New Publication

We are pleased to announce the publication of Patrick B. Koch, “'All My Thinking Has But One Focus': Contemplative Seclusion in (Early) Modern Jewish Spirituality," Entangled Religions 14.4 (2023), a special issue on the topic "Contemplation and Non-Doing: Solitude, Absorption and Letting-be as Structural Principles of Contemplative Religious Practice" edited by Dylan Esler.

 

The study investigates the way in which different concepts of contemplation and seclusion are negotiated in Jewish spiritual literature. Focusing on (early) modern examples, it particularly addresses the functions and goals of physical and mental exercises designed to achieve detachment from worldly concerns. It shows how practices denoted by the terms perishut (lit. “separation”) and hitbodedut (lit. “solitude”) serve as preparatory steps that enable individuals to approach the divine, with the ultimate goal of bringing about various experiences of oneness with the deity. Against this background, it elucidates how perishut and hitbodedut were considered by some authors instrumental to gain divine knowledge, and how this idea relates to earlier Jewish conceptions of prophecy. Lastly, it will illustrate how in contemporary sources, contemplative seclusion is presented as a practice that transcends the temporal framework to which humans are bound.

 

For a full version of the article, please click here or visit Entangled Religions website here.