Join us for a thought-provoking journey through a particular moment in history with one of Hebrew College’s beloved faculty members, Rabbi Nehemia Polen.
In the year 1777, a group of Hasidim departed White Russia for the Holy Land, arriving first in Safed and later making their home in the ancient city of Tiberias on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. They sought communion with God and a fraternal community of soul bonding. The leaders—Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk and Rabbi Abraham of Kalisk—were disciples of the Great Maggid of Mezerich, the successor to the Baal Shem Tov. This episode launches our discussion of Hasidism’s connection with the Land of Israel, which is deep and varied. The early leaders developed a heart-centered, ecstatic form of religious practice and mystical theology that we will read in translation.
Many other Hasidic groups established centers in Eretz Israel, seeking spiritual intensity in the ancient land of the Bible. We will survey this complex history, and discuss the conflicts over the modern State of Israel, including the sharp opposition to the State on the part of Satmar Hasidim, but our main focus will be the mystical quest of Tiberian Hasidism, with its yearning for self-surrender into the Divine.
Rabbi Nehemia Polen is a leading expert in Hasidism and Jewish thought. A widely published author, his books include The Holy Fire: The Teachings of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto; a translation of Malkah Shapiro’s The Rebbe’s Daughter: Memoir of a Hasidic Childhood, a project that originated in Polen’s research as a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow and recipient of a National Jewish Book Award; Filling Words With Light: Hasidic and Mystical Reflections on Jewish Prayer; and From Tiberias, With Love: A Collection of Tiberian Hasidism, Volume I: Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk. His most recent book, Stop, Look, Listen: Celebrating Shabbos Through a Spiritual Lens (Maggid 2022), was named a finalist for the 72nd Jewish Book Council’s Myra H. Kraft memorial Award for Contemporary Jewish Life & Practice. In 2024, he received Hadar’s Ateret Tzvi essay award second prize. Polen holds a doctorate from Boston University, where he studied with and served as a teaching fellow for Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel. Prior to his career in Jewish academia, Polen served for 23 years as a congregational rabbi.
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