Seekers of Unity

Dylan Shaul presents the one of the most important events in modern philosophy, the Pantheism Controversy sparked by the reception of Spinoza in 18th century Germany. The Controversy involved the greatest German philosophers of the period, and laid the foundations for the next 200 years of European thought. In the balance of the Pantheism Controversy hung the fate of the Enlightenment and Modernity; the fate of faith and reason, religion and philosophy; the fate of freedom, of the immortal soul, and even of God Godself. Our story will take us from the renegade Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza, to the heyday of the German Aufklärung or Enlightenment, through the philosophical revolution of Immanuel Kant, and eventually the birth of German Idealism itself. In the first episode of the series, we explored the philosophy of Spinoza and its reception in Germany, which first spurred the controversy. In the second episode we explored Immanuel Kant’s response to Spinozism and the Pantheism Controversy, where he attempted to stake out a middle ground between reason and faith. In this third episode we’ll tackle Hegel’s efforts to solve the Pantheism Controversy by reconciling Spinoza and Kant—thereby attempting to complete the grand journey from nihilism to Absolute Spirit. Dylan Shaul is a PhD candidate in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. His dissertation is titled Hegel's Concept of Reconciliation: On Absolute Spirit. He has also published on Spinoza, Kant, Kierkegaard, Husserl, Adorno, Levinas, Kristeva, and Derrida. See more of his work here: https://www.dylanshaul.com 00:00 Introduction to Hegel 06:04 Substance and Subject: ‘The True is the Whole’ 13:30 Hegel’s Encyclopedia System: Logic, Nature, Spirit 22:21 Hegel on Pantheism 35:51 Hegel on the ‘Death of God’ 54:49 Critical Reception of Hegel 1:02:11 Conclusion Join Seekers: https://discord.gg/EQtjK2FWsm https://instagram.com/seekersofunity https://www.twitter.com/seekersofu https://facebook.com/seekersofunity Support Seekers: https://www.patreon.com/seekers https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU

Dylan Shaul presents the one of the most important events in modern philosophy, the Pantheism Controversy sparked by the reception of Spinoza in 18th century Germany. The Controversy involved the greatest German philosophers of the period, and laid the foundations for the next 200 years of European thought. In the balance of the Pantheism Controversy hung the fate of the Enlightenment and Modernity; the fate of faith and reason, religion and philosophy; the fate of freedom, of the immortal soul, and even of God Godself. Our story will take us from the renegade Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza, to the heyday of the German Aufklärung or Enlightenment, through the philosophical revolution of Immanuel Kant, and eventually the birth of German Idealism itself. In the first episode of the series, we explored the philosophy of Spinoza and its reception in Germany, which first spurred the controversy. In this second episode we'll explore Immanuel Kant’s response to Spinozism and the Pantheism Controversy, where he attempted to stake out a middle ground between reason and faith. In the third episode we’ll tackle Hegel’s efforts to solve the Pantheism Controversy by reconciling Spinoza and Kant—thereby attempting to complete the grand journey from nihilism to Absolute Spirit. Dylan Shaul is a PhD candidate in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. His dissertation is titled Hegel's Concept of Reconciliation: On Absolute Spirit. He has also published on Spinoza, Kant, Kierkegaard, Husserl, Adorno, Levinas, Kristeva, and Derrida. See more of his work here: https://www.dylanshaul.com 00:00 Introduction to Kant 04:25 Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason 09:35 Practical Rational Faith 14:26 Critical Reception of Kant Join Seekers: https://discord.gg/EQtjK2FWsm https://instagram.com/seekersofunity https://www.twitter.com/seekersofu https://facebook.com/seekersofunity Support Seekers: https://www.patreon.com/seekers https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU

Dylan Shaul presents the one of the most important events in modern philosophy, the Pantheism Controversy sparked by the reception of Spinoza in 18th century Germany. The Controversy involved the greatest German philosophers of the period, and laid the foundations for the next 200 years of European thought. In the balance of the Pantheism Controversy hung the fate of the Enlightenment and Modernity; the fate of faith and reason, religion and philosophy; the fate of freedom, of the immortal soul, and even of God Godself. Our story will take us from the renegade Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza, to the heyday of the German Aufklärung or Enlightenment, through the philosophical revolution of Immanuel Kant, and eventually the birth of German Idealism itself. In this first episode of the series, we’ll explore the philosophy of Spinoza and its reception in Germany, which first spurred the controversy. In the second episode we’ll turn to Kant’s response to the controversy, in which he tried to stake out a middle ground between reason and faith. In the third episode we’ll tackle Hegel’s efforts to solve the Pantheism Controversy by reconciling Spinoza and Kant—thereby attempting to complete the grand journey from nihilism to Absolute Spirit. Dylan Shaul is a PhD candidate in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. His dissertation is titled Hegel's Concept of Reconciliation: On Absolute Spirit. He has also published on Spinoza, Kant, Kierkegaard, Husserl, Adorno, Levinas, Kristeva, and Derrida. See more of his work here: https://www.dylanshaul.com 00:00 Intro the Series 06:04 Introduction to Spinoza 11:21 Spinoza’s Philosophy 17:53 Critical Reception of Spinoza 22:47 The Pantheism Controversy Join Seekers: https://discord.gg/EQtjK2FWsm https://instagram.com/seekersofunity https://www.twitter.com/seekersofu https://facebook.com/seekersofunity Support Seekers: https://www.patreon.com/seekers https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU

Join Biti Roi in a critical and meaningful exploration of religious faith and doubt as filtered through the mind of a radical mystic, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov and the luminous words of the Tikkunei Zohar. Dr. Biti Roi is a Senior Fellow of the Kogod Research Center of Contemporary Jewish Thought. Biti holds a Ph.D from Bar Ilan University and is a lecturer in the Department of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University and the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem, where she teaches kabbalah and Hasidism. She was a leader and participant in the first cohort of the Beit Midrash for Israeli Rabbis and teaches at the Shalom Hartman Institute for various programs in Israel and abroad. Biti has won several prizes and post doctorate fellowships (Kreitman, Polack, Elyashar) at Ben-Gurion University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her book, Love of Shekhina: Mysticism and Poetics in Tiqqunei ha-Zohar, was awarded the Matanel World Union of Jewish Studies Prize for the best book in Jewish Studies. Source: https://www.hartman.org.il/person/biti-roi/

00:00 Excerpt 00:17 Opening 01:20 Why R' Nachman is still alive 08:29 A Personal Journey 15:01 R' Nachman 18:50 R’ Nachman's Path 26:08 The Body 30:48 Radical Mystic 35:32 Scholar and Seeker 41:54 Question 47:39 Storyteller 59:06 R' Nachman and the Zohar 1:12:08 Core Themes 1:17:35 Thank you Join us: https://discord.gg/EQtjK2FWsmhttps://facebook.com/seekersofunityhttps://instagram.com/seekersofunityhttps://www.twitter.com/seekersofuhttps://www.seekersofunity.com Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Billy, Jackie, Andrew, Josh, Glenn, Zv, George, Ivana, Keenan, Gab, John, Victoria, Casey, Joseph, Brad, Benjamin, Arin, jXaviErre, Margo, Gale, Eny, Kim, Michael, Kirk, Ron, Seth, Daniel, Raphael, Daniel, Jason, Sergio, Leila, Wael, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre. Join them in supporting us: patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seekers paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU

Join us on a journey of faith and heresy with Rabbi Dr. Shraga Bar-On through a neglected chapter in the history of Jewish mysticism, the mysticism of the great sages of the Mishna and the Talmud. In a rich culture of dispute, rabbinic voices debate the mystical. Shraga gives us a first-hand creative rereading of one of the most mystical rabbinic passages, the famed ‘Four Who Entered the Orchard’ shedding light on its secret history and transformation from a forbidding tale of three, to a cautionary tale of four. Join us as we venture into the orchard, discover its pitfalls, promises, presences and pleasures, and whatever you do, don’t say ‘water, water.’ Rabbi Dr. Shraga Bar-On is the Director of the Kogod Research Center for Contemporary Jewish Thought and the David Hartman Center for Intellectual Excellence, and a lecturer of Talmud and Jewish Thought at Shalem College.

At the David Hartman Center, he is responsible for the advanced training of aspiring public intellectuals through the Beit Midrash for Israeli Rabbis, the David Hartman postdoctoral fellowship, and the Maskilot fellowship for women pursuing their doctorate. His research in Jewish philosophy and identity addresses a wide range of eras and topics: Second Temple literature, Mishnaic and Talmudic scholarship, medieval Jewish literature, early Zionism, and contemporary Jewish identity. His books and other works have been published in academic, popular, and educational contexts.

Shraga lives in Beit Horon, is married to Vered, and is the father of Peleg, Sinai, and Gefen. Source: https://www.hartman.org.il/person/shraga-bar-on/

00:00 Excerpt 00:48 Mysticism among the Rabbis 11:50 A Culture of Dispute 26:41 Normal Mysticism – Akiva 30:21 Four Who Entered 44:39 Battling Schools 52:53 Encountering Two Gods 59:45 Relevance Today Join us: https://discord.gg/EQtjK2FWsmhttps://facebook.com/seekersofunityhttps://instagram.com/seekersofunityhttps://www.twitter.com/seekersofuhttps://www.seekersofunity.com Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Frederique, Laurie, Joshua, Spacecowboy, Cliffton, Steve, Billy, Jackie, Andrew, Josh, Glenn, Zv, George, Ivana, Keenan, Gab, John, Victoria, Casey, Joseph, Brad, Benjamin, Arin, jXaviErre, Margo, Gale, Eny, Kim, Michael, Kirk, Ron, Seth, Daniel, Raphael, Daniel, Jason, Sergio, Leila, Wael, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre. Join them in supporting us: patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seekers paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU

Join us for a laborious and enlivening conversation on birth and rebirth, hope and fear, beauty and chaos, spirit and matter - winding through the tunnels of Kabbalah and Psychoanalysis. Dr. Ruth Kara-Ivanov Kaniel (Ph.D. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2010) is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Jewish History and Thought at the University of Haifa where she heads the Posen Saulire Foundation-funded Jewish Israeli Culture Program. She also serves as Research Fellow at the Tel Aviv Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis and at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Her research deals with intersections between mysticism, gender, and psychoanalysis. Dr. Kara-Ivanov Kaniel was a postdoctoral fellow at New York University, the HBI center at Brandeis University, and a Kreitman and Matanel at Ben-Gurion University. She also headed a Research Group on “Psychoanalysis and Kabbalah” at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. Her book Holiness and Transgression: Mothers of the Messiah in the Jewish Myth was published by Academic Studies Press (2017). Her book Human Ropes—Birth in Kabbalah and Psychoanalysis” won the Gorgias Press competition for Jewish Thought and will soon be published by De Gruyter Press. Her new book, The Feminine Messiah: King David in the Image of the Shekhina in Kabbalistic Literature (2021) was published recently by Brill. A poet and editor of poetry, as well as translator of Russian poets into Hebrew, her book The World Has No Silence (2011) won the Rachel Negev Literature Award. Her The Soul is Moved was published in the Ritmus Poetry Series of the Hakibbutz Hameuhad Press in 2017. Her latest poetry book, Diamonds and Ashes, will be published by Pardes Press in 2022. Think better. Do better. Hartman scholars bring you the big Jewish ideas we need for this moment. Study with them in free virtual classes or watch the videos at: www.shalomhartman.org/ideasfortoday - www.youtube.com/@ShalomHartmanInstitute 00:00 Excerpt 00:48 Scholarship 09:09 Ruth’s Books 18:40 What is Birth? 24:17 Beauty 32:54 Psychoanalysis 41:23 Hope 48:10 A New Paradigm 56:30 Facing the Fear 59:47 Darkness and Light 1:07:04 Hope 1:09:16 Rebirth 1:11:09 Dreaming 1:12:43 Born again, and again 1:14:54 Not to be or to be? 1:16:32 Closing and opening Join Seekers: https://discord.gg/EQtjK2FWsm https://instagram.com/seekersofunity https://www.twitter.com/seekersofu https://facebook.com/seekersofunity Support Seekers: https://www.patreon.com/seekers https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU

