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February 1, 2024

The Ba’al Shem Tov: A Life of Ecstasy

Rabbi Dr. Ariel Evan Mayse

Rabbi Dr. Ariel Evan Mayse

Ariel Evan Mayse joined the faculty of Stanford University in 2017 as an assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies and serves as the rabbi-in-residence at Atiq: Jewish Maker Institute (atiqmakers.org).

Previously he was the Director of Jewish Studies and Visiting Assistant Professor of Modern Jewish Thought at Hebrew College in Newton, Massachusetts. Mayse holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from Harvard University and rabbinic ordination from Beit Midrash Har’el in Israel.

His most recent publications include Speaking Infinities: God and Language in the Teachings for Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezritsh (University of Pennsylvania, 2020); Hasidism: Writings on Devotion, Community and Life in the Modern World (Brandeis University Press, 2020), edited with Sam Berrin Shonkoff, and The Language of Truth in the Mother Tongue (Magnes Press, 2020, in Hebrew).

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Who was Rabbi Yisra’el ben Eli‘ezer of Mezhbizh (d. 1760), the legendary “founder” and protean creator of Hasidism? Categories melt before the heat of his religious personality. His innumerable followers and students sparked a popular revivalist movement, an explosive spiritual force that has shaped the face of modern Jewish life in countless ways. His image has commanded the attention of historians, scholars, artists, storytellers, and spiritual seekers for nearly three centuries. His legacy has become, in the hands of some latter-day disciples and descendants, a rallying cry in the bitter political fight against secularization, progress, and modernity. But the individual at the heart of it all remains enigmatic, a creative religious mind shrouded in mystery. The present class seeks to explore the teachings and memory of this complicated and electrifying religious leader, who planted the hardy seeds that grew into the most successful and influential movement of Jewish mystical renewal of all time.

Session 1: Embers in the Forest

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Session 2: Becoming the Besht

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Session 3: The Mezhbizh Years

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Session 4: Prayer, Study, and Devotion

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Session 5: Community

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