Download or read book The Revealed and Hidden Writings of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav written by Zvi Mark and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2015-04-24 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zvi Mark uncovers previously unknown and never-before-discussed aspects of Rabbi Nachman’s personal spiritual world. The first section of the book, Revelation, explores Rabbi Nachman’s spiritual revelations, personal trials and spiritual experiments. Among the topics discussed is the powerful “Story of the Bread,” wherein Rabbi Nachman receives the Torah as did Moses on Mount Sinai– a story that was kept secret for 200 years. The second section of the book, Rectification, is dedicated to the rituals of rectification that Rabbi Nachman established. These are, principally, the universal rectification, the rectification for a nocturnal emission and the rectification to be performed during pilgrimage to his grave. In this context, the secret story, “The Story of the Armor,” is discussed. The book ends with a colorful description of Bratzlav Hasidism in the 21st century.

Download or read book Burnt Books written by Rodger Kamenetz and published by Schocken. This book was released on 2010-10-19 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the acclaimed author of The Jew in the Lotus comes an "engrossing and wonderful book" (The Washington Times) about the unexpected connections between Franz Kafka and Hasidic master Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav—and the significant role played by the imagination in the Jewish spiritual experience. Rodger Kamenetz has long been fascinated by the mystical tales of the Hasidic master Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav. And for many years he has taught a course in Prague on Franz Kafka. The more he thought about their lives and writings, the more aware he became of unexpected connections between them. Kafka was a secular artist fascinated by Jewish mysticism, and Rabbi Nachman was a religious mystic who used storytelling to reach out to secular Jews. Both men died close to age forty of tuberculosis. Both invented new forms of storytelling that explore the search for meaning in an illogical, unjust world. Both gained prominence with the posthumous publication of their writing. And both left strict instructions at the end of their lives that their unpublished books be burnt. Kamenetz takes his ideas on the road, traveling to Kafka’s birthplace in Prague and participating in the pilgrimage to Uman, the burial site of Rabbi Nachman visited by thousands of Jews every Jewish new year. He discusses the hallucinatory intensity of their visions and offers a rich analysis of Nachman’s and Kafka’s major works, revealing uncanny similarities in the inner lives of these two troubled and beloved figures, whose creative and religious struggles have much to teach us about the Jewish spiritual experience.

Download or read book A Palace of Pearls written by Howard Schwartz and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-09 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav (1772-1810) is widely considered to be one of the foremost visionary storytellers of the Hasidic movement. The great-grandson of the Ba'al Shem Tov, founder of the movement, Rabbi Nachman came to be regarded as a great figure and leader in his own right, guiding his followers on a spiritual path inspired by Kabbalah. In the last four years of his life he turned to storytelling, crafting highly imaginative, allegorical tales for his Hasidim. Three-time National Jewish Book Award winner Howard Schwartz has masterfully compiled the most extensive collection of Nachman's stories available in English. In addition to the well-known Thirteen Tales, including "The Lost Princess" and "The Seven Beggars," Schwartz has included over one hundred narratives in the various genres of fairy tales, fables, parables, dreams, and folktales, many of them previously unknown or believed lost. One such story is the carefully guarded "Tale of the Bread," which was never intended to be written down and was only to be shared with those Bratslavers who could be trusted not to reveal it. Eventually recorded by Rabbi Nachman's scribe, the tale has maintained its mythical status as a "hidden story." With utmost reverence and unfettered delight, Schwartz has carefully curated A Palace of Pearls alongside masterful commentary that guides the reader through the Rabbi's spiritual mysticism and uniquely Kabbalistic approach, ultimately revealing Rabbi Nachman to be a literary heavyweight in the vein of Gogol and Kafka. Vibrant, wise, and provocative, this book is a must-read for any lover of fairy tales and fables.

