NEW COURSE
HDS 1637 – Jewish Mysticism: From the Spanish Expulsion to the New Age
Semester: Fall
Offered: 2023
Course Head: Shaul Magid
Meeting Time: W 1:00pm – 3:00pm
This course will examine the phenomenon known as Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism, beginning with the Spanish Expulsion (1492) and extending to the present. Its focus will be on major movements of kabbalistic activity from Lurianic Kabbalah, Sabbateanism, Renaissance Kabbalah, Lithuanian Kabbalah, Hasidism, Neo-Hasidism, and Kabbalah in the New Age. The focus will be on changing and developing kabbalistic systems, questions of messianism and redemption, history, heresy, and the impact of modernity and postmodernity on kabbalistic praxis. Larger questions on mystical religion, law, secularism, and the differences between normative religion and spirituality will also be discussed.
For more details please visit the Harvard Course Catalog.