CV

Jonathan Garb

Gershom Scholem Professor of Kabbalah, Department of Jewish Thought, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

 

Education

2002:               Ben Gurion University. Department of Jewish Thought. Post-Doctorate fellowship. Advisor: Professor Boaz Huss.

1998-2000:      HebrewUniversity. Jewish Thought. PHD (Summa cum laude). Advisor: Professor Moshe Idel.

1994-1997:      HebrewUniversity. Jewish Thought. M. A.

1990-1994:      HebrewUniversity. Jewish Thought. B. A.

 

Academic Positions

 2017-2018     Chair. Department of Jewish Thought. Hebrew University.

2015                Full Professor, Hebrew University.

2013, 2014      Lectures, Center for Core Curriculum, Columbia University.

2013-2014       Head of “Amirim” Honors Program, Hebrew University.

2010-2013       Plenary Committee, Authority for Research Students.

2012-               Editorial Board: Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts.

2012                Fellow, Tikvah Center for Law and Jewish Civilization, NYU.

2011                Associate Professor. Hebrew University.

2009-2011       Member of Steering Committee and Seminar Co-Leader, Doctoral Honors Program, Hebrew University.

2008-9             Initiator and coordinator (with Prof. Philip Wexler), Research Group, Institute of Advanced Studies. Topic: The Sociology of Contemporary Jewish Mysticism in Comparative Perspective.

2008                Director. Integrative Program for Jewish Studies (within the Institute of Jewish Studies).

2007                Visiting Lecturer, L'école des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris.

2007                Tenured Senior Lecturer. Humanities. The Department of Jewish Thought, Hebrew University

2003                Lecturer. Humanities. The Department of Jewish Thought, Hebrew University

1997-2008       Shalom Hartman Institute, Center for Advanced Studies.

 

 

Grants, Awards, and Honors

 

2014                Gershom Scholem Prize for Research in Kabbalah. Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

2014-               Israel Science Foundation Grant for book publication.

2013-              Gershom Scholem Endowment Fund for Jewish Mysticism and Kabbalah Studies.

2012 -             Co-Holder of Gershom Scholem Chair in Kabbalah.

2010-2014:    Knapp Foundation Donation. “Eighteenth Century Italian Kabbalah”. 

2010-2014:      Knapp Foundation Donation. “Book Series on Contemporary Jewish Mysticism in Comparative Perspective”.

2010:               President’s Prize for Outstanding Researcher (Pollack Family Foundation). Hebrew University.

2010-2112:      Grant from the Israel Science Foundation. “Heart and Soul: Psychological Theories in Modern Kabbalah”. 

2008:               Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies Prize. The Academic Society for the Research of Religions and Ideologies.

2008:               Levi Eshkol Institute Faculty Member Grant. “The Spiritual-Mystical Renaissance in the Haredi World Today”.

2006, 2011:     List of Outstanding Lecturers, Faculty of Humanities.

2004-2005:      Grant from the Committee for Innovative Research headed by Vice-President for Research and Development. “Twentieth Century Kabbalah”.

2004-2005:      Hebrew University Research Fund Grant [Based on positive evaluation of application to Israel Science Foundation]. “A Scientific Edition of the work "Zror Hachaim" by the Kabbalist R. Joseph Ibn Sayah, accompanied by an extensive introduction”.

2004:               Lubin Prize (supporting book publication). Hebrew University.

2002-2003:      Hebrew University Research Fund Career Development Award [Based on application to Israel Science Foundation]. "A Scientific Edition of the work "Zror Hachaim" by the Kabbalist R. Joseph Ibn Sayah, accompanied by an extensive introduction".

