Tag Archives: Kabbalah-Hasidut

(Leviticus 11) Kashrus (Hertz Pentateuch)

Posted on March 31, 2019 by zjb

The discussion about the dietary laws in the Hertz Pentateuch commentary has a few interesting things about it. There is the sociological assertion that kashrut has proved historically to be “an important factor in the preservation of the Jewish race.” … Continue reading →

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(Hasidism) A Political Community? A Religious Community?

Posted on March 26, 2019 by zjb

Thinking about the importance of politics and the figure of community in Spinoza and Mendelssohn, and thinking out loud about Hasidism. Asking you the reader if you think the various groups of hasidim forming around the baalei-shem in the 18th … Continue reading →

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(Doubts) Ashkenaz & Philosophy

Posted on March 25, 2019 by zjb

Continuing to go out on a limb and meant to pick up a challenge posed by colleague-friends about the need for Modern Jewish Studies and Jewish Philosophy and Thought to take into account the life and thought world of Eastern … Continue reading →

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Night of the Cabbalist (Tim Gidal) (1935)

Posted on December 26, 2018 by zjb

Yes, you can stage photograph the spiritual in art. Found the image on Twitter and then tracked the reference to the Jewish Museum where i found these details. About Tim Gidal, you can find this here from his Wikipage: Bio: … Continue reading →

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(Interview with Batsheva Goldman-Ida) Hasidic Art & the Kabbalah

Posted on July 1, 2018 by zjb

Hasidic Art Objects

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Hasidic-Muslim Relations in Ottoman Palestine (Yitzhak Melamed)

Posted on April 30, 2018 by zjb

Super interesting piece by Yitzhak Melamed with texts on the history of Hasidic-Muslim relations in Ottoman Palestine. The first Hasidic masters settled in Palestine in the eighteenth century, even before the movement developed a consciousness of itself as a new … Continue reading →

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(Satmar and the Holocaust) Sectarian and Visionary (Va’Yoel Moshe)

Posted on March 28, 2018 by zjb

Guiding undergraduates through an English language introduction to the Yoel Teitelebaum’s Va’Yoel Moshe presents something of a difficulty. What exactly is this thing? Does it reflect a mainstream of orthodox and ultra-orthodox thinking, or is it something of the outlier, … Continue reading →

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(Burning Excrement) צוֹאָה רוֹתֵחַת (Trump & Bannon)

Posted on January 4, 2018 by zjb

There is a place in Hell and levels there called Boiling Excrement, where there is filth of souls —those who are cleansed of all the filth of this world. They are cleansed and ascend, and that filth remains there; and … Continue reading →

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(Elliot Wolfson) Zoharic Philosophical Nocturne (New York State Fair 2016)

Posted on September 1, 2016 by zjb

Wandering around the rides at the Midway at night at the New York State Fair reading through and getting my head around Elliot Wolfson’s excellent 2014 phenomenological dive into modern Jewish philosophy. I’ll soon post more about Giving Beyond the … Continue reading →

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(Jewish Mysticism) The Non-Existence of Jewish Ethics (Joseph Dan)

Posted on August 19, 2016 by zjb

Is there such a thing as Jewish ethics? Does it even exist? What if anything do Jewish mysticism and Jewish ethics have to do with each other? Does the one complement or submerge the other? In search of answers to … Continue reading →

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