Details

Abstract / Summary

Letters of Light is a translation of over ninety passages from a well-known Hasidic text, Ma'or va-shemesh, consisting of homilies of Kalonymus Kalman Epstein of Krakow, together with a running commentary and analysis by Aryeh Wineman. With remarkable creativity, the Krakow preacher recast biblical episodes and texts through the prism both of the pietistic values of Hasidism, with its accent on the inner life and the Divine innerness of all existence, and of his ongoing wrestling with questions of the primacy of the individual vis-a-vis that of the community. The commentary traces the route leading from the Torah-text itself through various later sources to the Krakow preacher's own reading of the biblical text, one that often transforms the very tenor of the text he was expounding. Though composed almost two centuries ago, Ma'or va-shemesh comprises an impressive spiritual statement, many parts of which can speak to our own time and its spiritual strivings.

Field of Interest

Religion & Thought

Author

Kalonymus Kalman Epstein, 1753-1823

Copyright Message

Used by permission of Wipf and Stock Publishers. www.wipfandstock.com

Content Type

Book

Duration

0 sec

Format

Text

Original Publication Date

2015

Page Count

283

Publication Year

2015

Publisher

Wipf & Stock

Place Published / Released

Eugene, OR

Subject

Religion & Thought, Social Sciences, Canonical and Sacred Texts, النصوص الكنسية والمقدسية, Textes sacrés et canoniques, Kanonische und heilige Texte, טקסטים קנוניים ומקודשים, Textos Canónicos y Sagrados, Textos Canônicos e Sagrados, Chasidic, Jewish, Spiritual Reading, Judaism, Torah, Interpretation of, Jews

Translator

Aryeh Wineman, 1932-

Keywords and Translated Subjects

النصوص الكنسية والمقدسية, Textes sacrés et canoniques, Kanonische und heilige Texte, טקסטים קנוניים ומקודשים, Textos Canónicos y Sagrados, Textos Canônicos e Sagrados