 

List of Publications

 Books

  • 2016. The Autonomy of Modern Kabbalah. Cherub Press.
  • 2015. The Yearnings of the Soul: Psychological Thought in Modern Kabbalah. The University of Chicago Press.
  • 2014. Kabbalist in the Eye of the Storm: R. Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto. Tel Aviv University Press (in Hebrew).
  • 2011. Shamanic Trance in Modern Kabbalah. The University of Chicago Press.
  • 2009. "The Chosen will Become Herds": Studies in Twentieth Century Kabbalah, Yale University Press: New Haven.
  • 2005. "The Chosen will Become Herds": Studies in Twentieth Century Kabbalah. Carmel Press: Jerusalem (in Hebrew).
  • 2004. Manifestations of Power in Jewish Mysticism from Rabbinic Literature to Safedian Kabbalah. Magnes Press: Jerusalem (in Hebrew).

 

Editing 

          -          2012. With Philip Wexler, After Spirituality: Studies in Mystical Traditions. Peter Lang Publishing: New York.

          -          2012. With Maren Niehoff and Ronit Meroz, And This is For Yehuda: Studies Presented to our Friend, Professor Yehuda Liebes on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday. Bialik Press and Mandel Institute: Jerusalem (in Hebrew).

          -          2011-2015 Series Editor (with Prof. Philip Wexler). After Spirituality: Studies in Mystical Traditions. Peter Lang Publishing.

 

 Articles in English

                2015. ‘Shame as an Existential Emotion in Modern Kabbalah’, Jewish Social Studies 21, pp. 83-116.

          -     2015. ‘Soul Time in Modern Kabbalah’, in: B. Ogren (ed.), Before and After: On Time and Eternity in Jewish Esotericism and Mysticism. Brill: Leiden, pp. 151-161.

          -          2015. ‘Moshe Idel: An Intellectual Portrait’, in H. Tirosh-Samuelson and A. Hughes, Moshe Idel (Library of Contemporary Jewish Philosophers). Brill: Leiden, pp. 1-29.

          -          Forthcoming. 'The Sixteenth Century', in: E. R. Wolfson (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Kabbalah. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

          -          2013, ‘The Psychological Turn in Sixteenth Century Kabbalah’, in: G. Cecere, M. Loubet and S. Pagani (eds.), Mystique juives, chréttiennes et musulmanes dans L’Egypte médiévale (VIIe–XVIe siècle): Interculturalités et contextes historiques. IFAO: Cairo, pp. 109-124.

          -          2013. ‘Shamanism and the Hidden History of Modern Kabbalah’, in: A. DeConick and G. Adamson (eds.), Histories of the Hidden God. Equinox: Sheffield, pp. 175-192.

          -          2012. ‘The Challenges of Teaching Mysticism’, Religious Studies Review 38. (Review Article), pp. 207–212.

          -          2012, ‘Contemporary Kabbalah and Classical Kabbalah: Breaks and Continuities’, in: P. Wexler and J. Garb (eds.), After Spirituality: Studies in Mystical Traditions Peter Lang Publishing: New York, pp. 19–46.

          -          2012, With P. Wexler. ‘After Spirituality: Introducing the Volume and the Series’, in: P. Wexler and J. Garb (eds.), After Spirituality: Studies in Mystical Traditions. Peter Lang Publishing: New York, pp. 1–15.

          -          2011. ‘The Circle of Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto in Its Eighteenth-Century Context’. Eighteenth-Century Studies 44, pp. 189-202.

          -          2011. ‘Towards the Study of the Spiritual-Mystical Renaissance in the Contemporary Ashkenazi Haredi World in Israel’, in: B. Huss (ed.), Kabbalah and Contemporary Spiritual Revival, Ben-Gurion University Press: Beer Sheva, pp. 117–140.

          -          2010. ‘Mystical and Spiritual Discourse in the Contemporary Ashkenazi Haredi Worlds’. Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 9, pp. 29-48.

          -          2010. ‘The Modernization of Kabbalah: A Case Study’. Modern Judaism: A Journal of Jewish Ideas and Experience 30, pp. 1-22.

          -          2008. ‘The Cult of the Saints in Lurianic Kabbalah’, Jewish Quarterly Review 98, pp. 203-229.

