The Philosophy of Rabbi Shalom Ber Schneersohn

Language, Gender and Mysticism

Rabbi Dr Reuven Leigh (University of Cambridge, UK)

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English

Bloomsbury Academic
24 April 2025

Philosophy; Philosophy of religion; Judaism; Gender studies, gender groups; Jewish studies

Reuven Leigh provides the first in-depth introduction to the pioneering philosophy of Rabbi Shalom Ber Schneersohn. Bringing him into dialogue with key continental philosophers Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida and Julia Kristeva, this book reveals how Schneersohn’s views anticipated many prominent themes in 20th-century thought.

Shalom Ber Schneersohn (1860-1920) was the fifth Rebbe of the Habad-Lubavitch dynasty. He was a traditional, kabbalistic thinker and yet, beyond mysticism, he wrote extensively on speech, gender and the body. So why is he not better known? Leigh begins by uncovering and contesting numerous scholarly assumptions that have operated to exclude traditional rabbinic thinkers from contemporary philosophical debates.

Seeking to correct this, this book offers a close reading of Schneersohn’s 1898 discourses. With the disruption of traditional binary structures being the dominant theme pervading Schneersohn’s work, Leigh engages with Levinas’ provocative ideas on speech and the feminine. He also highlights how Derridean deconstruction involves a more positive approach to presence that was already anticipated in the writings of Schneersohn. And from the disruption of the hierarchy of signification to the semiotic aspect of language and the maternal body, this book demonstrates how Schneersohn foreshadows a number of Kristeva’s central philosophical concerns.

A wide-ranging and inclusive volume, The Philosophy of Rabbi Shalom Ber Schneersohn demonstrates not only how forward-thinking Schneersohn’s ideas were over a century ago, but how relevant they still are today.

By: Rabbi Dr Reuven Leigh (University of Cambridge UK)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 138mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9781350341234
ISBN 10: 1350341231
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 24 April 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Reuven Leigh is an affiliated lecturer at the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, UK, and is the director of Chabad of Cambridge.

Reviews for The Philosophy of Rabbi Shalom Ber Schneersohn: Language, Gender and Mysticism

"""Reuven Leigh convincingly demonstrates striking parallels between 19th-century Hasidic and kabbalistic thought and key themes in Levinas, Derrida, and Kristeva, challenging dominant assumptions about the relation between rabbinic thought and modern European philosophy. Leigh thus shows that traditional Jewish texts can function as fruitful resources for philosophical reflections on gender, language, and embodiment."" --Daniel H. Weiss, Polonsky-Coexist Senior Lecturer in Jewish Studies, University of Cambridge, UK ""In this excellent book, Reuven Leigh presents Rabbi Shalom Ber Schneersohn, the great leader of the Habad community, as the brilliant thinker not only capable of conversing philosophically with the best minds of modern times, but also anticipating their findings avant la lettre. Kristeva, Levinas, and Derrida emerge here naturally as Schneersohn's interlocutors in the ideal realm of philosophy, which knows no cultural borders and divides."" --Agata Bielik-Robson, Professor of Jewish Studies, University of Nottingham, UK"