The Holy Fire

Reviews / Votes

Nehemia Polen has written a book of major importance. The first detailed study of the teachings of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto, this work illuminates as few others have done the real issues of faith and doubt during the Shoah. Unlike most of the ruminations about the meaning of the Holocaust for Jewish belief that have been written after the event by those who were not there, the teachings of Rabbi Shapira emerged from, and were shaped by, the daily reality of ghetto life. Their power and authenticity are overwhelming. Polen has done a wonderful job of deciphering them and making them available to a contemporary audience. Everyone interested in Jewish thought during and after the Holocaust should read this book. -- Steven T. Katz, Cornell University This is not a book about the Holocaust or hasidism. Contrary to the subtitle, it is not even a book about the final writings of one of the gedolim, or great ones of our generation. The Holy Fire is primarily a manual on comprehending evil from within God. And that makes it an invaluable took for anyone interested in Jewish spiritual renewal. -- Lawrence Kushner * Tikkun * Written with fear and in anguish by an exceptionally promising young scholar, Rabbi Nehemia Polen's volume about one of the most inspired hasidic masters during the Holocaust deserves to be studies and shared by theologians and secular readers alike. -- Elie Wiesel