Four Hasidic Masters and their Struggle against Melancholy

Description

Portrays four charismatic leaders of the eighteenth and nineteenth-century Hasidic movement in Eastern Europe.

Author Bio

Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) was a professor emeritus at Boston University, where he was the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities since 1976. His work on behalf of human rights and world peace has earned him the Nobel Peace Prize (1986), the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the United States Congressional Gold Medal, among many other honors. In 1986, Marion and Elie Wiesel established The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, to advance the cause of world peace by creating a new forum for the discussion of urgent ethical issues confronting humanity. Wiesel is the author of more than forty books, several of which have won international awards.

Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. (1917–2015) was president of the University of Notre Dame from 1952 to 1987. As an adviser to presidents, special envoy to popes, theologian, author, educator, and activist, Father Hesburgh was for decades considered the most influential priest in America. He is the author and editor of a number of books, including The Challenge and Promise of a Catholic University (University of Notre Dame Press, 1994).

Reviews

"Elie Wiesel is one of the great writers of this generation." —New York Review of Books

“Wiesel brings a journalist’s optimism to his studies of the Hasidic saints who set Eastern European Jewry alight in the 18th century with the faith that brought it through the last, worst centuries of persecution.” —The Boston Globe

“As always, Wiesel’s characters are infused with the breath of life; these extraordinary men are fully human, whether reeling in spiritual ecstasy or pondering their existential melancholy, the loneliness that accompanies vision and greatness. . . . These tales make inspiring and fascinating reading for all.” —Library Journal

“‘Friendship’ and ‘concern’ are the key motifs of this book. For Wiesel, Hasidism is not a theology or a philosophy. It is not an abstract system of ideas or a conception of the Deity. It is a friendship and a concern for people and for God. Hasidism is the opposite of solitude. It is a sense of begin bound up together with all other human beings in their joy and in their distress and of being bound up with God in his joy and in his distress.” —Commonweal

"Another beautifully written and prepared word by one of the fine writers of our time." —Jewish Post and Opinion

". . . There is more help for the troubled in these stories than in many books programmed for self-help." —Christian Century

"This delightful work, in the by now well-known manner of Elie Wiesel, continues his recounting of Hasidic tales begun in Souls on Fire (1972). . . .The present volume recounts tales of four great Hasidic masters: R. Pinchas of Koretz, R. Baruch of Medzebozh, R. Yaacov Yitzchak Horowitz-the Holy Seer of Lublin-and R. Naphtali of Ropshitz." —Choice