The Mystical Origins of Hasidism
Rachel Elior

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This very accessible introduction to hasidism as a movement opens a new window on its mystical underpinnings. It discusses the origins and dissemination of hasidism and the literature that facilitated this; the theological basis of hasidism and the mystical significance of the tsadik; the major figures of hasidism; and the complex links to kabbalah and Shabbateanism. The discussion of the intellectual and social implications highlights the eighteenth century as a key period in modern Jewish history.

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Rachel Elior is John and Golda Cohen Professor of Jewish Philosophy and Jewish Mystical Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and has been a research fellow and visiting professor at University College London, the University of Amsterdam, Oberlin College, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Case Western University, Yeshiva University, Tokyo University, and Princeton University. The recipients of many awards, she is the author of numerous works on Jewish mysticism and hasidism, including The Paradoxical Ascent to God: The Kabbalistic Theosophy of Habad Hasidism (1992), The Three Temples: On the Emergence of Jewish Mysticism (2004), and Jewish Mysticism: The Infinite Expression of Freedom (forthcoming 2007).

Professor Elior was awarded the 2006 Gershom Scholem Prize for the Study of Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

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