Moshe Idel, considered the world’s leading scholar of Jewish mysticism by many, joins us in conversation to discuss his unique relationship to the texts of Jewish mysticism, his psychedelics experiences and the role of mystical experiences in the study of mysticism, Jewish Mysticism’s relationship to other mystical traditions, ‘Unio Mystica’ in Judaism and the techniques employed to achieve it, the Divine Feminine and the centrality of Mitzvot in Kabbalah and lastly whether he finds any truth, meaning or beauty in mysticism. Join us for this momentous conversation. Moshe Idel is a Senior Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute and the Max Cooper Professor of Jewish Thought at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Professor Idel has served as a visiting professor and researcher at universities and institutions worldwide, including Yale, Harvard, and Princeton universities in the United States, and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Professor Idel’s book, Ben: Sonship and Jewish Mysticism, won the 2007 National Jewish Book Award, and was published by the Institute’s Kogod Library of Judaic Studies. In total, he has published over one hundred books, translated into a dozen different languages. Amongst a long list of professional achievements, Professor Idel was a recipient of the Rothschild Prize for Jewish studies in 2012, and was elected to the Israel Academy for Sciences and Humanities in 2006. In 1999, he became an Israel Prize laureate for excellent achievement in the field of Jewish philosophy. 00:00 Excerpt 00:33 Overview 00:53 Biographical 08:23 The Accidental Scholar 11:15 Reading Manuscripts 13:23 Meeting Scholem 17:03 New Perspectives 20:59 Documentation 22:15 The Enigma 27:54 Instability of Texts 32:26 ‘Phenomenological’ 37:28 Communicating with Kabbalists 39:03 Experiencing with the Mystics 40:35 Easy Experiences 41:39 Abulafia 48:11 Unio Mystica 52:04 Jewish Unio Mystica 53:47 Techniques 54:32 The Common 57:08 Whence the Drive? 1:03:00 Definition 1:02:32 Continuity 1:06:36 Hans Jonas 1:08:22 Traditionalism 1:09:10 Inner Readings 1:12:15 Divine Feminine 1:17:58 Mitzvot 1:19:48 Terrestrial Mysticism 1:21:25 Unique to Jewish Mysticism? 1:23:14 The Essence of Jewish Mysticism? 1:24:28 Italian Kabbalists 1:25:58 Perennialism & Eranos 1:30:29 Unity? 1:32:08 Beyond Particularism? 1:34:09 Truth? 1:36:49 Meaning? 1:38:42 Hasidism Ashkenaz 1:45:10 The Besht 1:47:36 Lightning Round 1:58:15 Jewish Mysticism and other Mysticism 2:03:36 Final Questions 2:05:14 Thank you 2:06:34 Beauty Join us: https://discord.gg/EQtjK2FWsm https://facebook.com/seekersofunity https://instagram.com/seekersofunity https://www.twitter.com/seekersofu https://www.seekersofunity.com Support us: patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seekers paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU

Join us on a journey into the fascinating world of comparative religion. Join us as we explore the intersection between ethics and metaphysics, and the intricate relationship between meaning and mysticism. From the descriptive to the prescriptive, from the dangers to the rewards of interiorization, Professor Margolin's exploration of these concepts offers a unique perspective on the modern role of religion. Whether you're seeking deeper insights or pondering the meaning of mysticism, this conversation promises to be an intellectual and philosophical delight. Professor Ron Margolin is a Research Fellow of the Kogod Research Center at the Shalom Hartman Institute, with a doctorate in Jewish thought from Tel Aviv University. He teaches modern Jewish thought in the Department of Jewish Philosophy and Comparative Religion at Tel Aviv University. His publications include The Human Temple: Religious Interiorization and the Structuring of Inner Life in Early Hasidism (Hebrew, 2006). Source: https://www.hartman.org.il/person/ron-margolin/ Think better. Do better. Hartman scholars bring you the big Jewish ideas we need for this moment. Study with them in free virtual classes or watch the videos at: www.shalomhartman.org/ideasfortoday - www.youtube.com/@ShalomHartmanInstitute 00:00 Excerpt 00:41 Introducing Professor Margolin 01:37 Comparative Religion: Pitfalls and Benefits 07:05 William James and the Modern Role of Religion 14:27 The Humanistic Values Guiding Ron’s Research 17:43 A Question of Ethics 19:46 Can we have Ethics without Metaphysics? 22:31 The Descriptive to Prescriptive Leap 25:03 The Meaning of Meaning 37:30 The Meaning of Mysticism 1:04:09 Finding Meaning 1:10:40 Are you a Mystic? 1:13:12 The End of Ron’s Book 1:27:38 The Ends 1:40:16 A Process of Interiorization 1:44:59 The Dangers of Interiorization 1:50:59 Logic of Mysticism 1:59:27 Practicum Join us: https://discord.gg/EQtjK2FWsm https://facebook.com/seekersofunity https://instagram.com/seekersofunity https://www.twitter.com/seekersofu https://www.seekersofunity.com Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Cliffton, Steve, Billy, Jackie, Andrew, Josh, Glenn, Zv, George, Ivana, Keenan, Gab, John, Victoria, Casey, Joseph, Brad, Benjamin, Arin, jXaviErre, Margo, Gale, Eny, Kim, Michael, Kirk, Ron, Seth, Daniel, Raphael, Daniel, Jason, Sergio, Leila, Wael, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre. Join them in supporting us: patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seekers paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU

What does the teacher-students entail in the world of Hasidism and do we need it anymore? Join Alexandra and Zevi in conversation, exploring questions of charismatic religious leadership, teachers and students, masters, disciples and the potential for redemption. Alexandra Mandelbaum is a fellow in the Maskilot program at the David Hartman Center for Intellectual Leadership. She is writing her doctoral thesis in the Department of Jewish Thought at Ben Gurion University and her research focuses on Breslov Hasidism and the ideological fluctuations within Jewish society. Over the years, she has been involved in leading and coordinating projects in the field of Jewish and Israeli culture. As part of the “Cultural Brigade” she wrote, produced, and created two plays that dealt with Russian-Israeli identity. Think better. Do better. Hartman scholars bring you the big Jewish ideas we need for this moment. Study with them in free virtual classes or watch the videos at: www.shalomhartman.org/ideasfortoday - www.youtube.com/@ShalomHartmanInstitute 00:00 Excerpt 01:10 Chasidism in the Academy 04:26 Story 09:37 Israel 13:44 What is a Rebbe? 18:00 Dangers of Rebbes 19:30 To be a Chasid 24:41 Negotiating Relationships 27:20 The Besht 35:37 Is it still Hasidism? 44:45 Self Aware 51:34 Teachers and Students 56:24 Apology 58:56 A Question of Succession 1:00:53 of Messianism 1:17:36 Messianic teacher and disciples 1:20:42 Messianic People 1:27:12 Us 1:30:58 Teaching as a Woman 2:00:06 Succession 2:13:06 Death of the Teacher Join Seekers: https://discord.gg/EQtjK2FWsm https://facebook.com/seekersofunity https://instagram.com/seekersofunity https://www.twitter.com/seekersofu https://www.seekersofunity.com Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Keenan, Gab, John, Victoria, Casey, Joseph, Brad, Benjamin, Arin, jXaviErre, Margo, Gale, Eny, Kim, Michael, Kirk, Ron, Seth, Daniel, Raphael, Daniel, Jason, Sergio, Leila, Wael, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre. Join them in supporting us: patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seekers paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU

Join Israeli writer, journalist, television host and teacher, Dov Elbaum, in a frontier testing discussion addressing the relationship between Judaism and Shamanism, the real meaning of Idolatry, the Face of God and the End of the Law. Asking, how might one live if they saw the truth? Dov Elbaum is a Research Fellow of the Kogod Research Center at Shalom Hartman Institute and chief editor of Yediot Ahronot Publishing. He has published extensively in Israel’s leading Hebrew dailies. A graduate of the Interdisciplinary Program at Tel Aviv University, his academic expertise is in philosophy, Kabbalah and Hassidism. Dov edited and produced the documentary “Making Way” for Israeli television and is the host of the popular weekly television talk show “Mekablim Shabbat”. His publications include: Zman Elul (Am Oved, 1997); My Life with the Ancestors (Am Oved, 2001), which won the 2002 President Prize for Young Writers; and A Walk through the Void (Am Oved, 2007). Source: https://www.hartman.org.il/person/dov-elbaum/00:00 Excerpt 00:20 Judaism and Shamanism 08:05 India 13:13 Cross-Cultural Learnings 19:53 Brothers in Faith 23:34 Idolatry 28:53 Interfacing with Reality 31:53 the End of the Law 37:05 A Vision for the Future 43:28 Immanentizing the Eschaton 46:09 Moral safeguards 54:19 Are we ready? 59:10 A Love Story Join us: https://discord.gg/EQtjK2FWsmhttps://facebook.com/seekersofunityhttps://instagram.com/seekersofunityhttps://www.twitter.com/seekersofuhttps://www.seekersofunity.com Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Billy, Jackie, Andrew, Josh, Glenn, Zv, George, Ivana, Keenan, Gab, John, Victoria, Casey, Joseph, Brad, Benjamin, Arin, jXaviErre, Margo, Gale, Eny, Kim, Michael, Kirk, Ron, Seth, Daniel, Raphael, Daniel, Jason, Sergio, Leila, Wael, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre. Join them in supporting us: patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seekers paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU

