Description
A towering eighteenth-century rabbinic leader who is best known for his halakhic responsa collection the Noda biyehudah, Landau is generally considered a staunch opponent of esoteric practices and public kabbalistic discourse. Flatto challenges this portrayal, exposing the importance of kabbalah in his work and thought and demonstrating his novel use of teachings from diverse kabbalistic schools. She also identifies the historical events and cultural forces underlying his reluctance to discuss kabbalah publicly, including the rise of the hasidic movement and the acculturation spurred by the 1781 Habsburg Toleranzpatent.
In telling this story, the study offers the first systematic overview of the eighteenth-century Jewish community of Prague, and the first critical account of Landau's life and writings, which continue to shape Jewish law and rabbinic thought to this day. Extensively examining Landau's rabbinic corpus, as well as a variety of archival and published German, Yiddish, and Hebrew sources, it provides a unique glimpse into the spiritual and psychological world of eighteenth-century Prague Jewry.
Reconstructing the intellectual world and traditional society in which Landau lived, this study reveals the dominance of rabbinic culture in Prague during this transitional period, the ongoing significance of kabbalistic ideas and practices, and the city's numerous distinguished figures and institutions. Its analysis of the spiritual trends that animated this culture demonstrates that Prague's late eighteenth-century rabbinate was more influential, more conservative, and less open to modernization than has been recognized. Debunking the widespread scholarly portrayal of Prague as primarily under the influence of the modernizing West, Flatto shows that this key central European city was shaped more by traditional east European Jewish culture than by Western Enlightenment thought.
By unravelling and exploring the many diverse threads that were woven into the fabric of Prague's eighteenth-century Jewish life, the book offers a comprehensive portrayal of rabbinic culture at its height in one of the largest and most important centres of European Jewry.
About the Author
Sharon Flatto is Associate Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in the Department of Judaic Studies at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, specializing in early modern Jewish history, early modern and modern Jewish thought, and kabbalah. Her research interests include mysticism in early modern Prague; early Hasidism; and the modernization of east and central European rabbinic culture. Professor Flatto received her Ph.D. in Jewish history from Yale University, after which she held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Brown University. She has taught at Yale University, Queens College, Brown University, and Brooklyn College. The recipient of many awards and grants, she has contributed to learned journals and written articles for the 'YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe.'
Reviews
Reviews
'Remarkable intellectual biography . . . a major contribution to the understanding of the diffusion and the role of Kabbalah in Europe in the eighteenth century. The book renews our knowledge of the cultural history of Ashkenazi society and, especially, of the Jewish community of Prague during the premodern period . . . An innovative aspect of Flatto's book is the study of Landau's relationship to mysticism, which was not without some ambivalence . . . an important contribution to the study of the cultural history of Jewish communities in Europe in the eighteenth century. [The book] leads us to reconsider the transformation of Jewish culture, viewed as a complex whole made up of a plurality of influences, of cultural and religious components, and full of contradictions and tensions. This remarkable research demonstrates that the transformation of Jewish society was far from linear.'
Jean Baumgart, H-Judaic
'Constructs a map of Landau's views on kabbalistic matters . . . that changes how we look at eighteenth-century Judaism . . . Flatto's book is crucial for any attempt to understand eighteenth-century Jews.'
Joseph Davis, Jewish History
'A very good book. The scholarship is first rate, with every claim backed up by evidence. The presentation is also excellent, being well organized, clear and above all interesting . . . the author is to be congratulated and the book firmly recommended.'
A.H. Lesser, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies
'Offers a fascinating picture of Jewish culture in eighteenth-century Prague . . . based on rigorous analyses of texts and a wide-ranging collection of sources. This volume gives the English reader a fine introduction to central European rabbinic culture and sheds new light on hasidism and on modernization in Jewish religion. It does so in a very readable and clear manner.'
Shaul Stampfer, Religious Studies Review
'Challenges the conventional portrait of Landau as a staunch opponent of esoteric practices and reveals the centrality of kabbalistic thought in this key central European city.'
Shofar
Book Information
ISBN 9781906764791
Author Sharon Flatto
Format Paperback
Page Count 280
Imprint The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization
Publisher Liverpool University Press
Weight(grams) 399g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 155mm * 15mm
