Hasidism Reappraised (The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1874774358 ISBN 13: 9781874774358

Publisher: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 1998

Synopsis

Hasidism has been a seminal force and a source of controversy in the Jewish world since its inception in the second half of the 18th century. Indeed, almost every ideological trend that has made itself felt among Jews since that time - from Zionism and Orthodoxy to contemporary Jewish feminism and movements within the yeshiva world - has claimed to have derived some inspiration from this vibrant movement. While this is sure testimony to its vitality and originality, it has also given rise to many misconceptions as to what hasidism is about. The monumental volume that Ada Rapoport-Albert has produced is a critical history of this intriguing movement in English. It offers a comprehensive treatment of the subject in all its aspects by what is effectively the entire present generation of scholars working in the field. With contributions ranging from the history of theology and of ideas through social and economic history to sociology, Hasidism Reappraised encompasses a complete field of contemporary scholarship in a discipline that is central to our understanding of modern Jewish history and the contemporary Jewish world.

This text shows an intellectual world at an important juncture in its development. The study of hasidism was long dominated by scholars trained by Gershom Scholem, the great master of academic Jewish mysticism, but their achievements are now being questioned in a process of post-Scholem revisionism. This book captures this mood and points forward to the direction in which hasidic scholarship is likely to develop in the years to come. But the extent to which the figure of Scholem still dominates the field is clear from the introductory section of this volume: the personal correspondence of the late Joseph Weiss, one of the leading historians of hasidism, with Sara Ora Heller-Wilensky, a fellow student of Scholem's and later professor of Jewish philosophy and kabbalah. These letters, written over a period of many years, offer an insight into the complex intellectual and emotional relationships that Scholem inspired. The 28 authors who have contributed to the main body of the book are almost without exception established scholars with international reputations; those who are not are well-known in Israel for their scholarship but have previously published little in English.

Their contributions are arranged thematically under seven headings: the social history of hasidism; the social functions of mystical ideals in the hasidic movement; distinctive outlooks and schools of thought within hasidism; the hasidic tale; the history of hasidic historiography; contemporary hasidism; and the present state of research on hasidism. The book also incorporates an extensive introduction that places the various articles in their intellectual context, as well as a bibliography of hasidic sources and contemporary scholarly literature.

About this title

About the Author:

Ada Rapoport-Albert is Reader in and Head of the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College London. Born in Israel, she studied at University College London, and has also taught at the Oriental Institute in Oxford and been a visiting lecturer at the Harvard Divinity College.
She is the author of various studies on the history of hasidism, and the editor of Essays in Jewish Historiography (1988) and, with Steven J. Zipperstein, Jewish History: Essays in Honour of Chimen Abramsky (1988). Her forthcoming books to be published by the Littman Library, include Women and the
Messianic Heresy of Sabbatai Zevi, 1666-1816, Female Bodies, Male Souls: Asceticism and Gender in the Jewish Tradition; Emergent Hasidism: Spontaneity and Institutionalization; and Messianic Hasidism: From Nineteenth-Century Bratslav to Twentieth-Century Habad.

Review:

"Probably the most important analytical study of the Hasidic movement ... can be read by anyone seriously interested in Jewish history." -- Jewish Historical Studies

About this edition

• Publisher: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1874774358
• ISBN 13: 9781874774358
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 538
• Editor: Rapoport-Albert Ada