Tikkun ha-Paradox: Joseph G. Weiss, Gershom Scholem, and the Lost Dissertation on R. Nahman of Bratslav
Tikkun ha-Paradox: Joseph G. Weiss, Gershom Scholem, and the Lost Dissertation on R. Nahman of Bratslav
Joseph G. Weiss (1918–1969) arrived in Jerusalem from Budapest in December 1939 and enrolled at the Hebrew University, where he studied Jewish history, Jewish philosophy, Kabbalah, and general philosophy. He attended lectures by Julius Guttmann, Shmuel Hugo Bergmann, Yitzhak Baer, Gershom Scholem, and others. Weiss initially intended to study the medieval poetry of the Jews of Spain, and even wrote several articles on Hebrew literature, yet he quickly drew close to Scholem and the study of Kabbalah. Weiss took a rather critical attitude toward developments in Palestine and appears to have refrained from political engagement at this time, notwithstanding the Zionist fervor in the spirit of Martin Buber that brought him to Palestine in the first place. He received his M.A. from the Faculty of the Humanities in 1947 and proceeded to write a doctoral dissertation under the supervision of Scholem, at first on R. Nahman of Bratslav and subsequently on the Baal Shem Tov. The complicated history of the dissertation that he submitted in 1950 on dialectical faith in the teachings of R. Nahman has long been clouded in mystery, circumstances that have given rise to spurious claims made by journalists and scholars alike who have sought to portray Scholem in a certain light. One such rumor, which is utterly devoid of any basis in fact, claims that Scholem compelled Weiss to leave Jerusalem for London due to his refusal to accept the dissertation. Others have read the affair as a sort of mythological struggle between two research approaches: historical-philological versus spiritual-existential, an interpretation that is far removed from reality. The events, it seems, served as fertile ground for scholars in search of an imaginary anchor for their own ideas, a smokescreen for a new approach. A significant breakthrough came with the publication by Noam Zadoff of an important selection of Scholem and Weiss’s correspondence, which sheds light on several key issues. With that, a complete account of the dissertation, presented in its full context (not to mention developments over the years in Weiss’s approach to the study of Bratslav Hasidism), has not been provided to this date, and is presented here for the first time. New material from the Schocken Library archive, the Central Archive for the History of the Jewish People, the archive of the Hebrew University, and various archives held at the National Library of Israel.
Joseph G. Weiss (1918–1969) arrived in Jerusalem from Budapest in December 1939 and enrolled at the Hebrew University, where he studied Jewish history, Jewish philosophy, Kabbalah, and general philosophy. He attended lectures by Julius Guttmann, Shmuel Hugo Bergmann, Yitzhak Baer, Gershom Scholem, and others. Weiss initially intended to study the medieval poetry of the Jews of Spain, and even wrote several articles on Hebrew literature, yet he quickly drew close to Scholem and the study of Kabbalah. Weiss took a rather critical attitude toward developments in Palestine and appears to have refrained from political engagement at this time, notwithstanding the Zionist fervor in the spirit of Martin Buber that brought him to Palestine in the first place. He received his M.A. from the Faculty of the Humanities in 1947 and proceeded to write a doctoral dissertation under the supervision of Scholem, at first on R. Nahman of Bratslav and subsequently on the Baal Shem Tov. The complicated history of the dissertation that he submitted in 1950 on dialectical faith in the teachings of R. Nahman has long been clouded in mystery, circumstances that have given rise to spurious claims made by journalists and scholars alike who have sought to portray Scholem in a certain light. One such rumor, which is utterly devoid of any basis in fact, claims that Scholem compelled Weiss to leave Jerusalem for London due to his refusal to accept the dissertation. Others have read the affair as a sort of mythological struggle between two research approaches: historical-philological versus spiritual-existential, an interpretation that is far removed from reality. The events, it seems, served as fertile ground for scholars in search of an imaginary anchor for their own ideas, a smokescreen for a new approach. A significant breakthrough came with the publication by Noam Zadoff of an important selection of Scholem and Weiss’s correspondence, which sheds light on several key issues. With that, a complete account of the dissertation, presented in its full context (not to mention developments over the years in Weiss’s approach to the study of Bratslav Hasidism), has not been provided to this date, and is presented here for the first time. New material from the Schocken Library archive, the Central Archive for the History of the Jewish People, the archive of the Hebrew University, and various archives held at the National Library of Israel.
Tikkun ha-Paradox: Joseph G. Weiss, Gershom Scholem, and the Lost Dissertation on R. Nahman of Bratslav
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Tikkun ha-Paradox: Joseph G. Weiss, Gershom Scholem, and the Lost Dissertation on R. Nahman of Bratslav
Sale price64 ₪
Regular price