Edited and translated with a new Introduction by Arthur Green and Barry W. Holtz
The power of prayer for spiritual renewal
and personal transformation is at the core of all religious
traditions. Because Hasidic literature contains no systematic
manual of contemplative prayer, the texts included in this
volume have been culled from many sources. From the teachings
of the Hasidic Masters—the Ba’al Shem Tov, the
Maggid Dov Baer of Meidzyrzec, and their immediate
disciples—the editors have gleaned “hints as to the
various rungs of inner prayer and how they are
attained.”
Hasidism, the Jewish revivalist movement
that began in the late eighteenth century, saw prayer as being
at the heart of religious experience and was particularly
concerned with the nature of a person’s relationship with
God. The obstacles to prayer discussed by the Hasidic
masters—distraction, loss of spirituality, and
inconstancy of purpose—feel very close to concerns of our
own age. Through advice, parables, and explanations, the
Hasidic masters of the past speak to our own attempts to find
meaning in prayer.
“According to Hasidism, the authors
tell us, ‘There is no higher sacred act than that of
helping another to discover the presence of God within his own
soul.’ Green and Holtz have themselves performed just
such an act.”
—Lawrence
Fine, Judaism
“Opens up some of the more
accessible realms of the Jewish inner life.”
—Eugene
Borowitz, Sh’ma
“Elegantly constructed…a work
equally useful to the scholarly and general reader.”
—Joel
Rosenberg, genesis 2
“A new generation of Jewish scholars
has endeavored to make both the spiritual contents and the
religious setting of Hasidic teaching accessible to the modern
student and seeker…. This fine book…belongs on the
shelf of anyone interested in a Jewish understanding of prayer
as a way of knowing God.”
—Ya’Qub
ibn Yusef, Gnosis Magazine
“[They] have translated the Hasidic
masters with sensitivity and honesty; they do not attempt to
blur or avoid the often highly erotic imagery…. By making
the words of the Hasidic masters accessible in English [they]
have added new wings to our prayer.”
—James
B. Rosenberg, The Jewish Spectator
