Hasidism incarnate : Hasidism, Christianity, and the construction of modern Judaism / Shaul Magid.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Magid, Shaul, 1958- author.

Series:

Encountering traditions

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hasidism--Doctrines.

Hasidism.

Incarnation.

Mysticism--Judaism--History.

Mysticism.

Mysticism--Judaism.

History.

Judaism--Relations--Christianity.

Judaism.

Relations.

Christianity.

Judaism--History--Modern period, 1750-.

Physical Description:

xii, 271 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2015.

Summary:

Hasidism Incarnate contends that much of modern Judaism in the West developed in reaction to Christianity and in defense of Judaism as a unique tradition. Ironically enough, this occurred even as modern Judaism increasingly dovetailed with Christianity with regard to its ethos, aesthetics, and attitude toward ritual and faith. Shaul Magid argues that the Hasidic movement in Eastern Europe constitutes a different articulation of "modernity," one that opens a new window on Jewish theological history. Unlike Judaism in German lands, Hasidism did not develop under a "Christian gaze" and had no need to he apologetic of its positions. Unburdened by an apologetic agenda (at least toward Christianity), it offered a particular reading of medieval Jewish Kabbalah which resulted in a religious world view that has much in common with Christianity, It is not that Hasidic masters knew about Christianity; rather, the basic tenets of Christianity remained present, albeit often in veiled form, in much kabbaJistic teaching that Hasidism took up in its portrayal of the charismatic figure of the zaddik, whom it often described in supernatural terms, Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction : incarnation and incarnational thinking

Divinization and incarnational thinking in Hasidism : an overview

Charisma speaking: uniqueness, incarnation, and sacred language (lashon ha-kodesh) in Nahman of Bratslav's self-fashioning

Jewish ethics through a Hasidic lens: incarnation, the law, and the universal

Malkhut as kenosis: malkhut and the zaddik in Yaʻakov Koppel Lifshitz of Mezritch's Shaʻarei Gan Eden

"Brother where art thou?": reflections on Jesus in Martin Buber and the Hasidic master R. Shmuel Bornstein of Sochaczev

Liberal Judaism, Christianity, and the specter of Hasidism.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-261) and index.

ISBN:

9780804791304

0804791309

OCLC:

880237419