s reflections on the original mystical circle of master and disciples who created these teachings.