From Haaretz, here’s a review of A Heart Afire, a wonderful book published last year by Reb Zalman and Netanel M. Miles-Yepez.  Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor

(From the February 8th issue of Haaretz.com)

A journey for those who wish to take it

  By Yael Unterman  

A Heart Afire: Stories and Teachings of the Early Hasidic Masters, by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Netanel Miles-Yepez
Jewish Publication Society of America, 406 pages, $45

A friend interested in Hasidism, who saw me reading “A Heart Afire,” commented lukewarmly: “Do we really need another book about the Hasidic masters?”

It’s a question worth taking seriously. Indeed, a previous collaboration by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, the grand old man of the Jewish Renewal movement, and his student, Netanel Miles-Yepez, a comparative religion scholar and spiritual counselor, already covered the topic, seemingly. In this case the overlap is not major, for the earlier work, “Wrapped in a Holy Flame: Teachings and Tales of the Hasidic Masters” (2003 ), is wide-ranging, whereas this one is limited to examining three specific 18th-century masters and their circles: the Baal Shem Tov (Israel Ben Eliezer, the “Besht,” founder of the Hasidic movement ); Dov Ber (the Maggid ) of Mezritch; and Elimelech of Lizhensk.

There is, however, no lack of illustrious predecessors writing in the same genre as “A Heart Afire,” namely not from an academic-critical perspective but from an insider one. They too charted the tales, and in some cases the teachings, of the major players in the early Hasidic movement. To name just a few: Elie Wiesel (”Souls on Fire” ); Martin Buber (”Tales of the Hasidim” ); and more recently, Abraham J. Twerski, scion of the Hasidic Chernobyl dynasty (”Four Chassidic Masters” ), and Rami Shapiro, whose “Hasidic Tales: Annotated and Explained,” was dedicated to Schachter-Shalomi, his rebbe. So my friend’s question, even if meant rhetorically, appears to be a legitimate one.

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From the The Jewish Daily Forward, here’s a review of two books recently published by Reb Zalman.  Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor

Reb Zalman’s Ah-ha Hasidism

A Heart Sutra for Pashute Yidden

By Alan Brill

Published June 17, 2009, issue of June 26, 2009

Ahron’s Heart: The Prayers, Teachings and Letters of Ahrele Roth, a Hasidic Reformer
By Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Yair Hillel Goelman
Ben Yehudah Press, 150 pages, $14.95.

A Heart Afire: Stories and Teachings of the Early Hasidic Masters
By Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Netanel Miles-Yepez
The Jewish Publication Society, 384 pages, $45.00.

Contemporary American religion is filled with quests for inner happiness, a direct sense of presence and charismatic gifts. The quest ranges from spontaneous drum circles to the Dalai Lama’s Westernized talks on happiness, and from Eckhart Tolle’s New Age wisdom to Sarah Palin’s Pentecostal exorcisms. In this landscape of emotive spirituality, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi serves as one of the major guides for contemporary Jews who seek the path of the heart.

Schachter-Shalomi, called Reb Zalman by most, is the cherished teacher of the Jewish Renewal movement, which seeks to create a trans-denominational neo-Hasidic spirituality.

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