Join us for a tell-all conversation with a leading biblical scholar on what really happened at the trial of Jesus, the concept of the Divine Messiah, the Holiness Code in Leviticus, Messianism and Mysticism in the Bible and the Deification of Moses – and what all of this might mean for us today. Dr. Israel Knohl is a Senior Research Fellow of the Kogod Research Center at Shalom Hartman Institute. He has a doctorate in Bible from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he is the Yehezkel Kaufmann Professor of Bible. Professor Knohl has served as a visiting professor at Harvard University, University of California at Berkeley, Stanford University and the University of Chicago Divinity School. https://www.hartman.org.il/person/israel-knohl/ Think better. Do better. Hartman scholars bring you the big Jewish ideas we need for this moment. Study with them in free virtual classes or watch the videos at: www.shalomhartman.org/ideasfortoday - www.youtube.com/@ShalomHartmanInstitute00:00 Excerpt 00:48 The Trial of Jesus 08:25 The Divine Messiah 22:48 Was Jesus' claim radical? 27:53 Israel’s Thesis - the Holiness Code 35:16 The Priestly Agenda 40:30 Messianism 50:07 Mysticism in the Bible 57:01 The Apotheosis of Moses 1:02:25 Scandals 1:11:09 Meaning 1:13:25 Book of Bahir - Meaning of Blessing 1:21:40 Personal Reflection 1:26:33 The Takeaway 1:35:55 Niggun Join Seekers: https://discord.gg/EQtjK2FWsmhttps://facebook.com/seekersofunityhttps://instagram.com/seekersofunityhttps://www.twitter.com/seekersofuhttps://www.seekersofunity.com Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Keenan, Gab, John, Victoria, Casey, Joseph, Brad, Benjamin, Arin, jXaviErre, Margo, Gale, Eny, Kim, Michael, Kirk, Ron, Seth, Daniel, Raphael, Daniel, Jason, Sergio, Leila, Wael, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre. Join them in supporting us: patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seekers paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU

Encountering Divinity after the Death of God. Join Menachem and Zevi in conversation as they explore the hero’s journey in Judaism, traversing the biblical landscape from history to destiny. Dr. Menachem Lorberbaum is a Senior Research Fellow of the Kogod Research Center at Shalom Hartman Institute, where he led the Bet Midrash program for four years. He has a doctorate in philosophy from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is professor of Jewish Philosophy at Tel Aviv University, where he was founding chairperson of the Department of Hebrew Culture Studies, and where he chaired the Graduate School of Philosophy. His most recent book on Jewish theology, I Seek Thy Face, is soon to be published. Dazzled by Beauty: Theology as Poetics in Hispanic Jewish Culture was published by the Ben Zvi Institute, Jerusalem. Menachem is co-editor of a four-volume work, The Jewish Political Tradition , along with Michael Walzer and Noam Zohar . The third volume, Community, is now in press. Along with Michal Govrin he edits the poetry series Devarim at Carmel Press, which has published four volumes of his verse. https://www.hartman.org.il/person/menachem-lorberbaum/ Think better. Do better. Hartman scholars bring you the big Jewish ideas we need for this moment. Study with them in free virtual classes or watch the videos at: www.shalomhartman.org/ideasfortoday - www.youtube.com/@ShalomHartmanInstitute00:00:00 - Excerpt 00:01:24 - Encountering God 00:16:34 - Fate vs Destiny 00:21:36 - Israel's Limp 00:23:20 - Becoming Creator 00:26:12 - The Place 00:34:01 - Exile 00:41:05 - Disagree 00:46:17 - The Encounter 00:54:19 - Encoutering Otherness 01:00:16 - Not Mysticism 01:06:00 - Loving God after Nietzche 01:13:09 - Practice 01:20:33 - Spontenaity 01:21:21 - Niggun 01:26:34 - Father and King 01:28:11 - Question Join Seekers: https://discord.gg/EQtjK2FWsmhttps://facebook.com/seekersofunityhttps://instagram.com/seekersofunityhttps://www.twitter.com/seekersofuhttps://www.seekersofunity.com Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Keenan, Gab, John, Victoria, Casey, Joseph, Brad, Benjamin, Arin, jXaviErre, Margo, Gale, Eny, Kim, Michael, Kirk, Ron, Seth, Daniel, Raphael, Daniel, Jason, Sergio, Leila, Wael, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre. Join them in supporting us: patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seekers paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU

Exploring Mystical Union and Spiritual Embodiment in Jewish Mysticism with Professor Adam Afterman. Adam Afterman is a Research Fellow of the Kogod Research Center at the Shalom Hartman Institute and the chair of the Department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud at Tel Aviv University. Professor Afterman’s main fields of research are medieval Jewish philosophy, kabbalah, and Jewish mysticism. His most recent book, And They Shall Be One Flesh: On the Language of Mystical Union in Judaism (Brill, 2016), offers an extensive study of mystical union and spiritual embodiment in Judaism. Professor Afterman studies Jewish thought in its broader Muslim and Christian contexts and explores how medieval Judaism was transformed in detailed response to philosophy and Muslim and Christian high culture. Professor Afterman is active in the field of academic interreligious research and study in Israel and abroad. 00:00 Excerpt 02:02 Dvekut 39:13 Mystical Union 1:22:21 Holy Spirit 1:35:56 What does this mean for us today? Join us: https://discord.gg/EQtjK2FWsm

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https://www.seekersofunity.com Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Esther, Moshe, Isaac, Jorge, AARon, Rick, Eden, Leo, Francis, CyberArt, Laurie, Alana, Gary, Frederique, Laurie, Joshua, Spacecowboy, Cliffton, Steve, Billy, Jackie, Andrew, Josh, Glenn, Zv, George, Ivana, Keenan, Gab, John, Victoria, Casey, Joseph, Brad, Benjamin, Arin, jXaviErre, Margo, Gale, Eny, Kim, Michael, Kirk, Ron, Seth, Daniel, Raphael, Daniel, Jason, Sergio, Leila, Wael, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre. Join them in supporting us: patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seekers paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU

Join us for a profoundly heartful conversation on the musical and textual life of Jewish mysticism with Melila Hellner-Eshed. Melila Hellner-Eshed, Ph.D., is a Research Fellow of the Kogod Research Center at Shalom Hartman Institute and the Director of Maskilot, an intensive two-year program for female doctoral candidates, now opening its fourth cohort. She also founded and co-directs the Rabbinical Students Seminar, a interdenominational program for rabbinic students spending a year in Israel. She has been a professor of Jewish mysticism and Zohar in the Department of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem for over two decades. She received her degree from Hebrew University under the tutelage of Professor Yehuda Liebes. At the Hebrew University, Melila also taught in the honors teacher-training program Revivim and in the Amirim honors program for liberal studies. For the past three decades, she has been a central figure in the Israeli renaissance of study of Jewish texts by Israeli adults of all paths of life in various frameworks. She has been teaching and working with Jewish communities in North America, Europe and the former Soviet Union for many years. Her publications include A River Flows from Eden: The Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar, (Hebrew, Alma and Am Oved Publications, 2005 and English, Stanford University Press, 2009). Her book Seekers of the Face  – From the Secrets of the Idra Rabba in the Zohar was published in Hebrew in 2018, forthcoming in English from Stanford University Press. Melila also serves on the faculty of the Institute of Jewish Spirituality in the U.S. and is active in the ‘Sulha’ – a reconciliation project that brings together Israelis and Palestinians. Source: https://www.hartman.org.il/person/melila-hellner-eshed/ 02:20 A Journey to Jewish Mysticism 12:40 Staying Centred on the Path 22:44 A Mystic in the Academy 31:59 Popularizing Jewish Mysticism 47:42 Mystical Signposts 51:42 Studying Jewish Mysticism as a Woman 1:02:20 Next Time? Join Seekers: https://discord.gg/EQtjK2FWsmhttps://facebook.com/seekersofunityhttps://instagram.com/seekersofunityhttps://www.twitter.com/seekersofuhttps://www.seekersofunity.com Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Keenan, Gab, John, Victoria, Casey, Joseph, Brad, Benjamin, Arin, jXaviErre, Margo, Gale, Eny, Kim, Michael, Kirk, Ron, Seth, Daniel, Raphael, Daniel, Jason, Sergio, Leila, Wael, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre. Join them in supporting us: patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seekers paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU

Join Tomer Persico for a comprehensive survey of Jewish mysticism, past and present, from the Bible, through Hechalot and Merkava, Maimonides, Abulafia, Kabbalah, Sabbateanism and Hasidism. Asking, is there such a thing as “Jewish meditation”? What might it be? And how might we go about doing it? Dr. Tomer Persico is a Research Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute. He was the Koret Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish and Israel Studies at U.C. Berkeley, where he was also a Senior Research Scholar in the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Dr. Persico is a social activist advocating for freedom of religion in Israel. A leading thinker about secularization, Jewish Renewal and forms of contemporary spirituality, Persico writes the most popular blog in Hebrew on these subjects and has published articles in the Washington Post and Haaretz (English) as well as numerous other Israeli newspapers and periodicals. He is a Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, and formerly taught in the department of Comparative Religion at Tel Aviv University. Dr. Persico is also the author of The Jewish Meditative Tradition (Hebrew , Tel Aviv University Press, 2016), a critically acclaimed book about the cultural history of Jewish meditation. His second book, about the way the idea of the Image of God influenced modern Western civilization, will be published this summer by Yedioth books. Source: https://www.hartman.org.il/person/tomer-persico/ Find Tomer online Twitter: https://twitter.com/tomerpersico Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tomer.persico/ Blog: https://tomerpersico.com/ Think better. Do better. Hartman scholars bring you the big Jewish ideas we need for this moment. Study with them in free virtual classes or watch the videos at shalomhartman.org/ideasfortoday 00:00 Excerpt 00:39 Introducing Tomer 02:28 Overview of Jewish Meditation 06:13 Core themes of Jewish Meditation 08:16 History: Bible 14:06 Defining terms 19:59 Hechalot and Merkava 29:58 What's going on here? 40:23 Maimonides and Abulafia 47:41 Kabbalah 59:04 Sabbateanism 01:01:41 Hasidism 1:17:54 How to – Practical 1:23:45 How’d you get into this? 1:26:53 Closing Join us: https://discord.gg/EQtjK2FWsm

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https://www.twitter.com/seekersofu Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Jackie, Andrew, Josh, Glenn, Zv, George, Ivana, Keenan, Gab, John, Victoria, Casey, Joseph, Brad, Benjamin, Arin, jXaviErre, Margo, Gale, Eny, Kim, Michael, Kirk, Ron, Seth, Daniel, Raphael, Daniel, Jason, Sergio, Leila, Wael, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre. Join them in supporting us: patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seekers paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU

Thank you to our beloved Patrons, Moshe, Isaac, Jorge, AARon, Rick, Eden, Leo, Francis, CyberArt, Laurie, Alana, Gary, Frederique, Laurie, Joshua, Spacecowboy, Cliffton, Steve, Billy, Jackie, Andrew, Josh, Glenn, Zv, George, Ivana, Keenan, Gab, John, Victoria, Casey, Joseph, Brad, Benjamin, Arin, jXaviErre, Margo, Gale, Eny, Kim, Michael, Kirk, Ron, Seth, Daniel, Raphael, Daniel, Jason, Sergio, Leila, Wael, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre. Join them in supporting us: patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seekers paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU00:00 Thank you 03:15 Individual Names 06:48 More Thank Yous 09:47 Channel Update 10:47 Next Series 11:25 Future thoughts: Community 13:33 Last Thank yous 14:42 Post Script Join us: https://discord.gg/EQtjK2FWsmhttps://facebook.com/seekersofunityhttps://instagram.com/seekersofunityhttps://www.twitter.com/seekersofuhttps://www.seekersofunity.com

Join us as we delve into the depths of Jewish mysticism and the revitalization of spirituality with Professor Arthur Green. With a wealth of knowledge and expertise in Hasidism and Neo-hasidism, Professor Green shares his profound insights and personal journey. From his formative years studying under renowned scholars to his role as a leading figure in the Jewish Renewal and Neo-Hasidism movements, Green offers an exploration of the intricate teachings and transformative power of Jewish mysticism. Discover the wisdom and contemporary relevance of Judaism through the lens of one of its pre-eminent scholars, Professor Arthur Green.

