NEW COURSE
HDS 1648 – Jewish Mysticism and Heresy: From Sabbateanism to Hasidism
Semester: Fall
Offered: 2024
Instructor: Shaul Magid
Meeting Time: W 1:00pm-3:00pm
Mystical religion almost always challenges the normative religious tradition in which it is embedded. The focus on the subject, the experiential, and testing the elasticity of doctrinal or behavioral norms, mysticism in some way comes to define aspects of internal heretical positions. This is certainly the case in Judaism. From its appearance on the Middle Ages with the Zohar and later forms of kabbalistic teaching, the suspicion of heresy in mysticism was often a concern expressed by Judaism’s rabbinic elite. This concern was justified in the Sabbatean heresy in the 17th century where a false messiah Sabbatai Zvi shook the Jewish world with claims that redemption had arrived, and prophecy restored. Tragedy unfolded as Sabbatai converted to Islam and his followers developed a mystical messianic doctrine that necessitated his conversion. In its wake came two other messianic/mystical iterations, the heresy of Jacob Frank (1726-1791) and the emergence of Hasidism (late 18th century).
This course will explore to nexus of mysticism and heresy in the Sabbatean movement and its aftermath, Frankism, and the rise of Hasidism. Through reading primary sources and scholarship, we will pay close attention to the underlying ways these movement contribute to the fear of heresy and expanding the boundaries of what constitutes heresy in Judaism. We will conclude with some readings on neo-Hasidism and its relationship to both Sabbateanism and Hasidism in a more pluralistic religious context.
For more details please visit the Harvard Course Catalog.