Download or read book Rabbi Nachman of Breslov Who He Was and What He Said written by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov o.b.m. and published by Simcha Nanach. This book was released on 2016-05-31 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: HH: Rabbi Nachman of Breslov lived over 200 years ago. His great grandfather, the Baal Shem Tov had already brought radical reform and revitalization to the world and Judaism, but Rabbi Nachman did not suffice with this spiritual inheritance, rather he sought out anew the very core fundamental essence and source of existence with the Holy Merciful One G-d. Countless times, every single day, he would start completely new, throwing his complete devotion in seeking true life and bonding with the Creator. Although he was blessed with extraordinary brilliance and genius, he shunned sophistication and even put erudition second to prayer. He championed simple devotions, he prized heartfelt prayer and conversation with G-d more than everything. Rabbi Nachman confronted all the vices which influence people, and he conquered and prevailed. He rose above all the trappings and pettiness of human nature, and continued to rise in supernal spiritual attainments of goodness and G-dliness. From his lofty perspective Rabbi Nachman looks into the deepest abyss, and gives firm directions to self redemption. Back in his times the world still had a great deal of denial of human weakness, and open honest admittance to one's failings were almost not existent, just on a very private and somewhat theoretical paradigm. Rabbi Nachman's simple true approach of dedication to addressing one's character and standing in regular sessions of hisbodidus (seclusion) with G-d was a sharp and brutal attack on the sophisticated yet superficial systems which ruled society. Those who strongly needed to find the truth, would find Rabbi Nachman. Slowly his chasidus (sect) of Breslov grew, with individuals who had the strength to stand up for their values even in the face of condemnation by society at large. Ultimately the holy ways of Rabbi Nachman began to inoculate even the views of the world at large, and today we are witness to how the world at large has embraced many of the approaches which had previously been somewhat exclusive to Breslov. Hopefully this little booklet will help that initiative along, there's still quite a way to go B”H. In this little booklet I present many succinct teachings which are basics of Breslov; short, sweet, and to the point. Great care was given to accurately translate the teachings, and their exact sources are provided. In addition there is a short synopsis of who Rabbi Nachman was and what he was about. The booklet also explains the progression of Breslov into the present day, specifically with the revelation of the New Song in a letter signed by Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman. This booklet also has a transliteration of the Teekoon Haklalli – the comprehensive “General” rectification – which are the ten Psalms that Rabbi Nachman prescribed, and a short prayer which has become conventional. In short, this booklet is like a first aid kit, providing some basic directives to help a person gain his/her footing and gather his wit, so that he can get his life in order and set in the right direction. Everyone should be extremely familiar with all the teachings presented, and one should pray profusely and copiously over every teaching to merit to realize and achieve them.

Download or read book The Scroll of Secrets written by Zvi Mark and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Concealed for two centuries and known only to a select individual in each generation, the Scroll of Secrets is the hidden Messianic vision of R. Nachman of Breslav. Despite its being written in an encoded language, with acronyms and abbreviations, after a clarification and cautious reconstruction of what can be decoded, the author has prepared a volume that presents the reader with an exalted Messianic vision. The book marks a turning point in our understanding of R. Nachman's spiritual world and initiates a renewed discussion of an intriguing Hasidism that excites scholars and broad circles within the Jewish and Israeli publics. The reader is presented with a sublime and enticing vision of the eschatological End of Days that contains song and prayer, Torah, melodies, longings, and love and compassion for every man.

Download or read book Burnt Books written by Rodger Kamenetz and published by Random House Digital, Inc.. This book was released on 2010 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dual portrait of Hasidic storyteller Rabbi Nachman and iconic writer Franz Kafka reveals unexpected parallels between their lives, tracing their respective writings about an illogical world and searches for spiritual meaning.