00:00 Excerpt

00:12 Art’s Teachers

10:55 JTS and Abraham Joshua Heschel

16:21 Opening a window to Judaism

22:52 Too many Books?

25:30 Honestly and Complexity

31:41 Why Judaism?

36:34 The Baal Shem, A Radical Jew

40:31 Inner, Psychedelic journey of Judaism

44:29 Psychedelic Judaism

52:08 An Ongoing Struggle

54:20 A Neo-Legacy

58:49 NeoHasidism for the Non-Jew

1:03:48 Closing blessing

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Filmed live Wednesday, March 1st 2023 on Parallax Academy. Andrew Sweeny asks: “What is Kabbalah”? and explores Jewish mysticism. Followed by a Q&A 00:00 Excerpt 00:56 Conversation 1:12:00 Q&A Hosted by: https://www.youtube.com/@parallax_mediahttps://parallax-media.eu/parallax-academy/parallax-academy-2-zevi-slavin Join us: https://discord.gg/EQtjK2FWsmhttps://facebook.com/seekersofunityhttps://instagram.com/seekersofunityhttps://www.twitter.com/seekersofuhttps://www.seekersofunity.com Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Steve, Billy, Jackie, Andrew, Josh, Glenn, Zv, George, Ivana, Keenan, Gab, John, Victoria, Casey, Joseph, Brad, Benjamin, Arin, jXaviErre, Margo, Gale, Eny, Kim, Michael, Kirk, Ron, Seth, Daniel, Raphael, Daniel, Jason, Sergio, Leila, Wael, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre. Join them in supporting us: patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seekers paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU

Join me on a journey of faith and doubt, exploring the intersections of the world’s mystical traditions. It’s my hope that sharing this journey might lead to a greater appreciation of the shared beauty of the religious traditions of our neighbors. Join us: https://discord.gg/EQtjK2FWsm

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https://www.seekersofunity.com Thank you to our beloved Patrons: jXaviErre, Eny, Kim, Michael, Kirk, Ron, Seth, Daniel, Raphael, Daniel, Jason, Sergio, Leila, Wael, jXaviErre, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre. Join them in supporting us: patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seekers paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU

During the Renaissance, Kabbalists attempted to synthesize and interpret Kabbalah through a Neoplatonic lens, based on the belief that Plato had studied the secrets of Judaism. Join us as we explore the secret of Plato and Kabbalah in the Italian Renaissance. 00:00 Platonism and Kabbalah during the Renaissance 01:30 Shout out 04:06 Changing Favours 06:27 The Rise of Plato 15:14 How did Plato know Kabbalah? 20:12 Prisca Theologia, Perennial Philosophy 24:58 Case Study: The Sefirot 32:57 Italy vs Spain 37:57 Ripple Effects of the Renaissance 41:01 Summary 43:34 Reading Recs 43:57 Thank you & Shout out Sources and Recommended Readings: • Abraham Melamed, “The Myth of the Jewish Origins of Philosophy in the Renaissance: from Aristotle to Plato,” in Jewish History, 26(1-2), 2012, pp. 41–59., 214—219. • Abraham Melamed, The Myth of the Jewish Sources of Science and Philosophy, 2009, pp. 214-219, 299-315 • Abraham Melamed, The Philosopher-King in Medieval and Renaissance Jewish political Thought (Albany, 2002), 229, n. 30. • Alexander Altmann, "Lurianic Kabbalah in a Platonic Key: Abraham Cohen Herrera's Puerta del Cielo," HUCA 53 (1982) • Chaim Wirszubski, Pico della Mirandola’s Encounter with Jewish Mysticism • Hava Tirosh-Rothschild, Between Worlds: The Life and Thought of Rabbi David ben Judah Messer Leon (Albany, 1991), 50, 233. • Miquel Beltran, The Influence of Abraham Cohen de Herrera's Kabbalah on Spinoza's Metaphysics. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2016 • Moshe Idel "Differing Conceptions of Kabbalah in the Early 17th Century,"in I. Twersky and B. Septimus, eds., Jewish Thought in the 17th Century (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987), 138-41, 155-57 • Moshe Idel, "Jewish Mystical Thought in the Florence of Lorenzo il Magnifico," in La cultura ebraica all'epoca di Lorenzo il Magnifico, ed. D. Liscia Bemporad and I. Zatilli (Florence, 1998), pp. 31-32 • Moshe Idel, "Kabbalah and Ancient Philosophy in R. Isaac and Judah Abravanel", in The Philosophy of Leone Ebreo, eds. M. Dorman and Z. Levi (Tel Aviv, 1985) (in Hebrew), pp. 73-112, 197. • Moshe Idel, "Kabbalah, Platonism and Prisca Theologia: the Case of Menashe ben Israel,” Menasseh ben Israel and his World, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1989, pp. 207-219. • Moshe Idel, "The Anthropology of Yohanan Alemanno: Sources and Influences," Topoi 7 (1988): pp. 201-10; reprinted in Annali di storia dell'esegesi 7 (1990): 93-112; • Moshe Idel, “The Magical and Neoplatonic Interpretations of The Kabbalah in the Renaissance,” in Jewish Thought in the Sixteenth Century, by Bernard Dov Cooperman (ed.), Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983, pp. 186-242 • Moshe Idel, “Italy in Safed, Safed in Italy: Toward an Interactive History of Sixteenth-Century Kabbalah,” in David B. Ruderman and Giuseppe Veltri, eds., Cultural Intermediaries: Jewish Intellectuals in Early Modern Italy, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004, p. 243 • Moshe Idel, “Jewish Kabbalah and Platonism in the Middle Ages and Renaissance” in Lenn Goodman, Neoplatonism and Jewish Thought, State University of New York Press, 1992, pp. 319-351 • Moshe Idel, “Metamorphoses of a Platonic Theme in Jewish Mysticism,” in Jewish Studies at the Central European University 3: 67 • Moshe Idel, “Particularism and Universalism in Kabbalah, 1480-1650,” in Essential Papers on Jewish Culture in Renaissance and Baroque Italy, edited by David B. Ruderman, 1992, p. 327-8, 338 • Moshe Idel, Kabbalah in Italy, 1280-1510: A Survey, Yale University Press, 2007 • Richard Popkin, “Spinoza, Neopiatonic Kabbalist?,” in Lenn Goodman, Neoplatonism and Jewish Thought, 1992, pp. pp. 367-410 • S. Toussaint, "Ficino's Orphic Magic or Jewish Astrology and Oriental Philosophy? A Note on Spiritus, the Three Books on Life, Ibn Tufayl, and Ibn Zarza," Ac- cademia 2 (2000): 19-33

Did Neoplatonism influence Kabbalah? Exploring the reception of Neoplatonism in Early Kabbalah via three themes: Negative Theology, Unio Mystica and Emanationism. 00:00 Three Themes from Neoplatonism to Kabbalah 00:37 Collab shout out 01:01 What is Emanationism & the Theory of the Forms? 05:12 What is Unio Mystica? 05:56 What is Negative Theology? 06:45 Disclaimers: Pitfalls of Comparison 08:09 The Jewish Neoplatonists 12:44 Mystical Union in Early Kabbalah 17:02 Philo tho… 21:19 Negative Theology in Early Kabbalah 28:29 The Tension 33:43 An Esoteric En Sof 36:51 Sefirot & Emanation in Early Kabbalah 45:36 Exogenous vs Endogenous 47:22 A Human Question 52:10 Summary 53:28 Shout out and Thank you Sources and Further Reading • Adam Afterman, “And They Shall Be One Flesh,” On the Language of Mystical Union in Judaism, BRILL (2016), pp. 25-7, 79-101, 130-50 • Daniel Matt, “Ayin: The Concept of Nothingness in Mystical Judaism,” in The Problem of Pure Consciousness: Mysticism and Philosophy by Robert Forman (ed.), New York, 1990, pp. 121-159 • Gershom Scholem, Kabbalah (Jerusalem, 1974), p. 88 • Gershom Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, 1950, pp. 265-71, 431-45 • Moshe Idel, “Jewish Kabbalah and Platonism in the Middle Ages and Renaissance” in Lenn Goodman, Neoplatonism and Jewish Thought, State University of New York Press, 1992, pp. 325-27, 338-340 • Moshe Idel, Metamorphoses of a Platonic Theme in Jewish Mysticism, pp. 67-8 • Moshe Idel, Absorbing Perfections: Kabbalah and Interpretation (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), pp. 239–49 • Moshe Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, 1988, pp. 31-2 • Sarah Pessin, “Jewish Neoplatonism: Being above Being and Divine Emanation in Solomon Ibn Gabirol and Isaac Israeli” The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Jewish Philosophy, edited by Daniel H. Frank and Oliver Leaman, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003, pp. 91–110 • Raphael Jospe, "Chapter Three. Jewish Neoplatonism: Isaac Israeli and Solomon ibn Gabirol". Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages, Boston, USA: Academic Studies Press, 2009, pp. 79-131 Join us: https://discord.gg/EQtjK2FWsm

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https://www.seekersofunity.com Thank you to our beloved Patrons: jXaviErre, Eny, Kim, Michael, Kirk, Ron, Seth, Daniel, Raphael, Daniel, Jason, Sergio, Leila, Wael, jXaviErre, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre. Join them in supporting us: patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seekers paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU

Neoplatonism and Jewish Mysticism, an introduction. Exploring the debated origins of Kabbalah. Presenting Scholem’s Gnosticism and Neoplatonism origin hypothesis, Idel’s rejection of it and his own more nuanced theory.

Check out the rest of our wonderful collaborators:

@LetsTalkReligion What is Neoplatonism: https://youtu.be/vZEUo_sHoBw

@TheEsotericaChannel Neoplatonism vs Gnosticism: https://youtu.be/ZV5ubPPzT7U

@drangelapuca Plotinus and Iamblichus on Theurgy and Magic: https://youtu.be/lNqnNjsGExM

@TheModernHermeticist The Platonic Philosophers' Creed by Thomas Taylor: https://youtu.be/Wzd98YSG6Hs

@johnvervaeke Neoplatonism & 4E Cognitive Science: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbk3lA6zCic

00:00 Disclaimer

00:45 Shout out

02:06 Where does Kabbalah come from?

