Academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

historical History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

research into Jewish mysticism is a modern multi-discipline university branch of Jewish studies. It studies the texts and historical contexts of Judaic mysticism using objective historical-critical methods of Religious studies, such as Philology,

History of ideas Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual histor ...

Social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

and Phenomenology. The historical development of Jewish mysticism under study covers the range of phases, forms and expressions, from early Rabbinic Merkabah mysticism, through Medieval

Hasidei Ashkenaz The Hasidim of Ashkenaz ( he, חסידי אשכנז, trans. ''Khasidei Ashkenaz''; "German Pietists") were a Jewish mystical, ascetic movement in the German Rhineland during the 12th and 13th centuries. Background The leaders of the community ...

and Classical Kabbalah, early-modern Safed Kabbalah and

Sabbateanism The Sabbateans (or Sabbatians) were a variety of Jewish followers, disciples, and believers in Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676), a Sephardic Jewish rabbi and Kabbalist who was proclaimed to be the Jewish Messiah in 1666 by Nathan of Gaza. Vast n ...

, to modern

Hasidism Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contem ...

and 20th century expressions. It is often seen as a parallel field to academic research into rationalist

Jewish philosophy Jewish philosophy () includes all philosophy carried out by Jews, or in relation to the religion of Judaism. Until modern ''Haskalah'' (Jewish Enlightenment) and Jewish emancipation, Jewish philosophy was preoccupied with attempts to reconcile ...

, though some scholars contribute in both areas. In Israel both subjects, together with Ethical literature, share the umbrella department of Jewish thought. Historical research into Jewish mysticism was first prepared by the 19th century

Wissenschaft des Judentums "''Wissenschaft des Judentums''" (Literally in German the expression means "Science of Judaism"; more recently in the US it started to be rendered as "Jewish Studies" or "Judaic Studies," a wide academic field of inquiry in American Universities) ...

school, whose historiography ignored, opposed or downplayed Kabbalah. The founding of the present flourishing University discipline is attributed to Gershom Scholem and his school in the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public university, public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein ...

in the 20th century, whose historiography positioned Jewish mysticism as a mainstream vitalising source in the centre of Jewish development. A second generation of scholars are today found in Israel, the United States and Europe. The field is broadly divided into three camps: # Professors/researchers of Jewish mysticism/thought in academia, who study Jewish mysticism through its internal textual development # Professors/researchers of Jewish history/society in academia, who contribute to the study of Jewish mysticism through its external social contexts # Independent historian researchers outside of Universities, who follow a religious historiography, but use the scholarly academic apparatus of research, sourcing and presentation. This research is most common in relation to Hasidism, due to its social popularisation of Kabbalah. These works are not usually cited in the critical-methodology of academia, but work is being done to examine their findings Spiritual figures within the Jewish mystical tradition are not listed here, but in Timeline List of Jewish Kabbalists. Contemporary teachers of Jewish mysticism across the Jewish denominations, listed there, should only be listed here if they also publish scholarly-form historical research into Jewish mysticism. Academic scholars of Jewish mysticism have followed a diverse range in personal belief commitment or detachment to Jewish mysticism, independent of their research.

Prelude historians of Judaism before Scholem

Heinrich Graetz Heinrich Graetz (; 31 October 1817 – 7 September 1891) was amongst the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective. Born Tzvi Hirsch Graetz to a butcher family in Xions (now Książ Wielkop ...

(1817–1891) (

, disparaged Kabbalah) * Jewish Encyclopedia 1901-1906 (

) * Simon Dubnow (1860–1941) (historian and folkist ideologue, initial Hasidism history) *

Moses Gaster Moses Gaster (17 September 1856 – 5 March 1939) was a Romanian, later British scholar, the ''Hakham'' of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish congregation, London, and a Hebrew and Romanian linguist. Moses Gaster was an active Zionist in Romani ...

(1856–1939) (folklorist) * Isaac Broyde (1867–1922) (author of Jewish Encyclopedia articles) *

Adolf Jellinek Adolf Jellinek ( he, אהרן ילינק ''Aharon Jelinek''; 26 June 1821 in Drslavice, Moravia – 28 December 1893 in Vienna) was an Austrian rabbi and scholar. After filling clerical posts in Leipzig (1845–1856), he became a preacher at t ...

(1821–1893) (Austrian Rabbi and scholar)

Academic scholars of Jewish mysticism/thought

Israel

* Gershom Scholem (1897–1982) (Founder of academic discipline, Hebrew University, new historiography represented in

Encyclopaedia Judaica The ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' is a 22-volume English-language encyclopedia of the Jewish people, Judaism, and Israel. It covers diverse areas of the Jewish world and civilization, including Jewish history of all eras, culture, holidays, langu ...

