Spirituality Lite

 

A simple truth lurks behind the rise of "post-denominationalism" in Jewish religious life. It is that increasing numbers of Jews are becoming less interested in defining what Judaism means than in sampling aspects of the Jewish tradition that seem to promise spiritual vitality.

Hidden Master  Daniel Landes,  Jewish Review of Books.  A modern-Orthodox educator criticizes Arthur Green's Radical Judaism and by extension the Jewish Renewal Movement. (Green responds here.)    SAVE

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Anselm Kiefer, Shekhinah, 2010.

Kiefer’s Challenge

 

The German artist Anselm Kiefer has once again taken New York by storm. Ensconced at the prestigious Gagosian Gallery, Next Year in Jerusalem, his latest show, has met with reviews ranging from the gushing to the grudgingly respectful.

Spectacle with a Message  Roberta Smith,  New York Times.  Anselm Kiefer's New York show may elicit awe, skepticism, disdain—or perhaps a combination of all three.   SAVE

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Hanna Rovina in "The Dybbuk," 1920.

Of Devils and Dybbuks

 

Many an enlightened reader of the New York Times must have indulged in yet another condescending laugh at the Catholic Church upon seeing a November 12 report about a conclave of bishops in Baltimore; the purpose was to discuss the urgent need for priestly experts in the task of expunging the devil from possessed parishioners. Among those chuckling, no doubt, were many Jews.

“The Dybbuk”  Michael C. Steinlauf,  YIVO Encyclopedia.  On the career of an expressionist Yiddish masterpiece and its evocation of a world in which good and evil, living and dead, are intimate, and awesome mystery inheres in the everyday.  SAVE

Exorcism in Jerusalem  Shmarya Rosenberg,  Failed Messiah.  Reports, culled from Yeshiva World News, on the progress and ultimate failure to remove a dybbuk from a young Brazilian.  SAVE

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Bratslaver Hasidim, Uman.

The Mad Mystic of Bratslav

 

Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav (1772-1811) is the strangest and most paradoxical leader in the history of Hasidism, and one of its most original, albeit mad, geniuses.  Nahman has been an object of both literary fascination and considerable scholarly research. He also shares center stage with Franz Kafka (1888-1924) in Rodger Kamenetz's Burnt Books.

Nahman of Bratslav  Arthur Green,  YIVO Encyclopedia.  The life and teachings of the founder of a unique Hasidic sect: an overview.  SAVE

Yippee  Paul Mazursky,  YouTube.  The acclaimed director introduces his 2006 documentary of a field trip to Uman on Rosh Hashanah. (Video)  SAVE

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View More in Kabbalah

Insight & Analysis

The Chinese Kabbalist  Jonathan Wilson.  Forward.  In an interview, the scholar Ying Han reveals her first impressions of Jews, the similarities between Hillel's teachings and Confucianism, and how a translating assignment led her to pursue a PhD in Jewish literature and Kabbalah.  SAVE

In and Out of the Ghetto  Roni Weinstein.  H-Net.  Meet Benedetto Blanis, a Jew in early modern Florence who taught Hebrew, alchemy, and kabbalah to one of the Medicis.  SAVE

From Our Archives: Kabbalah and its Discontents  Aryeh Tepper.  Jewish Ideas Daily.  Aside from a small circle of students and admirers, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag was an unknown figure at his death in 1954. Today, religious schools and New Age "educational centers" around the world are actively spreading his ideas, and his writings are being analyzed by professors and graduate students. After spending an hour in the rabbi's stone mausoleum, the pop-diva Madonna emerged with tears in her eyes.  SAVE

Mystical Pleasures  Peter Cole.  Paris Review.  There isn't a great deal of kabbalistic poetry, but the best of it epitomizes a potent if lesser-known aspect of Judaism. (Interview by Robyn Creswell).  SAVE

Behind a Best Seller  David Ruderman.  Jewish Week.  One of the most popular Hebrew books in the modern era was an 18th-century tome mixing science, kabbalah, ethics, and a then-radically open attitude toward non-Jews.  SAVE

Was Rebbe Nahman of Bratzlav the Messiah?  Justin Jaron Lewis.  H-Judaic.  Some of his followers may have thought so, but a newly translated "secret" scroll fails to cast much light on the issue.  SAVE

Portrait of the Artist  Ellie Armon Azoulay.  Haaretz.  Pinhas Cohen Gan on the meaning of life, including his own: "reduction, precision, making do with little, believing in God—and creating.".  SAVE

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