Overview

'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 Kraków, together with a running commentary and analysis by Aryeh Wineman. With remarkable creativity, the Kraków 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-à-vis of the community. The commentary traces the route leading from the Torah text itself through various later sources to the Kraków 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 aspects of which can speak to our own time and its spiritual strivings.

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Kalonymus Kalman ha-Levi Epstein (1753-1823) was the pioneering fi gure who, against signi cant opposition, introduced Hasidism to the Jews of Krakow, Poland. Th e book comprising his homilies, Ma'or va-shemesh, first printed in 1842, became one of the most popular of the Hasidic homily-texts. The author of several books and numerous articles, Aryeh Wineman has combined his life's work, both in education and in the congregational rabbinate, with his pursuit of scholarly interests in the fi elds of Hebrew literature and Jewish mysticism. His writings include Beyond Appearances-Stories from the Kabbalistic Ethical Writings, Mystic Tales from the Zohar, and e Hasidic Parable.

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