Be-ron Yahad: Studies in Jewish Thought and Theology in Honor of Nehemia Polen

The essays of the present volume, honoring Rabbi Professor Nehemia Polen, seek to give readers a richer sense of the fabric of Jewish interpretation and theology, from the history of Jewish mysticism, the promise and perils of exegesis, and the contemporary relevance of premodern and early modern texts.

Ariel Evan Mayse joined the faculty of Stanford University in 2017 as an assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies, and is rabbi-in-residence of Atiq: Jewish Make Institute (https: //www.atiqmakers.org). He holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from Harvard University and rabbinic ordination from Beit Midrash Har’el. His research examines the role of language in Hasidism, the formation of early Hasidic literature, the renaissance of Jewish mysticism in the nineteenth and twentieth century, and the relationship between spirituality and law in modern Jewish thought.

Avraham Yizhak Green, a nationally recognized historian of Jewish religion and a theologian, is the founding dean of the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College and now serves as its rector. He has lectured widely and taught Jewish mysticism, Hasidism, and theology to several generations of students at the University of Pennsylvania; the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where he served as both dean and president; Brandeis University; and Hebrew College. Green is the founder of Havurat Shalom, an egalitarian Jewish community in Somerville, MA, and remains a leading independent figure in the Jewish renewal movement. He is the author or editor of more than a dozen books, including: Speaking Torah: Spiritual Teachings from Around the Maggid’s Table (Jewish Lights, 2013); and Radical Judaism: Rethinking God and Tradition (Yale University Press, 2011), now available in Hebrew translation. His complete translation of Me’or Eynayim, an early Hasidic classic, is forthcoming with Stanford University Press.