Laws of the Spirit

Ritual, Mysticism, andthe Commandmentsin Early Hasidism

Ariel Evan Mayse (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

424 Seiten

2024
Stanford University Press (Verlag)
978-1-5036-3827-3 (ISBN)

Artikel merken

The compelling vision of religious life and practice found in Hasidic sources has made it the most enduring and successful Jewish movement of spiritual renewal of all time. In this book, Ariel Evan Mayse grapples with one of Hasidism's most vexing questions: how did a religious movement known for its radical views about immanence, revelation, and the imperative to serve God with joy simultaneously produce strict adherence to the structures and obligations of Jewish law? Exploring the movement from its emergence in the mid-1700s until 1815, Mayse argues that the exceptionality of Hasidism lies not in whether its leaders broke or upheld rabbinic norms, but in the movement's vivid attempt to rethink the purpose of Jewish ritual and practice. Rather than focusing on the commandments as law, he turns to the methods and vocabulary of ritual studies as a more productive way to reckon with the contradictions and tensions of this religious movement as well as its remarkable intellectual vitality.

Mayse examines the full range of Hasidic texts from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, from homilies and theological treatises to hagiography, letters, and legal writings, reading them together with contemporary theories of ritual. Arguing against the notion that spiritual integrity requires unshackling oneself from tradition, Laws of the Spirit is a sweeping attempt to rethink the meaning and significance of religious practice in early Hasidism.

Ariel Evan Mayse is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University.

Introduction

1. Thinking Matters: Mind, Body, Action

2. Wrestling with God's Word: Text, Study, Practice

3. Dwelling with Connection: Ritual, Commandment, and the Everyday

4. God-Making: Connectivity and Revelation

5. Thine Own Self: Individual, Community, Leadership

6. The Ever-Changing Path: Renewal and Diversity

7. Once and Future Commandments: The Torah Before Sinai and the End of the Mitsvot

Conclusion: Mysticism, Orthodoxy, and Renewal

Erscheinungsdatum	27.04.2024
Reihe/Serie	Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture
Verlagsort	Palo Alto
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Religionsgeschichte
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie
ISBN-10	1-5036-3827-8 / 1503638278
ISBN-13	978-1-5036-3827-3 / 9781503638273
Zustand	Neuware