From Tiberias With Love is a journey to rediscovering the magic and mystery, the intimacy and depth of a lost moment in the history of a remarkably relevant conscious community in the Galilee that still has much to teach us. In the year 1777, a group of spiritual seekers from Eastern European set sail in search of a promised land, far away from the internal and external conflicts plaguing those souls seeking the infinite within this finite world. Some who set sail identified with the burgeoning Jewish spiritual renewal movement of hasidism, while others seem to have just come along for the ride. Weathering challenges both socio-economic and geographic, this emigrating group sought to establish a center for a burgeoning hasidic ethos that would radiate to the Diaspora from its renewed center in the Holy Land in Palestine. Tiberian Hasidism provides a model of an intensive contemplative life that is particularly appealing to contemporary spiritual seekers for many reasons, including: its deep focus on mystical theology; devotional practice; and the ecstasy of deep friendship rather than allegiance to an institutionalized religion. This volume focuses on the teachings of letters of love from Vitebsker and Kalisker in Tiberias to their disciples in Eastern Europe known as the Iggrot Qodesh, still so ripe for excavation, offering an authentic roadmap to future contemplative pathways ripe for our age.

Aubrey L. Glazer is Senior Rabbi of Congregation Shaare Zion and director of Panui, an incubator for contemplative practice and conscious community building. Aubrey’s most recent books include Mystical Vertigo (Academic Studies Press, 2013) and Tangle of Matter & Ghost: Leonard Cohen’s Post-Secular Songbook of Mysticism(s) Jewish & Beyond (Academic Studies Press, 2017).

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Nehemia Polen is Professor of Jewish Thought at Hebrew College, Newton Center, MA. A leading expert in Hasidism and Jewish thought, his books include The Holy Fire: The Teachings of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto (Jason Aronson Inc., first ed., 1977).

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“Glazer and Polen have given us an important contribution to research in this volume. With masterful translations and meticulous annotations, they unlock the hidden heart of early Hasidism, revealing the poignant intimacy of the Iggrot exchanged between the pioneering Tiberian masters and their far-flung disciples. Imbricated with biblical and mystical verses, these epistles throb with a palpable yearning for connection, weaving an intricate tapestry of contemplation, ethics, and community. This is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the evolution of Hasidic thought and its formation during the first Hasidic generations, the role of the mystical group, and the complex negotiations between love and authority in the making of modern Jewish spirituality.”

— Alexandra Mandelbaum

“Scholars have often stumbled in trying to understand a religious movement as complex as Hasidism. This magnificent collection of articles by a new generation of superb scholars offers profound new ways of thinking about the nature of Jewish religiosity and developed by the Hasidic movement centered around Tiberias and the influence their ideas exerted.”

— Susannah Heschel, Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor, Dartmouth College

"A truly ground-breaking study of Letters of Love written by Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk and Rabbi Abraham haCohen of Kalisk— Hasidic masters, who lived and thought boldly. Adventurous enough to lead a group of his followers from Eastern Europe to Palestine in the 18th century, he also modeled a heart-based, ecstatic form of Jewish spirituality. These masters combined intense devotional practice with mystical fellowship, exemplifying their belief that one can discover the divine both deep within oneself and through interpersonal relationship. The wide-ranging, impressive essays in this volume bring this seminal figure to life and enrich our understanding of Jewish mysticism on the cusp of modernity."

—Daniel C. Matt, author of the multi-volume annotated translation, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition

"Hasidism is often thought of as a product of Eastern European Jewry, embedded in its social, political, and cultural context. While largely true, this depiction ignores the fact that some early proponents of Hasidism immigrated in Palestine and began to teach and write in Safed, Tiberias, and other locales. Drawn simply by the prospect of living in the Holy Land, or by a vision of imminent redemption, these Hasidic circles offered intriguing versions of Hasidic teaching outside of Eastern Europe. This volume is the first dedicated to Erez Israel Hasidism from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Prominent scholars engage in in-depth analysis of this Hasidic literature on the highest scholarly level. This is a must for anyone interested in Hasidism or the development of Jewish spiritual traditions more generally."

— Shaul Magid, Distinguished Fellow in Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College and Kogod senior Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America