Hasidism Beyond Modernity

Essays in Habad Thought and History

• Author(s): Naftali Loewenthal,
• Publisher: Liverpool University Press
• Pages: 445
• ISBN_10: 1789628202
  ISBN_13: 9781789628203
  
• Language: en
• Categories: Religion / Judaism / Orthodox , Religion / Judaism / History , Religion / Essays , History / Jewish , Religion / Judaism / Kabbalah & Mysticism , Religion / Judaism / General , Religion / History , Religion / Judaism / Rituals & Practice , Social Science / Sociology of Religion ,

Description:...

The Habad school of hasidism is distinguished today
from other hasidic groups by its famous emphasis on outreach, on messianism, and
on empowering women. Hasidism Beyond Modernity provides a critical,
thematic study of the movement from its beginnings, showing how its unusual qualities
evolved. Topics investigated include the theoretical underpinning of the
outreach ethos; the turn towards women in the twentieth century; new attitudes
to non-Jews; the role of the individual in the hasidic collective; spiritual
contemplation in the context of modernity; the quest for inclusivism in the
face of prevailing schismatic processes;
messianism in both spiritual and political forms; and the direction of the
movement after the passing of its seventh rebbe,
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, in 1994. Attention is given to many contrasts:
pre-modern, modern, and postmodern conceptions of Judaism; the clash between maintaining
an enclave and outreach models of Jewish society; particularist and
universalist trends; and the subtle interplay of mystical faith and rationality.
Some of the chapters are new; others, published in an earlier form, have been
updated to take account of recent scholarship. This book presents an in-depth
study of an intriguing movement which takes traditional hasidism beyond
modernity.