          -          2007. ‘Moshe Idel's Contribution to the Study of Religion’, Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies 18, pp. 116-129.  http://www.jsri.ro/new/?Current_issue (Reprinted in: S. Frunza and M. Frunza (eds.), Essays in Honor of Moshe Idel, Provo Press: Cluj-Napoca. 2008. pp. 20-34.

          -          2007. ‘Powers of Language in Kabbalah: Comparative Reflections’, in: S. De La Porta and D. Shulman (eds.), The Poetics of Grammar and the Metaphysics of Sound and Sign. pp. 233-269. Brill: Leiden.

          -          2006. ‘ "Alien" Culture in the Circle of Rabbi Kook’, in H. Kriesel (ed.), Study and Knowledge in Jewish Thought. pp. 253-264. Ben Gurion University Press: Beer Sheva.

          -          2005. ‘Gender and Power in Kabbalah: A Theoretical Investigation’, Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts 13, pp. 79-108.

          -          2004. 'Rabbi Kook and his Sources: From Kabbalistic Historiosophy to National Mysticism', in M. Sharon (Ed.) Studies in Modern Religions, Religious Movements and the Babi-Bahai Faiths.. pp. 77-96. Brill: Leiden.

          -          2004. ‘Mystics' Critiques of Mystical Experience’, Revue de l' histoire des religions, 221, pp. 293-325.

          -          2002. ‘Fear and Power in Renaissance Mediterranean Kabbalah’, in A. Scott and C. Kosso (Eds.), Fear and Its Representations: Arizona Studies in the Middle Ages and Renaissance,. pp. 137-151. Berpols: Turnhout, Belgium.

          -          2001. ‘Kinds of Power: Rabbinic Literature and Kabbalah’, Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts 6, pp. 45-71.

          -          1998. ‘Paths of Power’, Journal of Religion 78, pp. 593-601 [Review Article]

          -          1998, With Tamar Rapoport (PI). ‘The Experience of Religious Fortification: The Coming of Age of Religious Zionist Young Women’, Gender and Education 10, pp. 5-20. Reprinted in: S. Baader, H. Kelle and E. Kleinau (eds.), Bildungsgeschichten: Geschlecht, Religion und Pädagogik in der Moderne. 2006. pp. 49-68. Böhlau: Koln.

          -          1995, With Tamar Rapoport (PI), and Penso A. ‘Religious Socialization and Female Subjectivity: Religious-Zionist Adolescent Girls in Israel’, Sociology of  Education 68, pp. 48-61.

          -          1994, With Tamar Rapoport (PI), and Penso A. ‘Contribution to the Collective by Religious-Zionist Adolescent Girls’, British Journal of Sociology of Education 15, pp. 375-388.

 

Articles in Hebrew

          -          2012. ‘The Political Model in Modern Kabbalah: A Study of Ramhal and his Intellectual Surroundings’, in: B. Brown, M. Lorberbaum, Y. Stern and A. Rosenak (eds.), Avi Be 'Ezri (Festschrift in honor of Aviezer Ravitzky). The Zalman Shazar Center and Israel Democracy Institute: Jerusalem, pp. 13-45.

          -          2011. ‘The Authentic Writings of R. Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto’, Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts 25, pp. 165–222.

          -          2011. ‘A Renewed Study of the Self-Image of R. Moshe David Valle, as Reflected in his Biblical Exegesis’. Tarbiz: A Quarterly for Jewish Studies 79, pp. 265-306.

          -          2009. ‘Kabbalah Outside the Walls: The Response of Rabbi Hadayah to the State of Israel’, in: Z. Zohar (ed.), Rabbi Uziel and his Peers: Studies in the Religious Thought of Oriental Rabbis in 20th Century Israel, pp. 13-27. Tel Aviv University: Tel Aviv.

          -          2006. ‘On the Kabbalists of Prague’, Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts 14, pp. 347-383.

          -          2005. 'The "Secrets of Faith" in the Zohar', in: M. Halbertal, D. Kurzweil and A. Sagi (eds.), On Faith: Studies on the Concept of Faith and its History in Jewish Thought. pp. 294-311, 641-647. Keter: Jerusalem.