04:44 a word from our sponsors

05:21 Kabbalah as a Historical Phenomena

07:37 What is Kabbalah?

08:28 Why then, why so?

09:57 Gershom Scholem

11:55 What is Neoplatonism?

14:20 From Scholem to Idel

15:23 Moshe Idel

18:55 Idel’s Theory

22:01 Thank you and shout out

Sources and Further Reading

• Gershom Scholem, Kabbalah, 1974, pp. 45, 98.

• Gershom Scholem, Major Trends, 1941, pp. 74-75.

• Gershom Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, 1987, pp. 269, 363.

• Moshe Idel, "On Binary 'Beginnings' in Kabbalah-Scholarship", in Aporemata. Kritische Studien zur Philologiegeschichte 5 (2001): Historicization-Historisierung, pp. 322-25

• Moshe Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, 1988, pp. 30-2

• Moshe Idel, “Jewish Kabbalah and Platonism in the Middle Ages and Renaissance” in Lenn Goodman, Neoplatonism and Jewish Thought, State University of New York Press, 1992, pp. 318-9

• Lloyd P. Gerson, Foreword, Neoplatonism (Hackett Classics) 2nd Edition, by Lloyd P. Gerson and R. T. Wallis

• Pauliina Remes and Svetla Slaveva-Griffin, “Introduction: Neoplatonism today,” in The Routledge Handbook of Neoplatonism by Pauliina Remes and Svetla Slaveva-Griffin (eds.)

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Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Eny, Kim, Michael, Kirk, Ron, Seth, Daniel, Raphael, Daniel, Jason, Sergio, Leila, Wael, jXaviErre, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre.

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Exploring Hegel’s relationship with Mysticism. Beginning with an introduction and biographical sketch of Hegel's life and a summary of his philosophical system. Next we discuss the various debates in the interpretation of Hegel's work. Following which we present his mystical influences and examine the mysticism in Hegel's own writings, as well as criticism of his 'mysticism'.

Dylan Shaul is a PhD candidate in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. His dissertation is titled Hegel's Concept of Reconciliation: On Absolute Spirit. He has also published on Spinoza, Kant, Kierkegaard, Husserl, Adorno, Levinas, Kristeva, and Derrida. See more of his work here: https://www.dylanshaul.com

00:00 1. Introduction

03:04 2. Biographical Background

04:44 3. Summary of Hegel’s System

09:51 4. Debates in Hegel Interpretation

12:51 5. Hegel’s Mystical Influences

21:28 6. Mysticism in Hegel’s Works

34:18 7. Criticism of Hegel

42:39 8. Final Words

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Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Eny, Kim, Michael, Kirk, Ron, Seth, Daniel, Raphael, Daniel, Jason, Sergio, Leila, Wael, jXaviErre, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre.

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Freud waged a war against religion and occultism. His main weapon? Sex and Science. Exploring Freud’s response to mysticism.

Part 1: The Most Dangerous Mind of the 20th Century https://youtu.be/4sge_4KfCrM

Part 2: The Mystic that Challenged Freud https://youtu.be/NSNVB-iYNyY

Part 3: FREUD, Sex & Science vs JUNG, Religion & Occultism https://youtu.be/m2t0Yi2OJvE

00:00 Black Tide

03:02 Sex vs Mysticism

05:28 Worthless for the External world

06:43 Other Mystical Mentions

11:07 Rolland slaps back

13:17 In Kabbalah

15:26 Sum up

17:28 The "Goetz Letters”

20:46 Wrapping up

23:01 More in Heaven and Earth

26:06 Last Words

26:57 Final Question

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Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Daniel, Jason, Sergio, Leila, Wael, jXaviErre, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre.

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Who was Freud's Secret Mystic Friend? Exploring Freud's relationship with a mystic and the chapter in Freud's best-selling Civilization and Its Discontents, in which he attempts to answer this mysterious mystic.

Part 1: The Most Dangerous Mind of the 20th Century https://youtu.be/4sge_4KfCrM

Part 2: The Mystic that Challenged Freud https://youtu.be/NSNVB-iYNyY

Part 3: FREUD, Sex & Science vs JUNG, Religion & Occultism https://youtu.be/m2t0Yi2OJvE

In collaboration with Dr. Justin Sledge @TheEsotericaChannel Watch his episode here: https://youtu.be/zuHwws5aXBE

Check out our convo with Justin: Is Mysticism Rational? LOGIC and MYSTICISM with Esoterica's Justin Sledge

https://youtu.be/CaLDtvUJI_A

00:00 Freud and the Mystic

01:20 Freud and Rolland, fanboying

04:56 Freud and Rolland, the beef

13:20 Civilization and Its Discontents

20:51 Psychoanalytic Explanation

31:25 Objections to Unity

32:34 Longing for Oneness

36:42 Science/Sex vs Mysticism/Religion

Sources and Further Readings:

• Ayon Maharaj, “The Challenge of the Oceanic Feeling,’” in History of European Ideas, 2017

• Charles P. Heriot-Maitland, Mysticism and Madness: Different aspects of the same human experience?, 2008, 11(3), 303

• Christine Downing, “Sigmund Freud and Jewish Mysticism: An Exploration,” In Cattoi, Thomas; Odorisio, David M. (2018). Depth Psychology and Mysticism, p. 151-166

• Dufresne, Todd (2017). “Mysticism, War, Love, and Religion: Civilization and Its Discontents, Reality, and Romain Rolland,” in The Late Sigmund Freud

• Letters of Sigmund Freud, edited by Ernst Freud, London: Hogarth Press, 1970

• Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, 1930

• Vermorel & Vermorel, Sigmund Freud et Romain Rolland, 1993

• William Parsons, The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling 1999

• William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, 357-60

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Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Daniel, Jason, Sergio, Leila, Wael, jXaviErre, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre.

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#freud

#mysticism

Despite being long rejected, there are very few thinkers who have framed the way you, the modern person, thinks about yourself and the world around you as the irreverent neurotic Jewish Austrian neurologist, Sigmund Shlomo Freud. Join us to learn about his life, his ideas and his legacy.

Part 1: The Most Dangerous Mind of the 20th Century https://youtu.be/4sge_4KfCrM

Part 2: The Mystic that Challenged Freud https://youtu.be/NSNVB-iYNyY

Part 3: FREUD, Sex & Science vs JUNG, Religion & Occultism https://youtu.be/m2t0Yi2OJvE

00:00 Introduction

03:45 Freud's Life

24:15 Freud's Ideas

31:31 Freud's Legacy

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The Great Myth Awakens; Mysticism for the Modern World: An exploration of the unitive experiences, theories and practice of the world’s mystical traditions. Seeking a universal spirituality, a mysticism which transcends all boundaries while remaining deeply rooted in tradition. Exploring an upgraded operating system for religion, a rationally, empirically, scientifically and philosophically sound approach to the mystical which might just show us how to live beautiful lives.

00:00 Opening Quote: The Great Myth

04:35 Today’s Talk

11:05 A New Story for a New World

19:10 Mysticism, in Experience, Theory and Practice

35:46 Redefining the Self

42:03 A Vision of Mysticism, summarized

44:25 The words of the Prophet

47:03 The Final Question

48:26 Closing Quote

51:31 Closing Words

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Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Jason, Sergio, Leila, Wael, jXaviErre, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre.

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Off the Record Interview with the fastest growing new religion in the world. What being Baháʼí is Really All About | Spiritual Conversation about the Life of Faith

00:00 Excerpt

00:56 Contextualizing Baháʼí

07:57 Coming to Baháʼí

14:15 Community of Volunteers

20:57 Mysticism in Baháʼí

27:41 Manifesting God

36:51 13 Key Principles of Faith

56:04 Spiritual Practice & Experience

1:02:02 Prayer in Baháʼí

1:06:59 Marriage in Baháʼí

1:08:16 Closing Words

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Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Leila, Wael, jXaviErre, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre.

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Join us for an Exclusive Interview at the Baha'i World Centre as we take a deep dive into the faiths of our neighbors to find out what they actually believe.

00:00 Excerpt

01:06 Brief History of the Bahá'í faith

10:45 Prayer/Invocation to begin the conversation

14:55 Mysticism and the Bahá'í faith

30:44 Becoming God

40:33 On the Nature of God

49:08 Bahá'í, a Perfect Faith?

51:40 Emanation, Manifestation and Revelation

1:16:55 Experientiality

1:24:42 Contradictions between Religions

1:38:54 Religion of Today, Religion of the Future

1:49:16 Is the Bahá'í faith too Idealistic?

1:57:58 Heaven and Hell

2:03:18 Science and Religion

2:10:32 Divinity and Humor

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Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Wael, jXaviErre, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre.

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Can religion still provide us with real connection, salvation and redemption in our modern alienated world?

00:00 An Idea

10:21 Paradigm Shift

19:30 The Kabbalists

30:29 Our Role

34:57 About Seekers

40:00 Q&A

47:03 Q#2

52:39 Q#3

#mysticism #religion #unity

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Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre.

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The Perennial Philosophy, or Perennialism for short, claims that the depth traditions found within the major world religions all converge upon the same metaphysical vision - namely, the identification of our deepest selves with a divine, transcendental ground. Popularized by Aldous Huxley in his 1945 The Perennial Philosophy it has a natural appeal to many thinking, spiritually inclined individuals - including those who have never explicitly heard of it. - Jon

In this debate Jonathan will critique the perennial philosophy; Zevi will defend it.

Jonathan Weidenbaum is a professor of philosophy and world religions at Berkeley College.

Zevi Slavin is a seeker, a teacher, and creator of Seekers of Unity.

See Jonathan’s work here:

https://berkeleycollege.academia.edu/JonathanWeidenbaum

https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/Jonathan-Weidenbaum/103460987

Particularly:

A Little Disillusionment is a Good Thing: Perennialism, Process Theology, and Religious Diversity

The Metaphysics of Alterity and Unity: Levinas and Perennialism

Why I am Not a Pantheist (Nor a Panentheist) Metaphysics, Totalization, and the Cosmos

With Open Doors and Windows, Doing theology in the spirit of William James

Upcoming with Nicholas Colemean: The Bell and the Hammer: for and against a perennialist philosophy (seeking a publisher, if you know any…)

00:00 Introduction: Omar Lughod

00:54 Introducing Perennialism: Jonathan

06:09 Critiquing Perennialism: Jonathan

31:50 Defending Perennialism: Zevi

51:50 Response: Jonathan

56:38 Response: Zevi

Q&A Session

1:01:27 What about religions that disagree?

1:04:12 From debate to discussion

1:07:53 What would it take to change your mind?

1:13:11 Is this all just ideas to you?

1:16:53 Baruch Thaler: What’s the bottom line?

1:18:46 What’s with all this New Age-ism?

1:33:03 Closing words

“Neither the mystic nor the philosopher can remain content with an irreducible heterogeneity of mystical experience, the mystic because the ultimate character of the experience implies a universal claim, the philosopher because a diversity of ultimate claims is a challenge not a resting-place. Thus, it is not an uneducated essentialist desire, but religious integrity or philosophical urgency that leads those who no longer find an exclusive claim by any single tradition convincing to seek an underlying unity and to investigate the equivalence of symbols under their diversity.”

