Description
This book is a collection of studies on East European Jewish mysticism and Hasidism written by Joseph Weiss. Weiss was dedicated to uncovering the mystical aspects of Hasidism and understanding its historical significance. The studies, written over forty years ago, are still referenced in current research on Hasidism. The book also includes an introduction by Joseph Dan, which places Weiss's work in the context of modern scholarship and the resurgence of Hasidism since World War II. Dan concludes that Weiss's studies are still relevant in understanding contemporary Hasidism and its origins in the 18th century.
Joseph Weiss (1918-69) showed a single-minded commitment to identifying and describing the mystical element in hasidism and to unravelling the spiritual and historical meaning of the hasidic movement. The studies collected here, most of them written more than forty years ago, are still quoted in every serious study of hasidism. Joseph Dan's Introduction, written specially for this paperback edition, examines Weiss's scholarship both in the context of subsequent scholarly research and in the light of the resurgence of hasidism since the Second World War. He concludes that many of Weiss's detailed, perceptive, and empathetic studies are as relevant to understanding developments in the contemporary hasidic world as they are for understanding the emergence and growth of hasidism in the eighteenth century.
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