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This biography of Rabbi Yudel Rosenberg highlights Orthodoxy as an agent of Jewish modernity. Examining his literary output nuances the line between Jewish ¿secular¿ and ¿traditional¿ literature. His kabbalistic works shed light on the revival of kabbala in the twentieth century.
List of contents
Table of Contents
Abbreviations
Preface 1. Introduction: Rabbi Yudel Rosenberg and the Paradigms of Jewish Modernity
2. On a Spiderweb Foundation: Yudel Rosenberg’s Life in Small-Town Poland (1859–1889)
3. A Rabbi and Rebbe in Urban Poland (1890–1913)
4. “Allright! It's America!”: A Rabbi in Toronto (1913–1918)
5. “The Rabbis Are for the Dollar”: Rabbi Yudel Rosenberg and the Kosher Meat Wars of Montreal (1919–1935)
6. “Better to Be in Gehinnom”: Yudel Rosenberg’s Halakhic Voice
7. A “Folk Author”: Yudel Rosenberg as Storyteller
8. “Almost Alone”: Yudel Rosenberg as Preacher
9. Magic, Science, and Healing
10. “Those Who Understand Kabbala Are Extremely Rare in OIr Generation”: Rabbi Yudel Rosenberg as Kabbalist
11. What Is Rabbi Yudel Rosenberg’s Legacy?
A Chronological Bibliography of the Writings of Rabbi Yehuda Yudel Rosenberg
General Bibliography
Index
About the author
Ira Robinson is Chair in Quebec and Canadian Jewish Studies in the Department of Religions and Cultures at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, where has taught since 1979. He has written, edited, and translated seventeen books, including
Cyrus Adler: Selected Letters, which won the Kenneth Smilen Award for Judaica non-fiction;
Renewing Our Days: Montreal Jews in the Twentieth Century, which won a Toronto Jewish Book Award;
Moses Cordovero's Introduction to Kabbala: An Annotated Translation of His Or Ne'erav;
Rabbis and Their Community: Studies in the Eastern European Orthodox Rabbinate in Montreal, 1896-1930, which won a J.I. Segal Prize;
A History of Antisemitism in Canada;
History, Memory, and Jewish Identity, and, most recently,
Les Juifs Hassidiques de Montréal (2019). He is president of the Canadian Society for Jewish Studies, and past president of the Association for Canadian Jewish Studies and the Jewish Public Library of Montreal. He is the 2013 winner of the Louis Rosenberg Canadian Jewish Studies Distinguished Service Award of the Association for Canadian Jewish Studies.
Summary
Illuminates important issues faced by Orthodox Judaism in the modern era by relating the life and times of Rabbi Yudel Rosenberg (1859-1935). In presenting Yudel Rosenberg's rabbinic activities, this book shows that Jewish Orthodoxy could serve as an agent of modernity no less than its opponents.
Additional text
“Part biography, part oeuvre survey, A Kabbalist in
Montreal limns the mystical and practical aspects of a fascinating Hasidic sage
physically transplanted from eastern Europe into the New World while
spiritually aspiring after supernal planes. Robinson’s accessible account
depicts the formidable Yehudah Yudel Rosenberg as an ambitious but embattled
communal leader keen to establish himself as a rabbinical authority and hopeful
for opportunities to secure a more stable professional and financial situation.
… Readers interested in kabbalah or in the popularization of notions and
narratives will welcome [this] informative and insightful new [work].”
—Brandon Marlon, The Jerusalem Report