- Charles Davis in his review of Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis, by Steven Katz, ed.

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Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre.

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Martin Buber is a name that will forever be associated with mysticism and philosophy. His book, I and Thou, continues to touch the lives of thousands. There is perhaps no person who has done more to preserve and present his work than world-renown Buber scholar, Paul Mendes-Flohr. In this conversation we explore Buber's transition from Mysticism to Dialogue.

Professor Paul Mendes-Flohr is a leading scholar of modern Jewish thought.

He has written some thirty books, edited another forty-five, and authored some 300 articles on modern Jewish intellectual history, philosophy and religious thought, with a focus on the lives and ideas of the leading German-Jewish intellectuals of the 19th and 20th-centuries: Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Gershom Scholem and Leo Strauss.

Paul is Professor Emeritus of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Professor Emeritus of Modern Jewish History and Thought at the University of Chicago, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Senior Research Fellow at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem, was the director of the Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center and is the editor in chief of the twenty-two volume German edition of the collected works of Martin Buber, as well as a series on German-Jewish literature and Cultural History.

Some of his recent works include:

Gustav Landauer. Anarchist and Jew (2014).

Dialogue as a Trans-Disciplinary Concept (2015).

Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent (2019).

Cultural Disjunctions: Post-Traditional Jewish Identities (2021).

00:00 Excerpt

00:54 Introducing Paul Mendes-Flohr

02:41 Why Mysticism?

3:39 Buber and Mysticism

6:25 Ecstatic Confessions

07:28 Story time

08:27 Escapist Mysticism & Hasidism

10:25 Buber, Do you believe in God?

11:19 Buber philosophy of Dialogue

15:14 The Eternal Thou

17:13 Shalom

19:29 Judaism isn’t a political identity

22:11 How did you come to Buber?

26:43 Translating I and Thou

29:22 Buber vs Gnosticism

34:18 Hearing vs Listening

36:33 I _&_ Thou

38:01 Where is Buber today?

39:29 The Academy

41:12 Buber and Palestine

44:28 From Mysticism to Dialogue

50:24 The Reluctant Prophet

56:47 A Positive formulation of Judaism

1:03:47 To be a Child

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Come behind the scenes with Zevi as he tries to figure out what is going on in Maimonides’ Guide with the help of a new friend, the young and brilliant scholar David Fried.

David Fried teaches Talmud, Halakha, and Jewish Thought at the Ramaz Upper School in New York City. He is also an editor and frequent contributor at thelehrhaus.com David’s articles can be found here: https://thelehrhaus.com/author/davidfried/

These are David's two articles referenced in the conversation:

https://thelehrhaus.com/scholarship/mysticism-and-its-alternatives-rethinking-maimonides/

https://thelehrhaus.com/scholarship/revisiting-maimonidess-merkavah-chapters/

Full “Maimonides and Mysticism” Series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_7jcKJs6iwXUKaVOvNJWr5DSLPTYV0j9

00:00 Excerpts

01:38 About David and how he got into Maimonides and Mysticism

04:41 Synthesizing Maimonides and Mysticism

06:32 The Article and Beyond

08:00 David's New Thinking - Negative Theology

09:00 Maimonides shift away from Aristotelianism

10:38 Why Negative Theology?

12:46 Away from Aristotle

14:55 The Goal of Prophecy

17:26 Questioning Motivations

19:24 What’s Maimonides moving towards?

23:09 Into the Contradictions

25:52 David’s take on Hakham Jose Faur

27:48 What about Emanationism?

28:53 Some other Scholars

30:26 Mysticism and (Muslim) Philosophy

32:37 Maimonides

33:29 Critical Feedback on the Series

34:54 Was Maimonides a Pantheist?

39:49 Maimonides’ Two Gods

43:28 Does Union ever happen with God?

47:23 The Theological Irony of it All

49:49 Whom does Maimonides speak of in 3.51?

52:57 An Orthodox Façade?

54:11 Can the Human Experience God?

1:02:33 Feel like I’m missing something…

1:04:04 Etcetera

1:05:21 Guide ‘for’ the Perplexed or ‘of’ the Perplexed?

1:07:42 Again, the Irony

1:09:20 Towards a Phenomenology of Maimonides Mysticism

1:13:04 Ethics of Imitating God. The End of the Guide

1:16:18 Who was the Real Maimonides?

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If exacting rationalism and ecstatic mysticism are mutually exclusive, how does Maimonides thrive in a contemporary dynamic, ecstatic, kabbalistic mystical movement?

In this episode, we explore Maimonides’ rich afterlife in the Chabad Hasidic movement. We’ll investigate how this mystical movement embraces Maimonides philosophical and Aristotelian teachings, using Maimonides to ground its mysticism. We’ll look at Chabad’s theological and philosophical explanations for how to reconcile the apparent dissonance between Maimonides and its own symbolic teachings. Finally, we’ll learn how Maimonides' work provides a model for Chabad’s idealized spiritual activism.

Maimonides the Hasid? Chabad and Rambam.

Check out the rest of our Maimonides series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_7jcKJs6iwXUKaVOvNJWr5DSLPTYV0j9

Elisha Pearl is a student and teacher of Jewish texts, practices, and traditions. He has taught from the Himalayas to the Alps, and from the Judean Hills to the Texan Plains.

Elisha grew up in Brooklyn, studied Jewish mysticism at yeshivot around the world and is an ordained Rabbi. Elisha also holds degrees in philosophy and psychology. Elisha is particularly interested in how Jewish texts and embodied practices answer perennial existential questions and illuminate the human experience.

Elisha’s youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1jjMY4zr97S8AetoqWoKnw

Some of Elisha’s lectures can be found at https://www.yutorah.org/rabbi-elisha-pearl/

Special thanks to Chabad of West Orange for hosting Elisha for the filming.


Sources and Further Reading:

- Torah Or p 120c

- Toras Menachem Hisvaaduyos 5744 v. 3 p. 194

- Toras Menachem Hisvaaduyos 5749 v. 1 p. 140.

- Derekh Mitzvotekha Mitsvat Milah pages 8b-9a

- Chayyei Moharan, teachings 407-409

- Guide 3.43

- Derech Mitzotecha Mitzvat Chametz U’Matza.

- Siddur Im Dach s.v. Sheshet Yamim and the two subsequent essays:

- Shaar HaEmuna chapters 1-20

- Derech Mitzvotekha 5a – Mitzvas Millah

- Derech Mitzvotekha 22b – Mitzvas Pesach U’Matza

On Maimonides Aristotelianism as grounding for Chabad thought:

https://www.academia.edu/77790775/All_is_One_Maimonides_Doctrine_of_Divine_Cognition_as_a_Pillar_of_Habad_Thought

https://www.yutorah.org/lectures/lecture.cfm/1032671/rabbi-elisha-pearl/all-is-one-exploring-rambam-s-aristotelean-doctrine-of-divine-cognition-as-a-pillar-of-chabad-thought/


On Maimonides relationship with Chabad, two important Hebrew works are:

Yaakov Gottlieb, Sachlatanut B’Levush Hasidi, Rationalism in Hasidic Attire, which offers a somewhat different, but much fuller narrative account of Maimonides relationship with the Chabad tradition. https://www.biupress.co.il/index.php?dir=site&page=catalog&op=item&cs=1313

YMM Ezagui, Dvar Malchut, which offers an exhaustive nearly 800-page compilation of the Rebbe’s essays and lectures on Maimonides writings concerning the Messianic era. Exploring the integrative project that the Rebbe engaged in between Maimonidean rationalism and Chabad mysticism. https://seforimplace.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=8281&search=%D7%93%D7%91%D7%A8+%D7%9E%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%AA

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Judaism’s greatest philosopher, Moses Maimonides, believed that Judaism’s ancient mystery tradition with all her secrets, had been lost to sands of time, and took it upon himself to reconstruct them, on his own, from scratch, with the tools of philosophy and rationality.

Maimonides is known as the great Jewish rationalist of the Middle Ages, but his rationalism, goes deeper than most might suspect. Maimonides was a rationalist who believed that through the very tools of philosophy, with a perfect synthesis of mysticism and rationalism, he could re-discover the lost secret traditions of ancient Jewish mysticism, and uncover the true meaning of the bible.

Join us in this final episode, where we hope to, for once and for all, answer the question of whether Maimonides was a rationalist or a mystic and find out he was really up to in his Guide for the Perplexed.

Watch the rest of the Maimonides and Mysticism series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4ZgHJxQQVo&list=PL_7jcKJs6iwXUKaVOvNJWr5DSLPTYV0j9

00:00 Maimonides Rationalism

13:13 Maimonides Mysticism

28:42 Lost Traditions

31:47 Prophecy and Reason

48:09 Telling Secrets

53:41 Maimonides today

Thank you to Elisha Pearl, David Fried, Jeffery Radon and Levi Morrow for their thoughtful feedback and suggestions on this episode.


Sources and Further Reading:

• J. Heschel, “Did Maimonides Believe That He Had Attained the Rank of Prophet,” in Prophetic Inspiration After the Prophets, 1996

• Alexander Altmann, “Maimonides’ Attitude Toward Jewish Mysticism,” in Alfred Jospe, ed., Studies in Jewish Thought: An Anthology of German Jewish Scholarship (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), 200-219

• Diana Lobel, “Silence Is Praise to You” Maimonides on Negative Theology, Looseness of Expression, and Religious Experience, in American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly vol. 76, no. 1, 2002, pp. 35-6

• Elliot R Wolfson, Abraham Abulafia, Kabbalist and Prophet Hermeneutics, Theosophy, and Theurgy, 2000, pp. 9-93

• Elliot Wolfson “Via Negativa in Maimonides and Its Impact on Thirteenth- Century Kabbalah.” In Maimonidean Studies 5, 2008

• Gideon Freudenthal, The Philosophical Mysticism of Maimonides and Maimon

• Ithamar Gruenwald, “Maimonides’ Quest beyond Philosophy and Prophecy,” in Perspectives, ed. J. L. Kraemer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996)

• José Faur, Homo Mysticus: A Guide to Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed, 1998

• Julius Guttmann, “Introduction” in Maimonides, The Guide Of The Perplexed, An Abridged Edition, East And West Library New York, 1947

• Louis Jacobs, Attitudes of the Kabbalists and Hasidim towards Maimonides, in The Solomon Goldman Lectures, vol. v, ed. Byron L. Sherwin and Michael Carasik (Chicago Spertus College of Judaica Press, 1990, pp. 45-55)

• Moshe Halbertal, “The History of Halakhah, Views from Within: Three Medieval Approaches to Tradition and Controversy,” in Harvard Law School Gruss Lectures (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Law School, 1994), 1-19

• Moshe Idel, “Maimonides and Kabbalah,” in Studies In Maimonides, Isadore Twersky (ed.), Harvard University Press, 1990

• The Cultures of Maimonideanism, by James T. Robinson (ed.) 2009, p. xi

• W. Z. Harvey, "The Return to Maimonideanism," Journal of Jewish Studies 42 (1980) 263, n. 1

• Yamin Levy, “How I was Taught to Read the Guide” in Principles, Essays on Halakha, Maḥshaba and History, Journal of the Ḥabura, January 2022, Edition 4


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Something very odd happens in the very last chapter of Maimonides’ Guide which remains an elusive puzzle even today, 800 years on.

