On February 22, 2022, the IIJS welcomed Dr. Elly Moseson, the Warren and Susan Stern Postdoctoral Fellow in Jewish Thought at Columbia University, for a lecture discussing the research he’s undertaken during the course of his IIJS fellowship.
One of the most foundational and controversial doctrines of the Hasidic movement was the immanence of the divine within all material beings. This talk focuses on one particularly radical formulation of the doctrine of divine immanence attributed to the purported founder of Hasidism, Israel Ba’al Shem Tov, according to which even gentiles embody the divine presence. It traces the transmission and reception of this teaching and discuss the political, ideological and literary responses it provoked both within the movement and without. A recording of this lecture and the Q&A session that followed is available below.
Elly Moseson is the Warren and Susan Stern Postdoctoral Fellow in Jewish Thought at the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies and Lecturer in the Religion department at Columbia University. Moseson earned his B.A. at Columbia University where he studied literature and philosophy and completed his M.A. and Ph.D. in Religious Studies at Boston University. He has been a Visiting Professor at YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and held postdoctoral positions at the University of Hamburg, Tel Aviv University and Haifa University. His research interests include early modern Jewish movements and literatures, the cultural and political functions of texts, and the intersection of literature, psychoanalysis and religion. He is currently working on a monograph on the role of literature in the formation of the Hasidic movement and a series of studies on dreams and magic in Jewish culture.
Supported by the generosity of Warren and Susan Stern.
Keep up with the IIJS on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter or join our mailing list for updates!