Hasidism as Mysticism: Quietistic Elements in Eighteenth-Century Hasidic Thought (Princeton Legacy Library, 1748)

Offered here for the first time in English translation, Hasidism as Mysticism is a classic in its field. Using the tools of phenomenology, Rivka Schatz Uffenheimer places Hasidism squarely in the context of religious studies. Hasidism s theoretical texts have been largely ignored by historians of the movement, but Shatz Uffenheimer analyzes these materials fully, disclosing the mystical, quietistic tendencies that existed alongside Hasidism s more activist popular elements. The author carefully reviewed this translation of her work: it includes a revised introduction with new material, two new chapters, and an appendix containing a translation, history and literary analysis of one of the few extant texts attributed to the Ba al Shem Tov.