Maimonides, in Guide 3.51, lays out in stunning detail, the pinnacle of religious worship and human striving, culminating in an immortal union with the divine, what he calls the ‘kiss of death,’ the peak of his mystical journey.

However, the Guide does not end with that peak of religious experience and erotic mystical ecstasy, nor with the striving to know (and unite with) God intellectually, neither does it in the depths of silent praise in which nothing at all can be said of God. But it ends instead with a final beautiful idea which combines all three.

Join us as we take a final journey through the final chapter of the magnificent Guide, to see Maimonides final teaching to the perplexed, to make sense of his ultimate word to the seeker.

Check out the rest of our Maimonides series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_7jcKJs6iwXUKaVOvNJWr5DSLPTYV0j9

00:00 Intro

01:13 Rationalist and Mystic

02:00 Bad Mysticism

03:08 Knowledge of God as the Pinnacle

03:36 The Four Perfections

05:43 Maimonides the Arch-Rationalist

06:27 A Different Ending – Ethics

08:02 Actions of Attributes, not Essence

08:41 Imitato Dei, 1.54

11:42 Imitato Dei in Halacha

13:04 Compassion, even to a Slave

15:19 Mysticism tho…

20:04 Resolution

18:41 Why we do this

22:53 Technical Again

24:16 Concluding Prayer

25:11 Afterthought

27:25 Thank you

Sources and Further Reading

• Jonathan Gorsky, “Maimonides Spirituality: Intellectual Mysticism and the Love of God,” in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Mystical Perspectives on the Love of God, S. T. Hidden (ed), 2004

• Julius Guttmann, “Introduction” in Maimonides, The Guide of The Perplexed, An Abridged Edition, East and West Library New York, 1947

• Shlomo Pines, "The Limits of Human Knowledge According to Alfarabi, Ibn Bajja, and Maimonides," Studies in Medieval Jewish History and Literature, vol. 1, ed. I. Twersky, 1979

• Joseph Citron, Maimonides and Mysticism, unpublished

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There’s one final question to ask when examining Maimonides mysticism and that is, did Maimonides believe that the human could actually reach, know and experience God? Getting down to the fine print in the debate about Maimonides mysticism: Did Maimonides believe that one could know and unite with something metaphysical? And if so, which metaphysical entity does he believe the aspiring seeker can know and unite with, is it an entity which can be considered divine, God, or ultimate reality, making this union properly mystical in nature, a unio mystica? Can one, according to Maimonides, unite with God or only with the Active Intellect? And if it’s the later, does he believe that the Active Intellect is divine, and if so in what way, and what does that mean for his mysticism?

Sources and Further Reading: • Adam Afterman “And They Shall Be One Flesh”: On the Language of Mystical Union in Judaism, 2016, pp. 105-119 • Alexander Altmann, "Maimonides on the Intellect and the Scope of Metaphysics," 1987, 60-129.  • Alfred L. Ivry, “Maimonides and Neoplatonism” in Neoplatonism and Jewish Thought, 1992 • Aviezer Ravitzky, “The Secrets of the “Guide to the Perplexed,” Studies in Maimonides, 1990, 159–207.  • Barry Kogan, "What Can We Know and When Can We Know It?," in Moses Maimonides and His Time, 1989, 130-7 • David Fried, Mysticism and its Alternatives: Rethinking Maimonides, 2018 • Diana Lobel, “Silence Is Praise to You” Maimonides on Negative Theology, Looseness of Expression, and Religious Experience, in American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly vol. 76, no. 1, 2002. • Gideon Freudenthal, “The Philosophical Mysticism of Maimonides and Maimon,” in Maimonides and his Heritage, 2009, 117-118. • Hannah Kasher, “Self-Cognizing Intellect and Negative Attributes in Maimonides’ Theology.”  • Herbert A. Davidson, Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes on Intellect: Their Cosmologies, Theories of the Active Intellect, and Theories of Human Intellect, 1992, 197-207.  • Herbert Davidson, "Maimonides on Metaphysical Knowledge," Maimonidean Studies 3 (1992-93): 79-87.  • Idit Dobbs-Weinstein, Maimonides and St. Thomas on the Limits of Reason, 1995 • Josef Stern, “Maimonides’ Demonstrations: Principles and Practice,” Medieval Philosophy and Theology 10 (2001): 80.  • Joseph Citron, Maimonides and Mysticism, unpublished  • Julius Guttmann, “Introduction” in Maimonides, The Guide of The Perplexed, 1947 • Julius Guttmann, Religion and Knowledge, 103–118, especially 111. [Hebrew]  • Michah Gottlieb, “Two Paradigms of the Nexus Between Philosophy and Mysticism Judah Halevi and Moses Maimonides” in Faith, Reason, Politics, 2013 • Moshe Idel, Studies in Ecstatic Kabbalah (NY: SUNY Press, 1988), p. 4  • Philip Merlan, Monopsychism, Mysticism, Metaconsciousness: Problems of the Soul in the Neoaristotelian and Neoplatonic Tradition, 1963 • Sarah Pessin, The Influence of Islamic Thought on Maimonides • Shlomo Pines, "The Limits of Human Knowledge According to Alfarabi, Ibn Bajja, and Maimonides," Studies in Medieval Jewish History and Literature, vol. 1, ed. I. Twersky, 1979, p. 94-100 • Shlomo Pines, “The Philosophical Purport of Maimonides Halachic Works and the Purport of the Guide of the Perplexed,” in Maimonides and Philosophy, 1986, 1-14.

Join us for a wild ride through the mind of Maimonides into the mind of God. Exploring Maimonides theory of knowledge (epistemology). How one may activate their mind by uniting with the divine active intellect. Followed by Maimonides radical and brilliant re-reading of divine providence.

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Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre.  

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Would you believe us if we told you that a ninth century forgery, attributed to one of the greatest philosophers of all time, went on to fool centuries of readers and introduce its true author, one of the greatest mystics of the west, to the world of medieval philosophy?

Exploring Maimonides' struggle with the peculiar notion of God that he adopts from the Theology of Aristotle. Join us to learn about Maimonides Apophatic/Negative Theology, Creation vs Emanation, Immanence and Transcendence, Contradiction and Humility.

Thank you to Shalem College for hosting this week's vid: https://shalem.ac.il/en/ and thank you to Chezi and Seth for connecting us.

00:00 The Philosopher and the Mystic

00:57 The Forgery

06:21 Neoplatonism

10:43 Primary themes of the Theology

13:30 A Theological Mix

15:28 Pure Being, Negative Theology

20:06 Creation vs Emanation

23:24 Immanence and Transcendence

24:51 Contradiction and Humility

Sources and Further Reading

Alexander Altmann, "Maimonides on the Intellect and the Scope of Metaphysics," in idem, Von der mittelalterlichen zur modernen Aufklärung, Tübingen: Mohr, 1987, 60-129, at 123.

Alfred Ivry, "Islamic and Greek Influences on Maimonides' Philosophy," in Maimonides and Philosophy, 1986, p. 149-51

Alfred Ivry, ‘Isma’ili Theology and Maimonides’ Philosophy,’ in The Jews of Medieval Islam, 1995, p. 280.

Alfred Ivry, “Neoplatonic Currents in Maimonides’ Thought,” in Perspectives on Maimonides, ed. Joel Kraemer, London: Littman, 1996, 115–140

Alfred Ivry, Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed: A Philosophical Guide, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016, p. 38

Arthur Hyman, "Maimonides on Religious Language," in Perspectives on Maimonides (see note 6), 175-91

Christian Wildberg, "Neoplatonism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2021 Edition)

Cristina D’Ancona, “The Theology attributed to Aristotle: Sources, Structure, Influence,” In The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Philosophy, New York, Oxford University Press, 2017

Cristina D'Ancona, "Pseudo- Theology of Aristotle, Chapter 1: Structure and Composition," Oriens 36 (2001): 78-112.

Cristina D'Ancona, "The Arabic “Theology of Aristotle”" In obo in Classics. 2 May. 2022.

Diana Lobel, “Silence Is Praise to You” Maimonides on Negative Theology, Looseness of Expression, and Religious Experience, in American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly vol. 76, no. 1, 2002

Elliot Wolfson “Via Negativa in Maimonides and Its Impact on Thirteenth- Century Kabbalah.” In Maimonidean Studies 5, 2008

F.W. Zimmerman, "The Origins of the So-Called Theology of Aristotle," in Pseudo-Aristotle in the Middle Ages, London: Warburg Institute, 1986, 110-24.

Herbert A. Davidson, Moses Maimonides: The Man and His Works, 2001, p. 111

Ithamar Gruenwald, “Maimonides’ Quest beyond Philosophy and Prophecy,” in Perspectives, ed. J. L. Kraemer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 145.

Kraemer, “Maimonides and the Spanish Aristotelian School,” p. 45

Moshe Idel, "Jewish Kabbalah and Platonism in the Middle Ages and Renaissance," in Neoplatonism and Jewish Thought, 1992, pp. 338-43;

Paul Fenton, "The Arabic and Hebrew Versions of the Theology of Aristotle,” in Pseudo-Aristotle in the Middle Ages 241-64.

Peter Adamson, The Arabic Plotinus: A Philosophical Study of the 'Theology of Aristotle,’ 2002

Sarah Pessin, The Influence of Islamic Thought on Maimonides, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2005

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Introducing the greatest work of Jewish philosophy ever written. Moving masterfully through a thousand years of Greek, Jewish and Muslim philosophy, this text grapples profoundly with the problem of evil, the nature of reality and the meaning of life. Culminating with an astonishing re-reading of the Bible, which radically redefines God, religion and humanity in the process.

Banned and burned by religious authorities, it continues to stir controversy hundreds of years later, perplexing the guided, and guiding the perplexed… Join us as we explore Moses Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed, the Rambam’s Moreh Nevuchim.

Check out the rest of our “Maimonides and Mysticism” series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_7jcKJs6iwXUKaVOvNJWr5DSLPTYV0j9

00:00 A Guide to the Guide

01:39 Maimonides Series Recap

02:22 Intro, Influence, Controversy

05:22 Overview of the Guide

09:00 Maimonides’ Sources

12:35 Maimonides’ Puzzle

14:53 The Goal of the Guide

Sources and Further Reading

• Elliot Wolfson, “Beneath the Wings of the Great Eagle: Maimonides and Thirteenth-Century Kabbalah,” in Moses Maimonides, 2004, p. 213.

• Joel Kraemer, “Maimonides and the Spanish Aristotelian School,” in Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Medieval and Early Modern Spain, 1999.

• Joel Kraemer, Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization’s Greatest Minds, New York: Doubleday, 2008.

