I am an intellectual historian who was raised in California, was educated in the United States and in Israel, and has spent extensive periods of time studying in Europe. Similar to my own personal trajectories between worlds, my intellectual concentration has been upon the flow and reception of ideas among diverse intellectual communities, with a focus on Jewish Thought and on Jewish-Christian exchanges in the late medieval and early modern periods. I have examined issues of change and continuity in the thought of learned Jews and Christians, including their modes of argumentation as a means of shaping identity. Throughout, I have been attracted to themes of center and margin, interior and exterior, and differing notions of time, space, and self.
Time and eternity are concepts that have occupied an important place within Jewish mystical thoug... more Time and eternity are concepts that have occupied an important place within Jewish mystical thought. This present volume gives pride of place to these concepts, and is one of the first works to bring together diverse voices on the subject. It offers a multivalent picture of the topic of time and eternity, not only by including contributions from an array of academics who are leaders in their fields, but by proposing six diverse approaches to time and eternity in Jewish mysticism: the theoretical approach to temporality, philosophical definitions, the idea of time and pre-existence, the idea of historical time, the idea of experiential time, and finally, the idea of eternity beyond time. This multivocal treatment of Jewish mysticism and time as based on variant academic approaches is novel, and it should lay the groundwork for further discussion and exploration. All interested in Jewish mysticism and esotericism, and all interested in Jewish treatments of the philosophical, historical and phenomenological topics of time and eternity.
In The Beginning of the World in Renaissance Jewish Thought, Brian Ogren offers a deep analysis o... more In The Beginning of the World in Renaissance Jewish Thought, Brian Ogren offers a deep analysis of late fifteenth century Italian Jewish thought concerning the creation of the world and the beginning of time. Ogren's book is the very first to seriously juxtapose the thought of the great Jewish thinker Yohanan Alemanno, Alemanno's famed Christian interlocutor, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, the important Iberian exegete active in Italy, Isaac Abravanel, and Abravanel's renowned philosopher son Judah, known as Leone Ebreo. By bringing these thinkers together, this book presents a new understanding of early modern uses of Jewish texts and hermeneutics. Ogren successfully demonstrates that the syntheses of philosophy and Kabbalah carried out by these four intellectuals in their quests to understand the beginning itself marked a new beginning in Western thought, characterized by simultaneous continuity and rupture. All those interested in Jewish thought, Jewish mysticism and Jewish philosophy, as well as all interested in intellectual history and Italian Renaissance thought.
Jewish Film & New Media: An International Journal, 2020
The first decade of the twenty-first century saw a popular rise of interest in the Jewish esoteri... more The first decade of the twenty-first century saw a popular rise of interest in the Jewish esoteric lore known as Kabbalah. Celebrity interest spurred a backlash against New Age trends and a revisitation of the traditional role of Kabbalah in Jewish history. In 2006, the episode “Secrets of Kabbalah” aired on the History Channel’s popular paranormal series Decoding the Past. This article analyzes “Secrets of Kabbalah” in light of Jewish history and the New Age. It argues that the film uses a crisical, lachrymose conception of Jewish history to set up a dichotomy between traditional Jewish Kabbalah and the New Age. That is to say, the film bases itself on a history of crises and tears. The article further argues that the episode contains coded messages of critique against New Age developments in Kabbalah, thereby becoming a quasi-kabbalistic text itself. Finally, the article argues that in a post-modern turn, “Secrets of Kabbalah” becomes a part of the very pop-Kabbalah phenomenon that it sets out to critique through its usage of a history of Jewish crises.
Kabbalah in America: Ancient Lore in the New World, 2020
This introduces the state of the field of research on Kabbalah in America, and it introduces the ... more This introduces the state of the field of research on Kabbalah in America, and it introduces the twenty ground-breaking chapters in this pace setting book.
Kabbalah in America: Ancient Lore in the New World, 2020
In the mid eighteenth century, the famed Congregational minister Ezra Stiles became intrigued by ... more In the mid eighteenth century, the famed Congregational minister Ezra Stiles became intrigued by cabalistic text study and sought to procure a copy of the Zohar for his own perusal. Stiles's quest for zoharic knowledge led from Benjamin Franklin to Harvard Hebrew instructor and convert from Judaism Judah Monis; it led to the first recorded copy of the Zohar on the American continent; and it involved textual expositions concerning Jewish theosophy and Christian Trinitarianism. This article traces the history of Stiles's encounter with and usage of the Zohar, and it makes the case that Stiles sought to forge a new type of American Protestant theology as based in part upon cabalistic, and specifically zoharic exegesis.
By combining philosophical thought with kabbalistic symbolism, Yohanan Alemanno sought to reach a... more By combining philosophical thought with kabbalistic symbolism, Yohanan Alemanno sought to reach an understanding of the biblical notions of tohu and bohu as that which is beyond prime matter and form. In so doing, he expounded a theory of proto-creation of that which precedes time.
Time and eternity are concepts that have occupied an important place within Jewish mystical thoug... more Time and eternity are concepts that have occupied an important place within Jewish mystical thought. This present volume gives pride of place to these concepts, and is one of the first works to bring together diverse voices on the subject. It offers a multivalent picture of the topic of time and eternity, not only by including contributions from an array of academics who are leaders in their fields, but by proposing six diverse approaches to time and eternity in Jewish mysticism: the theoretical approach to temporality, philosophical definitions, the idea of time and pre-existence, the idea of historical time, the idea of experiential time, and finally, the idea of eternity beyond time. This multivocal treatment of Jewish mysticism and time as based on variant academic approaches is novel, and it should lay the groundwork for further discussion and exploration. All interested in Jewish mysticism and esotericism, and all interested in Jewish treatments of the philosophical, historical and phenomenological topics of time and eternity.
