Moshe Idel (Hebrew: משה אידל; born January 19, 1947) is a Romanian-born Israeli historian and philosopher of Jewish mysticism. He is Emeritus Max Cooper Professor in Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and a Senior Researcher at the Shalom Hartman Institute.
Life and scholarshipedit
Born in Târgu Neamț, Romania, on 19 January 1947. Idel was a precocious child, with a passion for reading which made him read all the books in the town, cooperative, then High school Library, in addition to buying more books with the money earned by singing at weddings.[1]
Although the Holocaust did not directly affect the Jewish population of Târgu Neamț, they were affected by the so-called “population displacements”. In 1963 he immigrated with his family to Israel, settling in Haifa.[2]
Idel has undertaken a systematic revision of the history and analysis of Jewish mysticism. His explorations of the mythical, theurgical, mystical, and messianic dimensions of Judaism have been attentive to history, sociology, and anthropology, while rejecting a naïve historicist approach to Judaism.[4]
His 1988 work, Kabbalah: New Perspectives (Yale University Press), is said to have revolutionised Kabbalah studies.[5] His historical and phenomenological studies of rabbinic, philosophic, kabbalistic, and Hasidic texts have transformed the understanding of Jewish intellectual history and highlighted the close relationship between magic, mysticism, and liturgy.[4] He is also a three-time fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies.[6]
Awardsedit
In 1999, Idel was awarded the Israel Prize for excellent achievement in the field of Jewish philosophy, and in 2002 the EMET Prize for Jewish Thought.[7] In 2003, he received the Koret Award for Jewish philosophy for his book Absorbing Perfections.[1] He has been conferred honorary doctorates by the universities of Yale,[citation needed]Budapest,[citation needed]Haifa,[8]Cluj,[citation needed]Iasi[9] and Bucharest.[citation needed] In 1993, he received the Bialik Prize for Jewish thought.[10]
^"Focus Newspaper - Autumn 2003". research.haifa.ac.il. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
^"Professor Moshe Idel, PhD, Doctor Honoris Causa of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi – AGERPRES". www.agerpres.ro. Archived from the original on 2016-10-02.
^"List of recipients 1933-2004" (PDF). Tel Aviv Municipality (in Hebrew). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 17, 2007.
^ ab"Past Winners". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved 2020-01-24.
^Myers, David N. (2012). "A Novel Look at Moshe Idel's East-West Problem". The Jewish Quarterly Review. 102 (2): 289–296. doi:10.1353/jqr.2012.0013. JSTOR 41480288. S2CID 161193853.
^Liska, Vivian (2012). "On Getting It Right". The Jewish Quarterly Review. 102 (2): 297–301. doi:10.1353/jqr.2012.0014. JSTOR 41480289. S2CID 170967858.
^Shahar, Galili (2012). "Fragments and Demons: A Strong Reading". The Jewish Quarterly Review. 102 (2): 302–310. doi:10.1353/jqr.2012.0015. JSTOR 41480290. S2CID 170837306.