Speaking Torah, Volume 1

Speaking Torah, Volume 1 by Arthur Green

The most powerful Hasidic teachings made accessible--from some of the world's preeminent authorities on Jewish thought and spirituality.

"The teachings of Torah, from beginning to end, are read here as a path toward liberation, a way of uplifting your soul and allowing it to journey homeward, back to its Source in the oneness of all being. Or, even better, to discover that oneness right here, in a loving but transformative embrace of both world and self."

--from "To the Reader"

While Hasidic tales have become widely known to modern audiences, the profound spiritual teachings that stand at the very heart of Hasidism have remained a closed book for all except scholars. This fascinating selection--presented in two volumes following the weekly Torah reading and the holiday cycle, and featured in English and Hebrew--makes the teachings accessible in an extraordinary way.

Volume 1 covers Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus, and includes a history of early Hasidism and a summary of central religious teachings of the Maggid's school. Volume 2 covers Numbers and Deuteronomy and the holiday cycle, and includes brief biographies of the Hasidic figures. Each teaching is presented with a fresh translation and contemporary commentary that builds a bridge between the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries. And each teaching concludes with a dynamic round-table discussion between distinguished Jewish scholar Arthur Green and his closest students--the editors of this volume. They highlight the wisdom that is most meaningful for them, thus serving as a contemporary circle's reflections on the original mystical circle of master and disciples who created these teachings.

Volume 1 of a 2-volume set

Arthur Green, PhD, is regarded as one of the world's foremost experts on Jewish spirituality and thinking. He is the Irving Brudnick professor of philosophy and religion at Hebrew College, as well as the rector of the Rabbinical School, which he established in 2004. Dr. Green is the author of several publications, including Judaism's Ten Best Ideas: A Short Guide for Seekers; Ehyeh: A Kabbalah for Tomorrow; Seek My Face: A Jewish Mystical Theology; and Your Word Is Fire: The Hasidic Masters on Contemplation. He is a professor emeritus at Brandeis University and formerly taught at the University of Pennsylvania and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where he served as dean He is also the writer of Speaking Torah: Spiritual Teachings from Around the Maggid's Table (Yale University Press) and the author of Radical Judaism (Yale University Press). He's been linked to the Havurah movement and a neo-Hasidic approach to Judaism for a long time.