          -          2005. 'The Concept of Power in the Circle of R. Kook', Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 19, pp. 753-770.

          -          2004. 'Prophecy, Halakhah and Antinomianism in the "Shemonah Kevatsim" by Rabbi Kook', in Z. Gries, H. Kriesel and B. Huss (eds.), Shefa Tal: Studies in Jewish Thought and Culture presented to Bracha Sack, pp. 267-277. Ben Gurion University Press: Beer Shev'a.

          -          2004. 'Rabbi Kook: Nationalist Thinker or Mystical Poet', Da'at 54, pp. 69-96.

          -          2004. 'Models of Sacred Space in Jewish Mysticism and their Impact in the Twentieth Century', In: A. Ravitzky (ed.), The Land of Israel in Twentieth Century Jewish Thought. pp. 1-25. Yad Yitzhak Ben Tvi: Jerusalem.

          -          2004. 'Power, Ritual and Myth: A Comparative Methodological Proposal', In: M. Idel and I. Gruenwald (eds.), Myths in Judaism: History, Thought, Literature.. pp. 53-71. The Zalman Shazar Center: Jerusalem.

          -          2004. 'Messianism, Anti-Nomianism and Power in Religious Zionism: The case of the "Jewish Underground" ', in: A. Cohen (ed.), Religious Zionism: An Era of Changes (Studies in Memory of Zvulun Hammer). 2004. pp. 323-363. Bialik Institute: Jerusalem.

          -          2004. 'The NRP Young Guard and the Ideological Roots of "Gush Emunim" ', in: A. Cohen (ed.), Religious Zionism: An Era of Changes (Studies in Memory of Zvulun Hammer), pp. 171-200. Bialik Institute: Jerusalem.

          -          2002. 'The Understandable Revival of Mysticism Today: Innovation and Conservatism in the Thought of Joseph Achituv', in: A. Sagi and Z. Zohar (Eds.), Jewish Culture in the Eye of the Storm:  Festschrift in Honor of Joseph Achituv, pp. 172-199. Ha-kibbutz Ha-meuhad Press and Yaakov Herzog Center: Ein Tzurim.

          -          2001. ' "The Joy of Torah" in the Thought of David Hartman: A Critical Examination of the Phenomenology of Halakhic Experience', in: A. Sagi and Z. Zohar (Eds.), Renewing Jewish Commitment: The Work and Thought of David Hartman, pp. 73-105. Shalom Hartman Institute and Ha-kibbutz Ha-Meuhad: Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

          -          2000. 'Magic and Mysticism: Between North Africa and Eretz Israel', Pe'amim 85, pp. 112-130.

          -          1999. 'The Kabbalah of Rabbi Joseph Ibn Sayyah as a Source for the Understanding of Safedian Kabbalah', Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts 4, pp. 213-255.

          -          1997. 'Trance Techniques in the Kabbalistic Tradition of Jerusalem', Pe'amim 70, pp. 47-67

          -          1996. 'The Fingers and the Senses: A Text from Even Hasoham by Josef Ibn Sayyah', Pe'amim 67, pp. 120-124.

 

 Work in Progress

 “’The Conversion of the Jews’: Identity as Ontology in Modern Kabbalah’, Proceedings of International Conference on Religious Responses to Modernity, Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities/Berlin Brandenberg Academy of Sciences.

“Surprised by God: R. Menahem Medel of Vitebsk’s approach to Divine Worship and its Influence in Tiberias.” Submitted to volume on Tiberian Hasidism.

 

 Encyclopedia Entries

          -          2007. 'Kabbalah in the Late Twentieth Century', Encyclopedia Judaica (Second Edition). XI, pp. 677-681. Macmillan Reference: Detroit.

          -          2007. 'Idel, Moshe', Encyclopedia Judaica (Second Edition). IX, pp. 707-708. Macmillan Reference: Detroit.

