Tag: Kabbalah

Tanya's description of the Godly soul as a literal portion of divinity is an empowering notion for many spiritual seekers. It is also, however, inconsistent with longstanding Jewish theological doctrine regarding the unity of God. Elisha Price examines several possible interpretations of Tanya's words, placing them in a broader kabbalistic and rabbinic context, to suggest that Chabad's conception of the soul is both "rational and precedented."

In this poem, Mel Waldman considers life and its tribulations over coffee.

In this essay, Yehoshua November presents a model for preparing for the High Holidays

In a lyrical meditation on his wife's suffering, Mel Waldman reflects on the compassion of the rabbis who brought divinity into their lives

Chesky Kopel reviews Eli Rubin’s new book Kabbalah and the Rupture of Modernity: An Existential History of Chabad Hasidism.

In this review of Professor Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin's new book on the ideology of exile in the thought of the Safed Kabbalists, Aron Wander unpacks an alternate proposal for Jewish national self-understanding that seeks to elevate, rather than negate, the Jewish people's exilic experiences.

Ben Frogel reviews a new volume that introduces thirty-five different Jewish approaches to virtue ethics and attempts to link them into one continuous tradition.

In this mini-collection of poems, November reflects on the presence of God in the universe.

Avi Garson traces the rise and fall of the classical Sephardic tradition and calls for a renewed return to its fundamental principles.

What can we learn from Rav Kook's writings before he immigrated to the land of Israel? As Yom Ha-Atzma'ut approaches, Levi Morrow reviews Yehuda Mirsky's new prehistory of Rav Kook.