1971–1972) * Martin Buber (1878–1965) (Interpretation of Hasidism to his own Existentialist Philosophy, Hebrew University, founder of Neo-Hasidism) * Joseph Dan (1935–2022) (Scholem chair at Hebrew University) * Moshe Idel (1947-) (revision of Scholem's views and Ecstatic Kabbalah''Kabbalah: New Perspectives'', Moshe Idel, Yale University Press 1990) *

Rachel Elior Rachel Elior (born 28 December 1949) is an Israeli professor of Jewish philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Jerusalem, Israel. Her principal subjects of research has been Hasidism and the history of early Jewish mysticism. Academ ...

(1949-) (Hebrew University) *

Jonathan Garb Jonathan Garb ( he, יהונתן גארב, born 1967) is an Israeli scholar of Kabbalah. He is holder of the Gershom Scholem chair in Kabbalah (together with Prof. Yehuda Liebes) in the Department of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Je ...

(1967-) (Hebrew University) *

Boaz Huss Boaz Huss (born 1959) is a professor of Kabbalah at the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is a leading scholar in contemporary Kabbalah. Early life and education Boaz Huss was born in Jerusalem ...

(1959-) (Ben Gurion University)

United States

Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Joshua Heschel (January 11, 1907 – December 23, 1972) was a Polish-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century. Heschel, a professor of Jewish mysticism at the Jewish T ...

(1907–1972) (Neo-Hasidic philosopher and theologian, Jewish Theological Seminary) *

Alexander Altmann Alexander Altmann (April 16, 1906 – June 6, 1987) was an Orthodox Jewish scholar and rabbi born in Kassa, Austria-Hungary (present-day Košice, Slovakia). He emigrated to England in 1938 and later settled in the United States, working productiv ...

(1906–1987) (a founding figure in US, also scholar of Jewish philosophy, taught Brandeis University) *

Elliot Wolfson Elliot R. Wolfson (born November 23, 1956) is a scholar of Jewish studies. Wolfson earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in philosophy at Queens College of the City University of New York, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Near Eastern and Judaic studies f ...

(1956-) (University of California, Santa Barbara) *

Arthur Green Arthur Green ( he, אברהם יצחק גרין, born March 21, 1941) is an American scholar of Jewish mysticism and Neo-Hasidic theologian. He was a founding dean of the non-denominational rabbinical program at Hebrew College in Boston, where he ...

(1941-) (Hasidism scholar, also Reconstructionist/Neo-Hasidic theologian, Hebrew College, Boston) *

Norman Lamm Norman Lamm (December 19, 1927 – May 31, 2020) was an American Modern Orthodox rabbi, scholar, academic administrator, author, and Jewish community leader. He was the Chancellor of Yeshiva University until he announced his retirement on July ...

(1927–2020) (Modern Orthodox leader, Hasidic-Mitnagdic study, Yeshiva University) * Allan Nadler (1954-) (Mitnagdic response to Hasidism) * Daniel C. Matt (academic translation of the Zohar) *

Shaul Magid Shaul Magid (born June 16, 1958) is the Distinguished Fellow in Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College. From 2004-2018 he was a professor of religious studies and the Jay and Jeannie Schottenstein Chair of Jewish Studies in Modern Judaism at Indiana U ...

(Indiana University)

Europe

Louis Jacobs Louis Jacobs (17 July 1920 – 1 July 2006) was a leading writer and theologian. He was the rabbi of the New London Synagogue in the United Kingdom. He was also the focus in the early 1960s of what became known as "The Jacobs Affair" in the ...

(1920–2006) (London, Hasidic studies, Conservative Judaism theologian) George Vajda (Medieval Kabbalah)

Religious historiography researchers of Jewish mysticism

Israel

United States

Aryeh Kaplan Aryeh Moshe Eliyahu Kaplan ( he, אריה משה אליהו קפלן; October 23, 1934 – January 28, 1983) was an American Orthodox rabbi, author, and translator, best known for his Living Torah edition of the Torah. He became well known as ...

(Meditation and the Prophets, Kabbalistic Meditation, Breslov Hasidic history) *

Jacob Immanuel Schochet Jacob Immanuel Schochet (August 27, 1935 – July 27, 2013) was a Swiss-born Canadian rabbi who wrote on Hasidism. He was a member of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. Biography Schochet's parents were Dov Yehuda and Sarah Schochet. Shortly after e ...

(Habad Hasidic history) *

Nathaniel Deutsch Nathaniel Deutsch is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he holds the Baumgarten Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies. He is also the Director of the Center for Jewish Studies and the Director of the Humanities Institute. Car ...

(Kabbalah, Merkabah and Hasisdism)

Europe

Elsewhere

References

External links

Don Karr's Bibliographic Surveys
of contemporary historian scholarship on all traditions in Jewish mysticism {{DEFAULTSORT:Jewish mysticism scholars * Hasidic Judaism Judaic studies Jewish historians Mysticism academics Religious studies scholars Lists of theologians and religious studies scholars

Prelude historians of Judaism before Scholem

Academic scholars of Jewish mysticism/thought

Israel

United States

Europe

Religious historiography researchers of Jewish mysticism

Israel

United States

Europe

Elsewhere

See also

References

External links