This book deals with the characteristics of the Messianic idea, surveying its historical appearances and expressions in the philosophies of very different thinkers such as Isaac Abarbanel, Solomon Molcho, the Maharal of Prague, Menasseh ben Israel, Abraham Isaac Kook and Yissachar Shlomo Teichtal. These thinkers all embarked on a mutual search for religious significance of the tragic experience of exile, namely in the new era of the history of the Jews, from the Expulsion of Spain through the Holocaust. They sought to give meaning to the yearning for redemption, which became an essential and urgent question with the atrocities of history.

Offered here for the first time in English translation, Hasidism as Mysticism is a classic in its field. Using the tools of phenomenology, Rivka Schatz Uffenheimer places Hasidism squarely in the context of religious studies. Hasidism's theoretical texts have been largely ignored by historians of the movement, but Shatz Uffenheimer analyzes these materials fully, disclosing the mystical, quietistic tendencies that existed alongside Hasidism's more activist popular elements. The author carefully reviewed this translation of her work: it includes a revised introduction with new material, two new chapters, and an appendix containing a translation, history and literary analysis of one of the few extant texts attributed to the Ba'al Shem Tov.

The book studied here was chosen because of its importance in Hasidism and because it is one of the first books published about this movement. This publication helps to understand the text in MAGGID DEVARAV LE-YA’AKOV and answer questions about Hasidism in the 18th century- Its roots, its objectors and followers, its relationship with the Haskalah and Zionism movements and more.

The articles in this volume: Labor as a value in the Talmudic and Midrashic literature - M. Ayali The magical and Neoplatonic interpretations of the Kabbalah in the Renaissance - M. Idel "Mishnat Ha-Met" and "Seder rehizah gedolah" attributed to Hillel the elder - M. Benayahu The exile of Israel and the exile of the Shechina in "Or Yakar" of Rabbi Moses Cordovero - B. Sack The Minsk debate - R. Elior The place of Judaism in Jonathan Gottfried Herder's philosophy of history - Z. Levy Judaism, nationalism and humanism in the work of Yehezkel Kaufmann - E. Luz There are summeries in English for all the articles at the end of the volume.

The articles in this volume: The prophecy of King Solomon and Ruah HaKodesh Qohelet Rabbah - M. Hirshman The ethical-religious doctrine of Saadiah Gaon - E. Schweid Is Paris Ms. 767 actually a letter of Asher Ben David - M. Rong-Wiznitzer The theory of Dvekut in the writings of the Sages of Safed in the sixsteenth century - M. Pachter Cordovero and Luria: between realism and nominalism - R. Schatz-Uffenheimer The ultra-orthodox community and the Dead sea sect - Y. Liebes There are summeries in English for all the articles at the end of the volume.

The articles in this volume: Sayings of Jesus and the Midrash - M. Kister History according to the Animal Apocalypse - D. Dimant Shem Tov ibn Tov's commentary of Averroes "Epistle on the possibility of conjunction" - S. Regev The concept of the Torah in the work of Messer David ben Judah Leon - H. T. Rothschild A document from Izmir concerning the history of Sabbateanism - Y. Barnai "Darkei Zedek" attributed to Zechariah Mendel of Yaroslav: its sources and editing - Z. Gries Rav Hayim of Volozhin and Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi - two interpretations of the Doctrine of Zimzum - T. Ross The hidden relationship: on the church fathers and Judaism - G. G. Stroumsa There are summaries in English for all the articles at the end of the volume.