 

Other Publications

          -          Forthcoming. Review article on J. Sheehan and D. Wahrman, Invisible Hands: Self-Organization and the Eighteenth Century.  The Journal of Politics, Religion and Ideology.

          -          2015. A Review of D. Reiser, Vision as a Mirror: Imagery Techniques in Twentieth Century Jewish Mysticism. Kabbalah 33, pp. 315­-319 (in Hebrew).

          -          2014. A Review of R. Weinstein, Kabbalah and Jewish Modernity. Zion (in Hebrew), pp. 148-153 (in Hebrew).

          -           2012. ‘Mussar, Curriculum and Exegesis in the Circle of Ramḥal’,

Tikvah Working Paper, Tikvah Center for Law and Jewish Civilization, New York University. http://www.nyutikvah.org/pubs/1112/Garb.html

          -          2005. A Review of: J. H. Chajes, Between Worlds: Dybbuks,

Exorcists, and Early Modern Judaism, Zion 70, pp. 122-126 (in Hebrew). 

          -          2003. ‘Towards a Post-Modern Anthropology of Jewish/Islamic Magic’, Review of: Yoram Bilu, Without Bounds: The Life and Death of Rabbi Ya'aqov Wazana, Anthropological Theory 3, pp. 127-128.

 

 Papers in English       

  • “’The Conversion of the Jews’: Identity as Ontology in Modern Kabbalah’, Proceedings of International Conference on Religious Responses to Modernity, Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities/Berlin Brandenberg Academy of Sciences, December 2015.
  • ‘The Soul in Seventeenth Century Kabbalah’, Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, Pennsylvania University, November 2015.
  • ‘Yearnings of the Soul: Psychological Thought in Modern Kabbalah’, Jewish Studies Lecture, Indiana University, November  2014.
  • ‘Eighteenth Century Kabbalistic Cosmology’, Potts Lecture in Jewish Cosmology, The Johns Hopkins University, May 2014. 
  • ‘The Critique of Technique in American Buddhism and Some Israeli Parallels’, Sixth Israeli Conference For the Study of Contemporary Religion and Spirituality, Tel Aviv University, April 2014.
  • ‘Dualistic and non-Dualistic (Animistic) Views of the Soul in Kabbalah’, The Material Soul- Animism Revisited Workshop, The Cohn Institute for   the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University with ETH Departement Geistes-, Sozial- und Staatswissenschaften,  March 2014.
  •  ‘Soul Time in Modern Kabbalah’, Eternity, Epoch and Soul: Jewish Mystical Notions of Time, Rockwell Symposium, Rice University,    November 2013.
  • ‘Kabbalistic Cultures in Jerusalem in the Early Twentieth Century’, Hochschule für Jüdische Studien, Heidelberg, July 2013.
  • ‘European Kabbalah in Modern Intellectual History’, Program in Jewish Studies, Princeton University, April 2013.
  • ‘The Soul in the Later Writings of Rashab’. Conference: Epic Exposition: the Ayin Bet Discourses and the Mystical Thought of Rabbi Shalom DovBer Schneersohn of Lubavitch (RaShaB). Center for Jewish History. July 2012.
  • ‘Recovering the Soul: Psychology of Religion and Modern Kabbalah‘, Jewish Studies Program and Dean of Humanities Lecture, Rice University, April 2012. 
  • ‘Shamanic Trance in Modern Kabbalah,’ Spring Religious Studies Lecture, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, March 2012.
  • ‘Learning, Heart and Soul in Habad Psychological Theory’, Conference: Habad and the Academe. University of Pennsylvania. March 2012. 
  • ‘The Return of the Soul: Psychological Theories in Modern Kabbalah‘, Judaic Studies Lecture Series, Yale University, March 2012. 
  • ‘Gender and Sexuality in the Luzzatto Controversy in Early 18th-century Italy’, Lecture: Stanford University, December 2011.
  • ‘Mussar as a Modern Movement’. The Third International Conference on Modern Religions and Religious Movements, Hebrew University. March 2011.  
  • ‘Jewish, Christians and Muslim Mysticisms in Medieval Egypt: Inter-Religious Phenomena and Historical Contexts’. International Conference: Institut français d’archéologie orientale, Cairo. November 2010.
  • April 2010. ‘Shamanism and the Hidden History of Modern Kabbalah’, Founding Conference of Program in Gnosticism, Esotericism, and Mysticism, Rice University.
  • April 2010. Lecture Series, XavierUniversity, Cincinnati.
  • ‘The Modernization of Kabbalah: A Case Study’. Contemporary Jewish Mysticism:  Social and Comparative Perspectives, International Conference at the Institute of Advanced Studies, July 2009.
  • 2008. ‘The Spiritual-Mystical Renaissance in the Contemporary Haredi World’, Kabbalah and Contemporary Spiritual Revival: International Workshop of the Israel Science Foundation and Ben Gurion University,
  • 2005. ‘Autognosis in Kabbalah’, Autognosis: A Theology of Self-Knowing: International Workshop at the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
  • 2004. ‘"Alien Culture" in the Thought of Rabbi Kook's Circle’, International Conference on Study and Knowledge in Jewish Thought, Ben Gurion University.
  • 2003. ‘Powers of Language in Kabbalah: Comparative Reflections’, The Poetics of Grammar and the Metaphysics of Sound and Sign: International Workshop at the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
  • 2000. ‘Fear and Power in Kabbalah’, Fear and its Representations: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
  • 2000. ‘Rabbi Kook and his Sources: From Kabbalistic Historiosophy to National Mysticism’, First International Conference on Modern Religions and Religious Movements, Hebrew University.
  • 2000. ‘Power in Kabbalah and Western Culture’, Colloquium on Power and   Religion, Haifa University.