• Joel Kraemer, Moses Maimonides: An Intellectual Portrait, in The Cambridge Companion to Maimonides, Kenneth Seeskin (ed.), 2005, pp. 40-45.

• Joseph Citron, Maimonides and Mysticism, (unpublished), 2005.

• Julius Guttmann, “Introduction” in Maimonides, The Guide of The Perplexed, An Abridged Edition, East and West Library New York, 1947.

• Leo Strauss, "How To Begin To Study The Guide," in The Guide of the Perplexed, tr. Pines, pp. xiii-xiv.

• Mark Daniels, “The Perplexing Nature of the Guide for the Perplexed” in Philosophy Now 50:20-22, 2005.

• Menachem Kellner, "Maimonides' Disputed Legacy," in Traditions of Maimonideanism, ed. Carlos Fraenkel (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 245-76.

• Moses Maimonides, “Introduction” in The Guide of the Perplexed, translated by Shlomo Pines, 1963.

• Moshe Idel, “Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed and the Kabbalah” in Jewish History 18: 197-226, 2004.

• Sarah Stroumsa, Maimonides in His World, Portrait of a Mediterranean Thinker, 2009.

• Shlomo Pines, “Translator's Introduction: The Philosophical Sources of The Guide of the Perplexed.” The Guide of the Perplexed, 1963.

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Guide of the Perplexed

Guide for the Perplexed

There’s been a lot of talk about whether Maimonides was a mystic. Unfortunately, the discussion has been sorely confused by a lack of clarity about the basic terms of the discussion. It’s time to clear things up and get straight about the relationship between these misused and abused words: Kabbalah, Mysticism and Rationalism. Join us for the fourth installment of our series on “Maimonides and Mysticism.”

Watch the rest of our Maimonides Series:

Part 1: Who was Maimonides? https://youtu.be/w4ZgHJxQQVo

Part 2: The Many Maimonides https://youtu.be/UbjX-ypvEys

Part 3: Maimonides and the Kabbalists https://youtu.be/8fpQPAMqATk

00:00 Kabbalah vs Mysticism

08:40 Rationalism vs Mysticism

Sources and Further Reading:

Marc Saperstein, European Judaism Volume 41, Number 2, Autumn 2008: 161–172

David Fried, Mysticism and its Alternatives: Rethinking Maimonides, Lehrhaus, 2018

Menachem Kellner, Science In The Bet Midrash: Studies in Maimonides, 2009, p. 10

Alexander Altmann, Maimonides's Attitude Toward Jewish Mysticism

Louis Jacobs, Attitudes of the Kabbalists and Hasidim towards Maimonides, in The Solomon Goldman Lectures, vol. v, 1990, pp. 45-55

Gideon Freudenthal, “The Philosophical Mysticism of Maimonides and Maimon,” in Maimonides and His Heritage, 2009, p. 116

Julius Guttmann, “Introduction” in Maimonides, The Guide of The Perplexed, An Abridged Edition, East And West Library New York, 1947, p. 7

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Exploring the relationship between Maimonides and the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah. A history of rejection, acceptance, influence, secret conversions and archenemies. Join us in our attempt to get to the bottom of this love-hate relationship in this third part of our series on Maimonides and Mysticism.

Sources and Further Reading: 

- Alexander Altmann, “Maimonides’ Attitude Toward Jewish Mysticism,” in Studies in Jewish Thought, ed. Alfred Jospe (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), pp. 200–219 - Daniel Silver, Maimonidean Criticism and the Maimonidean Controversy 1180-1240  (London, 1965), 183. 

- Elliot Wolfson, Abraham Abulafia, Kabbalist and Prophet; Hermeneutics, Theosophy and Theurgy, Cherub Press, Los Angeles, 2000, Introduction. 

- Elliot Wolfson, “Beneath the Wings of the Great Eagle: Maimonides and Thirteenth-Century Kabbalah,” in Moses Maimonide, Würzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2004, pp. 209–237 - Felicia Waldman, ‘Some Considerations on Maimonnides’ influence on Mysticism’, Studia Judaica no.17 (2009). - Gershom Scholem, ‘Mehoker limekkubal, Sefer Harambam’,Tarbiz, 6: 3 (1935), pp. 90-8 (Hebrew). 

- Harvey, Warren Z. “Aspects of Jewish Philosophy in Medieval Catalonia.” In The Life and Times of Mosse ben Nahman, Girona: Ajuntament de Girona, 1994, pp. 141– 157 - Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, “Philosophy and Kabbalah, 1200–1600.” in The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Jewish Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 218–257; 

- Joseph Citron, Maimonides and Mysticism (unpublished) - Jonathan Dauber, “Competing Approaches to Maimonides in Early Kabbalah,” in The Cultures of Maimonideanism, ed. James T. Robinson (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2009), pp. 57–88.

 - Louis Jacobs, Attitudes of the Kabbalists and Hasidim towards Maimonides, in The Solomon Goldman Lectures, vol. 5, Judaica Press, 1990, pp. 45-55 - Moshe Idel, “Maimonides and Kabbalah,” in Studies In Maimonides, Isadore Twersky (ed.), Harvard University Press, 1990. 

- Moshe Idel, “Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed and the Kabbalah” in Jewish History 18: 197-226, 2004.   

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Looking at the many ways Maimonides has been received and perceived through time, from the 13th century up until the 21st, with a focus on the debate about Maimonides relationship to mysticism. A survey of scholars on Maimonides, a little literature review for the series.

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Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre.  

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Introducing the genius philosopher, torah scholar and physician, the man whose books were banned and burned and still went on to change the face of Judaism; Moses Maimonides, the Rambam.

Maimonides timeline:  

1138 Born in Cordoba, Spain under Almoravid rule. 

1148 Cordoba invaded by the Almohades. Maimonides flees. 

1158 Maimonides starts work on intercalation and Astronomy

1160 Family surfaces in Fez, the Almohad capital in Morocco. 

1165 Family spends 6 months in Acre before leaving for Cairo 

1168 Maimonides finishes his commentary on the Mishna  

1170 Writes the Sefer haMitzvot on the 613 commandments. 

1171 He is appointed the Head of Jews in Fostat, Cairo.  

1171 Saladin/Ayyubids replace the Fatimid dynasty in Egypt. 1180 Finishes the Mishneh Torah, his legal magnum opus. 

1185? Maimonides becomes doctor of al-Fadil, Saladin’s vizier. 

1190 Finishes the Moreh Nevuchim (Guide for the Perplexed). 

1204 Maimonides passes away.

Maimonides works (selection):  

Treatise on Logic, Millot ha-Higayon 

Commentary on the Mishna, Pirush HaMishnayot 

Book of the Commandments, Sefer haMitzvot  

Mishneh Torah, Yad HaChazakah 

The Guide for the Perplexed, Moreh Nevuchim 

Letter to the Jews of Yemen, Iggeret Teiman 

Treatise on Resurrection, Maamar Tekhiyat HaMetim 

Iggeret HaShmad, Maamar Kiddush HaShem  

Mark Daniels, The Perplexing Nature of the Guide for the Perplexed, Philosophy Now, Issue 50

Exploring competing methodologies in the study of Mysticism, (Essentialism, Perennialism and Common-Core vs Contextualism and Constructivism) and questioning the very category of Mysticism itself. Slipping into the crack between Experience and Interpretation, and asking if it can be healed.

The Series: Exploring the history of an idea, the story of the major developments in our collective understanding of the word “mysticism.” Join us as we attempt to understand what this word meant historically, how it came to mean what it does today, and what, if anything, it might mean for us going forward. Learning how this category was formed, transformed, discussed and debated throughout the ages. Join us for a journey from the Ancient Greek mystery religions, through the early Christian centuries up into the Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, into the Early Modern period, the Enlightenment, ending with the Modern and Post-Modern decades of its study, debate and development.   

Sources and Further Reading:  

- Peter Moore, "Recent Studies on Mysticism: A Critical Survey," Religion 3 (1973): 146-56. 

- Steven Katz, "Review Article: Recent Work on Mysticism," History of Religions 25 (1985-86): 76-86  

- William Wainwright, Mysticism: A Study of its Nature, Cognitive Value and Moral Implications, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1981.  

- Randall Studstill, The Unity of Mystical Traditions, The Transformation of Consciousness in Tibetan and German Mysticism, Brill Leiden, Boston, 2005. 

- The Making of Modern “Mysticism” Leigh Eric Schmidt, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 71, No. 2 (Jun., 2003), Oxford University Press. 

- Bernard McGinn, The Foundations of Mysticism, Vol. I of The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism, Crossroad Publishing, 1991. - Jeffrey Kripal, “Mysticism” in The Blackwell Companion to the Study of Religion, by Robert Segal (ed.), 2017. 

- Saeed Zarrabi-Zadeh, “The ‘Mystical’ and the ‘Modern’: Mutual Entanglement and Multiple interactions,” in Studies in Religion, 2020.

- Hal Bridges, American Mysticism: From William James to Zen, New York: Harper and Row, 1970 - Richard King, Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial Theory, India and “The Mystic East,” London: Routledge, 1999.   

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Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Order of the Artisans, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe and Adam.  

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Exploring the history of an idea, the story of the major developments in our collective understanding of the word “mysticism.” Join us as we attempt to understand what this word meant historically, how it came to mean what it does today, and what, if anything, it might mean for us going forward.  

Learning how this category was formed, transformed, discussed and debated throughout the ages. Join us for a journey from the Ancient Greek mystery religions, through the early Christian centuries up into the Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, into the Early Modern period, the Enlightenment, ending with the Modern and Post-Modern decades of its study, debate and development.

Sources and Further Reading:  

- The Making of Modern “Mysticism” Leigh Eric Schmidt, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 71, No. 2 (Jun., 2003), Oxford University Press. 

- Bernard McGinn, The Foundations of Mysticism, Vol. I of The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism, Crossroad Publishing, 1991. 

- Jeffrey Kripal, “Mysticism” in The Blackwell Companion to the Study of Religion, by Robert Segal (ed.), 2017. 

- Saeed Zarrabi-Zadeh, “The ‘Mystical’ and the ‘Modern’: Mutual Entanglement and Multiple interactions,” in Studies in Religion, 2020. 

- Hal Bridges, American Mysticism: From William James to Zen, New York: Harper and Row, 1970 

- Richard King, Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial Theory, India and “The Mystic East,” London: Routledge, 1999. 

- Robert H. Sharf, The Rhetoric of Experience and the Study of Religion, Journal of Consciousness Studies 7 (11-12):11-12 (2000)  

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Understanding Mysticism: Join us as we attempt to understand what this word meant historically, how it came to mean what it does today, and what, if anything, it might mean for us going forward.  

Exploring the history of an idea, the story of the major developments in our collective understanding of the word mysticism itself.  

Examining how this category was formed, transformed, discussed and debated throughout the ages. Join us for a journey from the Ancient Greek mystery religions, through the first few Christian centuries up into the Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, into the Early Modern period, the Enlightenment and finally end with the Modern and Post-Modern decades of its study, debate and development.

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Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Order of the Artisans, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe and Adam.  

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