Download or read book The Stories of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov and Saba Yisroel written by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov o.b.m. and published by Simcha Nanach. This book was released on 2016-06-06 with total page 588 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: HH Rabbi Nachman's birth already set the stage for the modern era, e.g. a mere few years after he was born in 1772, America declared independence. Many of his teachings speak more directly to the man of our present time and society than to the shtetel (small town) Jews who were his followers. E.g. Rabbi Nachman revealed that everyone has an aspect of monarchy even if it is only over his family, or on a subliminal paradigm, this teaching was readily understood by his followers, but it was somewhat theoretical being that they were so destitute they could barely have seen real manifestation of this principle. Today, even the less well off, can clearly see how they wield various privileges and amenities that would have been special even for a monarch of those times. With the changing times, also came changing attitudes, social climate, and personal truths, convictions, ideas, and prerogatives. Rabbi Nachman had to prepare the world for this transition, and he did so by revealing the highest and deepest teachings which are the root of everything that plays out in the world. Anyone that looks at a lesson from Rabbi Nachman will see reflections of what is going on that very moment in his own life. Yet, even still, Rabbi Nachman saw that his followers were not adjusting properly and sufficiently. He saw their struggles and how they grappled with forces far superior than them. Even his awesome teachings were not providing his followers with the necessary perspective and life knowledge that they needed so desperately in order to transcend the narrow confines of ideology that were trapping them and leaving them helpless to the wanton desires of the helpless. As a final last resort Rabbi Nachman found the solution, he would reveal timeless stories, stories that would recreate the perception of the workings of the world, the listener would be reborn into new consciousness and awareness, and would be impassioned to forever seek renewal and true vitality. These stories are called Stories of Ancient Years, corresponding to the Divine Countenance of Attik Yoamin (see book of Daniel), the countenance of the Ancient of Years, which subliminally transcends all of the ordinary chain of events manifested in the Divine Providence, a bridge to cognizance of what is utterly beyond. On the one hand, these legendary tales are completely unfathomable in their scope and import, they are allusions to the most deep and esoteric Divine secrets, and yet on the other hand, they are filled with practical morals and life lessons which any reader can easily glean and gain. To this day no one has merited to completely understand the root and intrinsic meaning of the stories in their rightful context, yet multitudes of people have gained phenomenal new insights through these stories, the stories literally open up gates to greater perspicacity and cognizance. The stories have captured the attention and fascination of even the most secular scholars, they have been translated into different languages, and they are studied in universities throughout the world. Rabbi Nachman said that even the minutest detail of the stories is extremely critical, and unfortunately most of the translations are fraught with the literary license an author has to set down his own perspective, which in this case is undoubtedly very damaging. This translation was done painstakingly to capture as best as possible the exact translation and nuance, even following the order of the original verbiage, and often favoring the original Yiddish in which Rabbi Nachman delivered the stories. In more recent times, one of Rabbi Nachman's followers, Rabbi Yisroel Dov Odesser, underwent a phenomenal course of events which themselves proved to be the mechanism of transition and development of Breslov, and are understood to be a clear aspect of Stories of Ancient Times, and thus some of his stories are fittingly included in this volume as well as are many other stories from Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman.

Download or read book The Tales of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav written by Adin Steinsaltz and published by Maggid. This book was released on 2010 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rabbi Nachman's tales are considered the peak of his creative life for their form, content, and profound, underlying ideas. Transcribed by Rabbi Natan (Sternharz) of Bratslav, Rabbi Nachman's chief desciple, they are a mixture of intellectual and poetic imagination, fairy tales rooted in Kabbalistic symbolism and Biblical and Talmudic sources. The Tales of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav features select pieces from the original work together with Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz's elucidating commentary to help the reader discover layer upon layer of meaning in this classic work.

Download or read book Mysticism and Madness written by Zvi Mark and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2009-07-21 with total page 642 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two hundred years since Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav's demise, his philosophical writings and literary creation remain lively and provocative materials in both Jewish culture and the New-Age movement. Key elements of Rabbi Nachman`s magic and magnetic force are illuminated in this research, which presents Bratslavian mysticism as a unique link in the history of Jewish mysticism. The mystical worldview is the axis of this book, but its branches stretch out to key issues in the Bratslavian world such as belief and imagination, dreams and the land of Israel, melodies and song.

Download or read book The Tales of Rabbi Nachman written by Martin Buber and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Buber retells the classic tales of Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav, highlighting the spiritual verve and imagination of Hasidism.

Download or read book Kabbalistic Circles in Jerusalem 1896 1948 written by Jonatan Meir and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-08-09 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book endeavors to fill a lacuna in the literature on early twentieth-century kabbalah, namely the lack of a comprehensive account of the traditional kabbalah in Jerusalem from 1896 to 1948.

Download or read book The Privileged Divine Feminine in Kabbalah written by Moshe Idel and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2018-11-19 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume addresses the complex topic of the preeminent status of the divine feminine power, to be referred also as Female, within the theosophical structures of many important Kabbalists, Sabbatean believers, and Hasidic masters. This privileged status is part of a much broader vision of the Female as stemming from a very high root within the divine world, then She was emanated and constitutes the tenth, lower divine power, and even in this lower state She is sometime conceived of governing this world and as equal to the divine Male. Finally, She is conceived of as returning to Her original place in special moments, the days of Sabbath, the Jewish Holidays or in the eschatological era. Her special dignity is sometime related to Her being the telos of creation, and as the first entity that emerged in the divine thought, which has been later on generated. In some cases, an uroboric theosophy links the Female Malkhut, directly to the first divine power, Keter. The author points to the possible impact of some of the Kabbalistic discussions on conceptualizations of the feminine in the Renaissance period.