 

 Selected Papers in Hebrew

  • 2017. ‘Ramhal and Schools of Modern Italian Kabbalah’, The House of Luzzatto: family, Community and Tradition. Dahan center, Bar Ilan University and The Umberto Nahon Museum of Italian Jewish Art.
  • 2017. ‘Psychology in the Early Writings of R. Menahem Mendel Schneerson’, Joint Conference of Departments of Jewish Thought, Bar Ilan University.
  • 2010. ‘The Mystical Renaissance in the Hasidic World in the Last Decade’. Hasidism: Between the Holy and the Mundane, 34th Annual Conference of the Israeli Historical Society.
  • 2007. ‘R. Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto: Experience, Messianism and Power’, Conference Marking Three Hundred Years To the Birth of Ramhal: Yad Ben Zvi and the Hebrew University.
  • 2006. ‘Sacred Spaces and Sacred Persons in Twentieth Century Kabbalah’, Ethnographic Critique of Connection and Disconnection: Israeli Anthropological Association.
  • 2005. ‘Research of the Kabbalah and Involvement with the Kabbalah: Possibilities and Dangers’, Fourteenth World Congress of Jewish Studies.
  • 2003. ‘The Advantages and Disadvantages of the Comparative Method of Research of Jewish Mysticism’, Conference on Research Directions and Methods in Jewish Thought, Ben Gurion University.
  • 2002. ‘A Kabbalistic Response to the Establishment of the State of Israel’, Conference on Sephardi Sages and Oriental Jews in Israel 1948-1967, Tel Aviv University.
  • 2001. ‘Kabbalah and Sufism in the Sixteenth Century’, Bannet Lecture, Hebrew University.

 

Advising

Post-doctoral advisees

2015              Dr. Yehudit Weiss, Lady Davis Fellow.

2014                Dr. Dustin Atlas, Lady Davis Fellow.

2014                Dr. Daniel Reiser.

2012-               Dr. Elhanan Shilo.

2010-2011       Dr. Uriel Barak. Lady Davis Fellow. With Professor Moshe Idel.

 

 Doctoral degree students

 2007–2015.     Dr. Avital Sharon. Subject: “Kabbala and Halacha in the Hida's writing”.

