Eli Rubin
@elirubin
"only humility is revolt" —Aaron Zeitlin Existential historian of religion, rupture, kabbalah, hasidism, philosophy, literature, and modernity 📘*Kabbalah and the Rupture of Modernity: An Existential History of Chabad Hasidism* elirubin.online
"one of the most sweeping intellectual histories of Chabad Hasidism ... grounded in extraordinary philological work, [it] ranges across domains as varied as psychoanalysis and modern art, and opens new pathways for integrating Jewish intellectual traditions into the wider history of modern thought."
The American Academy for Jewish Research announced the 2025 Baron Book Prize, with *Kabbalah and the Rupture of Modernity* awarded the Honorable Mention. On cue, @stanfordpress.bsky.social announced a summer sale, so you can now order it at a 40% discount! elirubin.substack.com/p/40-off-awa...
The Forgotten Pioneer of Chabad Women’s Activism Eidel Pappenheim-Dubin's tragically cut-short life of learning and leadership in Vienna, Krakow, and Riga By Leah-Perl Shollar chabad.org/7404392
PRICE SLASHED!!!! *Kabbalah and the Rupture of Modernity: An Existential History of Chabad Hasidism* now available for just ***$32.90*** until Friday, June26 www.sup.org/books/religi...
As I was reading this article, I was given an advance copy of the inaugural volume of a new project aiming to publish some 10,000 letters from the Rebbe's archive of English correspondence. theenglishletters.com
The Hebrew journal Reishit recently published a study by Bar Ilan researcher Maytal Merary examining how the traditional hasidic concept of "alien thoughts" (מחשבות זרות) is expanded and applied by the Rebbe in his letters. heb.hartman.org.il/maytal_merar...
Marking the Rebbe's yahrtzeit today, some reflections on new publications that highlight the psychological dimensions of his voluminous correspondence with individuals chabad.org/7404194
“Divine revelation may illuminate your life, and you may rightly believe that you have achieved a lofty spiritual station. But you must recognize that your personal emancipation remains incomplete so long as it doesn’t transform the lives of all the other individuals in the world.”
Great photos from last week's translation fellowship at the Princeton Institute for Hasidic Thought!
"Eli Rubin's Kabbalah and the Rupture of Modernity is an ambitious and deeply learned monograph that traces the intergenerational evolution of the kabbalistic concept of ṣimṣum (divine contraction or withdrawal) across seven generations of Chabad-Lubavitch leadership."
Herman Wouk’s Marjorie Morningstar and Fishel Schneersohn’s Aygene un Fremde (Intimates and Others) serialized side by side — in Yiddish — in Der Tog Morgen Zshurnal:
The Artist Who Saw God A new biography of Barnett Newman could have used some contraction
“human experience, agency, and creativity—constrained and abject as it is—is the only source through which G-d’s essential / messianic radiance can ultimately be disclosed”
Temerl Bergson and Her Daughter, Peril-Miril Two clippings from a maskilic newspaper about a hasidic patroness and her family Of Temerl: “The treasures of kings cannot measure up to her good heart and noble soul, and there is no end to her generosity … G-d has blessed me on her account.”
I've been reading the new Shazar biography over Yom Tov, and the current @jewishreviewbooks.bsky.social arrived, containing my review of the recent Barnett Newman biography from @princetonupress.bsky.social
today is the yahrtzeit of the Rebbe Rashab, for four solid chapters on his theology of innovation in the context of his life and times see *Kabbalah and the Rupture of Modernity*, 163–216
In today's mail: the new issue of Lubavitch International, with a wonderful review of *Kabbalah and the Rupture of Modernity* by Prof. Paul Franks of Yale University
I'm now posting weekly on substack, check out this week's edition and subscribe!
Tomorrow! The Cristol Lecture - "Modernity as Rupture: From Kabbalah to Freud" March 5 | 6:30 p.m. | Brite Divinity School, Bass Conference Center, 2925 Princeton Street, Forth Worth, TX
Just arrived back in Pittsburgh after spending the last few days reading Shivchei Habesht with Prof. Yonatan Meir at Johns Hopkins University, courtesy of Profs. Pawel Maciejko and Samuel Spinner
The Cristol Lecture at Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, TX "Modernity as Rupture: From Kabbalah to Freud" cosponsored by TCU - John V. Roach Honors College. 📅 March 5 | ⏰ 6:30 p.m. | 📍 Bass Conference Center, 2925 Princeton Street Register here: fs11.formsite.com/sF1Om1/m3x05...
Two Teachers Who Shaped Me: Rabbi Elimelech Zweibel and Prof. Ada Rapoport-Albert elirubin.substack.com/p/two-teache...
Consciousness as Mystical Memory: A Proustian Reading of Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn’s Literary Worlds So pleased to see my essay shortlisted for the @berggruenInst Prize Essay Competition! Link in following post⏬
For the first time in a decade I'm not attending the @jewishstudies.bsky.social annual conference. My book, Kabbalah and the Rupture of Modernity, is representing me instead, check it out at the @stanfordpress.bsky.social book stall!
It's wonderful to see this very generous review, and doubly so as the book is now on sale with 40% off till tomorrow!