Hasidism beyond modernity : essays in Habad thought and history / Naftali Loewenthal.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Loewenthal, Naftali, 1944- author.

Series:

Liverpool scholarship online.

Liverpool scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hasidism.

Mysticism--Judaism.

Mysticism.

Habad--Philosophy.

Habad.

Genre:

History

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 433 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Liverpool : Liverpool University Press, 2020.

Summary:

The Habad school of hasidism is distinguished today from other hasidic groups by its famous emphasis on outreach, on messianism, and on empowering women. Hasidism Beyond Modernity provides a critical, thematic study of the movement from its beginnings, showing how its unusual qualities evolved. Topics investigated include the theoretical underpinning of the outreach ethos; the turn towards women in the twentieth century; new attitudes to non-Jews; the role of the individual in the hasidic collective; spiritual contemplation in the context of modernity; the quest for inclusivism in the face of prevailing schismatic processes; messianism in both spiritual and political forms; and the direction of the movement after the passing of its seventh rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, in 1994. Attention is given to many contrasts: pre-modern, modern, and postmodern conceptions of Judaism; the clash between maintaining an enclave and outreach models of Jewish society; particularist and universalist trends; and the subtle interplay of mystical faith and rationality. Some of the chapters are new; others, published in an earlier form, have been updated to take account of recent scholarship. This book presents an in-depth study of an intriguing movement which takes traditional hasidism beyond modernity.

Contents:

Hippy in the Mikveh: the Hasidic ethos and the schisms of Jewish society

The Ba'al Shem Tov's 'Sacred epistel' and contemporary Habad outreach

The Hasid and the 'other'

Reason and 'beyond reason' in Habad Hasidism

Finding and transcending the individual

Habad contemplation in context

Women and the dialectic of spirituality in Hasidism

From ladies' auxiliary to Schluchos network: women's activism in twentieth-century Habad

Habad Messianism: a combination of opposites

'From the source of mercy': graveside prayer in Habad Hasidism

Habad, the Rebbe, and the messiah in the twenty-first century.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 13 Jul 2020).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781800343313

1800343310

9781789628203

1789628202

OCLC:

1184673809