 2007– 2012     Dr. Patrick Koch (Minerva Fellowship and Urbach Prize). Subject: “Human Self-Perfection: A Re-Assessment of Kabbalistic-Mussar Literature in Sixteenth-Century Safed”. Published 2015 at Cherub Press: Los Angeles.

 2004 –2012     Dr. Sachi Ogimoto. Subject: “R. Joseph Ibn Sayyah's Super-Commentary on R. David Ben Yehudah ha-Hassid's commentary on Prayer and its Sources’.

 2004 –2012     Dr. Ruth Yosian. Subject: “Existentialist and Pragmatist Dimensions of The Thought of Joseph Schechter”.

 

Master's degree students

 2017. Ms. JianYu Shen (In Progress). 

 2017. Mr. Asher Corsia (in Progress).

 2016. Mr. Noam Lev-El (Mandel fellow).

 2016. Mr. Zvi Lubovitz. (in Progress)

 2015-  Ms. Yael Karrie (In Progress).

 2015-  Ms. Efrat Shoshana (in Progress).

 2013 ­–2015   Ms. Yifat Lev. Title of Thesis: “The Tension between the Izbicha and Gur Hasidic Courts as Reflected in the Homilies on Judah and Joseph.”

 2013–2014   Mr. Yonatan Schreiber. Title of Thesis: “A Cognitive Model for Mystical Experience Applied to the Writings of R. Yitzḥak Isaac Safrin of Komarna.”

 

2011 –2012     Mr. Yaakov Meir. Title of Thesis: “The Formation of a Hasidic Scholarship: The Bio-                         Bibliography of R. Yitzḥak Isaac Safrin of  Komarna.”

 

2007 –2013     Mr. Daniel Feuerstein. Title of Thesis: “ ‘Hakal Tapuhin Kadishin’: The Zoharic Symbol and its Origins.”

 2009 –2012     Mr. Amiel Vick. Title of Thesis: “ ‘Through which all of Israel can Ascend,’ - On the composition of Nusah HaAri by R. Shneur Zalman of Liadi.”

 2009 -2011      Mr. Avishai Bar-Asher. Title of Thesis: “The White Appearance:Interpretation and Performance in the Kabbalah of R. Ya’akov Abi Hasira”.

 2006-2009       Ms. Noga Bar-Or. Title of Thesis: “Studies of Slonim Hasidism in the                    Twentieth Century”.

 2006-2007       Ms. Lital Avital-Lieberman. Title of Thesis: “Saint or Impure: The Image and Identity of R. Ya'aqov Wazana”.

 2005-2006       Mr. Yedidyah Shiprovitz. Title of Thesis: “The Concepts of Lack and Sin in the Thought of Maharal of Prague”.

 2005-2006       Mr. Guy Hegler. Title of Thesis: “Fear and Awe in 13th Century Kabbalah.”

 

2003-2005       Ms. Moran Hellerstein. Title of Thesis: “Christian Kabbalah from Its Beginnings to the "New Age" Movement”.

  

Related Professional Activity

 

2008-9  Author (with Dr. Maren Niehoff). Self-Evaluation Report on the Department of Jewish Thought, for Council of Higher Education External Review.                                                       

  • External reviewer (articles) for the following international journals (as well as numerous journals in Israel): American Ethnologist, Ars Judaica, Jewish Quarterly Review, Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts, Psychology Research and Behavior Management, Religious Studies, The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, The Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, The Journal of Ritual Studies.
  • External reviewer (book-length manuscripts) for the following Presses: Bar Ilan University Press, Bialik Press, Cherub Press (Los Angeles), Ha-Kibbutz Ha-Meuhad Press, Machon Ben Tzvi Press, Magnes Press, Merkaz Zalman Shazar Press, Rabbi Rosen Foundation, Tel Aviv University Press, Van Leer Institute.
  • External reviewer of grant proposals for the Israel Science Foundation (2005, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2016) and of research proposals for the EURIAS consortium (2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016) and of a study program for the Council for Higher Education of Israel (2016).