In The Beginning of the World in Renaissance Jewish Thought, Brian Ogren offers a deep analysis o... more In The Beginning of the World in Renaissance Jewish Thought, Brian Ogren offers a deep analysis of late fifteenth century Italian Jewish thought concerning the creation of the world and the beginning of time. Ogren's book is the very first to seriously juxtapose the thought of the great Jewish thinker Yohanan Alemanno, Alemanno's famed Christian interlocutor, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, the important Iberian exegete active in Italy, Isaac Abravanel, and Abravanel's renowned philosopher son Judah, known as Leone Ebreo. By bringing these thinkers together, this book presents a new understanding of early modern uses of Jewish texts and hermeneutics. Ogren successfully demonstrates that the syntheses of philosophy and Kabbalah carried out by these four intellectuals in their quests to understand the beginning itself marked a new beginning in Western thought, characterized by simultaneous continuity and rupture. All those interested in Jewish thought, Jewish mysticism and Jewish philosophy, as well as all interested in intellectual history and Italian Renaissance thought.
Jewish Film & New Media: An International Journal, 2020
The first decade of the twenty-first century saw a popular rise of interest in the Jewish esoteri... more The first decade of the twenty-first century saw a popular rise of interest in the Jewish esoteric lore known as Kabbalah. Celebrity interest spurred a backlash against New Age trends and a revisitation of the traditional role of Kabbalah in Jewish history. In 2006, the episode “Secrets of Kabbalah” aired on the History Channel’s popular paranormal series Decoding the Past. This article analyzes “Secrets of Kabbalah” in light of Jewish history and the New Age. It argues that the film uses a crisical, lachrymose conception of Jewish history to set up a dichotomy between traditional Jewish Kabbalah and the New Age. That is to say, the film bases itself on a history of crises and tears. The article further argues that the episode contains coded messages of critique against New Age developments in Kabbalah, thereby becoming a quasi-kabbalistic text itself. Finally, the article argues that in a post-modern turn, “Secrets of Kabbalah” becomes a part of the very pop-Kabbalah phenomenon that it sets out to critique through its usage of a history of Jewish crises.
Kabbalah in America: Ancient Lore in the New World, 2020
This introduces the state of the field of research on Kabbalah in America, and it introduces the ... more This introduces the state of the field of research on Kabbalah in America, and it introduces the twenty ground-breaking chapters in this pace setting book.
Kabbalah in America: Ancient Lore in the New World, 2020
In the mid eighteenth century, the famed Congregational minister Ezra Stiles became intrigued by ... more In the mid eighteenth century, the famed Congregational minister Ezra Stiles became intrigued by cabalistic text study and sought to procure a copy of the Zohar for his own perusal. Stiles's quest for zoharic knowledge led from Benjamin Franklin to Harvard Hebrew instructor and convert from Judaism Judah Monis; it led to the first recorded copy of the Zohar on the American continent; and it involved textual expositions concerning Jewish theosophy and Christian Trinitarianism. This article traces the history of Stiles's encounter with and usage of the Zohar, and it makes the case that Stiles sought to forge a new type of American Protestant theology as based in part upon cabalistic, and specifically zoharic exegesis.
By combining philosophical thought with kabbalistic symbolism, Yohanan Alemanno sought to reach a... more By combining philosophical thought with kabbalistic symbolism, Yohanan Alemanno sought to reach an understanding of the biblical notions of tohu and bohu as that which is beyond prime matter and form. In so doing, he expounded a theory of proto-creation of that which precedes time.
This online event is free, but registration is required. Please visit: https://www.americanantiqu... more This online event is free, but registration is required. Please visit: https://www.americanantiquarian.org/webinars to register. You will be sent an email with a link and instructions on how to join the event upon registration.
This talk will center around a unique, beautifully scribed manuscript housed at the AAS, which was given the title 'The Cabbala of the Jews' by its cataloger in 1935. Until recently, this manuscript had never been studied and had an anonymous author, though recent investigation shows that it was written by the famous Scottish Quaker thinker who had made his way to East Jersey, George Keith. The manuscript made its way to Cotton Mather and played a key role in his polemics against Quakerism. In an interesting turn of interreligious events, Jewish theology took center stage in an important early colonial debate between Quakerism and Congregationalism. This talk will discuss the fascinating ideas within the manuscript, the methods used to arrive at the conclusion that the manuscript was written by George Keith, and its important role in the debate between Keith and Mather.
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This talk will center around a unique, beautifully scribed manuscript housed at the AAS, which was given the title 'The Cabbala of the Jews' by its cataloger in 1935. Until recently, this manuscript had never been studied and had an anonymous author, though recent investigation shows that it was written by the famous Scottish Quaker thinker who had made his way to East Jersey, George Keith. The manuscript made its way to Cotton Mather and played a key role in his polemics against Quakerism. In an interesting turn of interreligious events, Jewish theology took center stage in an important early colonial debate between Quakerism and Congregationalism. This talk will discuss the fascinating ideas within the manuscript, the methods used to arrive at the conclusion that the manuscript was written by George Keith, and its important role in the debate between Keith and Mather.