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The Besht: Magician, Mystic, and Leader » (New Edition)

Book cover image of The Besht: Magician, Mystic, and Leader by Immanuel Etkes

Authors: Immanuel Etkes
ISBN-13: 9781584654223, ISBN-10: 1584654228
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Brandeis University Press
Date Published: December 2004
Edition: New Edition

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Author Biography: Immanuel Etkes

IMMANUEL ETKES is the Bella and Israel Unterberg Professor of History of the Jewish People and Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. A prolific author, Etkes has published in Hebrew several works on major religious movements in the modern period including Hasidism and the Musar movement. He has published critically acclaimed monographs on the lives of major Jewish religious figures, including the The Gaon of Vilna: The Man and His Image (2002).

Book Synopsis

Now available in English, a provocative new biography of the founder of Hasidism

Table of Contents

Ch. 1Magic and miracle workers in the days of the Baal Shem Tov7
Ch. 2Israel Baal Shem46
Ch. 3A leader of the Jewish people79
Ch. 4The Besht as mystic and pioneer in divine worship113
Ch. 5The Besht and his circle152
Ch. 6The historicity of Shivhei Habesht203
Conclusion : the Besht and the founding of Hasidism249
App. IMagic and miracle workers in the literature of the Haskalah259
App. IIThe Besht's epistle272
App. IIIThe versions of the Besht's epistle282

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