Orot, Inc. together with Ramhal Institute, Jerusalem, just released this new work by Bezalel Naor, Shod Melakhim, a collection of studies in Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah. 176 pages. Hebrew. Contains tribute to Rabbi Joshua Hoffman zt”l.
Available from Orot, Inc. (USA) or Ramhal Institute (Israel).
Orot, Inc. together with Ramhal Institute, Jerusalem, just released this new work by Bezalel Naor, Shod Melakhim, a collection of studies in Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah. 176 pages. Hebrew. Contains tribute to Rabbi Joshua Hoffman zt”l.
Available from Orot, Inc. (USA) or Ramhal Institute (Israel).
RABBI PINHAS HAKOHEN LINTOP (1852-1924)
Pinhas Hakohen Lintop, Rabbi of the Habad community of Birzh, Lithuania, was an intimate friend and colleague of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook. Their friendship began when Rabbi Kook served as Rabbi of Zoimel, Lithuania and later Boisk, Latvia, and continued even after Rav Kook immigrated to Erets Israel.
“Inyanah shel ha-Hasidut” (“The Matter of Hasidism”)
by Rabbi Bezalel Naor
In this groundbreaking essay, the author presents Beshtian or East European Hasidism as an attempt to reintroduce the charismatic or prophetic dimension to Jewish life. The optic is very much that of Rav Kook, although the author’s perspective is also influenced by the historiography of Rav Kook’s fellow kabbalist, Rabbi Pinhas Hakohen Lintop of Birzh, Lithuania. The reader will also note some common ground shared with Rabbi Kalonymos Kalmish Shapira of Piaseczna (known as the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto). The departure point for the entire discussion is a pithy remark by Rabbi Shelomo Zalman Schneerson, Rebbe of Kopyst, at the Simhat Beit ha-Sho’evah, Sukkot of 1890. (Rav Kook’s maternal grandfather was a Kopyster Hasid.)
The endnotes contain fascinating discussions:
Did Hasidism intend prophecy for the masses?
How the Vilna Gaon democratized ru’ah ha-kodesh (divine inspiration).
What was the mystical practice of the Ba‘al Shem Tov?
The clairvoyance of the Mezritcher Maggid.
Hasidism, Romanticism and the Enlightenment.
Rabbi Isaac Hutner’s allusion to the Letters of Rav Kook.
Clarification of Maimonides’ position on Prophecy and Halakhah.
The relation of the Kotzker Rebbe to the Vilna Gaon.
In 1666, the mystic Shabbetai Zevi of Izmir (Smyrna) convinced most of the Jewish world that he was the righteous Messiah come to redeem his people Israel. Much of the Christian world, particularly Protestants in Western Europe, were equally fascinated by the tidings from the East (though they might have cast Shabetai Zevi in the role of Antichrist). All this came to a dramatic end with the Messiah’s forced conversion to Islam by the Sultan in Edirne (Adrianople). Was this truly the end? Does a Messiah ever truly end?
Reuven Alpert has doggedly tracked the remnants of Shabbetai Zevi’s followers in Greece and Turkey. A highlight of his journey is a visit to the home of this controversial personality in Izmir. Caught in the Crack is a search for the Messiah in time and space. Beyond that, Caught in the Crack has some disturbing things to say concerning Messiahs—Bar Kochba, Shabbetai Zevi, Jacob Frank—and the entire phenomenon of Messianism.
Reuven Alpert describes himself as a “spiritual anthropologist.” He has devoted several years to exploring exotic Jewish communities around the globe. He studied Talmudic law and Jewish philosophy in yeshivot and universities in the United States and Israel. His travelogs have appeared in Lifestyles magazine and elsewhere. Most recently, Mr. Alpert authored God’s Middlemen: A Habad Retrospective (White Cloud Press, 1998).
“On our globe, perhaps no rift is so profound as that separating Jew and Muslim. This is the story of a sect of some 25.000 souls who for over three hundred years have lived a double identity of Jewish Muslims. It is also the story of intense longing for the Messiah, of the apocalypse, of deep disappointment, and of faith beyond faith.”