Hasidism - Writings on Devotion, Community, and Life in the Modern World

Reviews / Votes

"The editors have done an extraordinary thing. Succinctly framed by recent scholarship, they have nevertheless allowed some of the most consequential thinkers in the history of Hasidism to speak for themselves. Their selection is impressive, the translations are always lucid and sometimes strikingly beautiful. Mayse and Shonkoff have demonstrated the sheer phenomenological range of this movement and, significantly, made more space for Hasidic women's voices than any previous collection. This will be the indispensable volume for teaching and research at every level. It deserves all the praise I can heap on it." -- Don Seeman, Emory University "In this latest addition to the beloved Brandeis Library of Modern Jewish Thought, Mayse and Shonkoff address the distinctive modernity of Hasidic thought. In their inclusive vision, letters, memoirs, and responsa speak alongside homilies and works of theology. So, too, do they open the field of Hasidism to a strikingly diverse set of voices: women, neo-Hasidic thinkers, and ordinary Hasidim." -- Naomi Seidman, author of Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement "This dazzling collection will stimulate and enlighten its readers. In addition to displaying gems of famous Hasidic masters, the editors include women's voices, memoirs, anti-Hasidic polemics, and theological responses to the Holocaust and the State of Israel. A superb resource for intellectual and spiritual exploration." -- Daniel Matt, author of the multi-volume, annotated translation, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition "Mayse and Berrin Shonkoff have presented a historically contextualized cross-section of Hasidic literature, each with a brief introduction, including relevant annotations and notes. Especially welcome is the attention to gender, and the role of women, in Hasidic life and letters. An indispensable resource for those interested in Hasidism and its role in modern Jewish thought and a significant addition to the Brandeis Library of Modern Jewish Thought." -- Shaul Magid, Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College "This source anthology spans Hasidic literature from the earliest generation of the mass spiritual movement through present-day writers, all occupied with a set of central questions. Principally: What is the relationship between God and the world and between God and humanity and the human individual? The final section is to be noted for its inclusion of more recent Hasidic women writers." * TraditionOnline * "Mayse and Shonkoff's masterful collection of texts recognizes that there is a wealth of literature extending into the nineteenth, twentieth, and even twenty-first centuries. As such, it is the most comprehensive of all the anthologies published to date and the most diverse in terms of the different schools of Hasidism....this reviewer can only applaud the remarkable erudition and discernment of these two scholars..." * Journal of Modern History * "Students and scholars have long needed access to a diverse set of Hasidic sources in English translation that allows an experiential entry into its emplacement and re-orientation within the skeptical landscape of the very modern world that birthed it-this volume is thus a welcome contribution in filling that need....Clearly this volume has its heart set on expanding the horizons of Hasidism, for both students and scholars, practitioners, and those perplexed by this remnant that keeps shining on. By continuing to carry forward central question of Jewish modernity, this volume provides new lenses-from an array of genres, including women's supplications; sermons and homilies; personal diaries and memoirs..." * Religious Studies Review *