Download or read book Hasidic Art and the Kabbalah written by Batsheva Goldman-Ida and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2017-10-10 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hasidic Art and the Kabbalah presents eight case studies of manuscripts, ritual objects and folk art developed by Hasidic masters in the mid-eighteenth to late nineteenth centuries, whose form and decoration relate to sources in the Zohar, German Pietism, and Safed Kabbalah.

Download or read book Laws of the Spirit written by Ariel Evan Mayse and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2024-05-28 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 treatise 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.

Download or read book Interdisciplinary Handbook of Trauma and Culture written by Yochai Ataria and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-09-15 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This lofty volume analyzes a circular cultural relationship: not only how trauma is reflected in cultural processes and products, but also how trauma itself acts as a critical shaper of literature, the visual and performing arts, architecture, and religion and mythmaking. The political power of trauma is seen through US, Israeli, and Japanese art forms as they reflect varied roles of perpetrator, victim, and witness. Traumatic complexities are traced from spirituality to movement, philosophy to trauma theory. And essays on authors such as Kafka, Plath, and Cormac McCarthy examine how narrative can blur the boundaries of personal and collective experience. Among the topics covered: Television: a traumatic culture. From Hiroshima to Fukushima: comics and animation as subversive agents of memory in Japan. The death of the witness in the era of testimony: Primo Levi and Georges Perec. Sigmund Freud’s Moses and Monotheism and the possibility of writing a traumatic history of religion. Placing collective trauma within its social context: the case of the 9/11 attacks. Killing the killer: rampage and gun rights as a syndrome. This volume appeals to multiple readerships including researchers and clinicians, sociologists, anthropologists, historians, and media researchers.

Download or read book Yearnings of the Soul written by Jonathan Garb and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-11-23 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jonathan Garb's "Yearnings of the Soul: Psychological Thought in Modern Kabbalah" is an original, path-breaking study of the renderings of the "heart and soul" in the works of major, minor, and obscure but important figures of modern Kabbalah. Garb has unearthed a treasure-trove of neglected figures and texts, bringing into dialogue their views on heart and soul with those found in other religious and secular authorities. There is no other study that comes close to the territory Garb covers or, for that matter, provides the historical and cultural context necessary for understanding the rise of such psychological renderings in the works of the modern Kabbalists. His analysis shows that any attempt to essentialize the multiple and varied understandings of heart and soul in Jewish mysticism is mistaken. Analyzing text and figure in context on a case-by-case basis Garb is able to provide comparison without being reductive. This is an invaluable contribution to the discipline that cements Garb as the leading scholar of modern Kabbalah.

Download or read book Psalms Through the Centuries Volume 3 written by Susan Gillingham and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2022-06-27 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This third volume completes the set of a groundbreaking reception history of the Psalter, the culmination of two decades’ work In Volume Three of Psalms Through the Centuries: A Reception History Commentary on Psalms 73-151, the internationally recognized biblical scholar Professor Susan Gillingham examines the Jewish and Christian cultural and reception history of Books Three to Five of the Psalter. She examines the changing ways in which psalms have been understood in translations and commentaries, liturgy and prayer, study and preaching, music and art, poetic and dramatic performance, and political and ethical discourse. Lavishly illustrated with thirty colour plates, several black and white images and a number of musical scores, this volume also includes a comprehensive glossary of terms for readers less familiar with the subject and a full, selective bibliography complete with footnote references for each psalm. Numerous links to website resources also allow readers to pursue topics at greater depth, and three clearly organized indices facilitate searches by specific psalms or authors, or types of reception for selected psalms. This structure makes the commentary easy to use, whether for private study, teaching or preaching. The book also offers: A one-of-a-kind treatment of the reception history of the psalms that starts where most commentaries end— beginning with the trajectory of the Psalter’s multi-faceted reception over two millennia Specific discussions of both Jewish and Christian responses to individual psalms Psalms Through the Centuries: A Reception History Commentary on Psalms 73-151, like the previous two volumes, will earn a distinctive place in the libraries of faculties, colleges, seminaries, and religious communities as well as in private collections of students and scholars of biblical studies, theology, and religion.