David Bashevkin: ‘We are meant to teach the world how to embrace unchosen identity’

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in 18Forty’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

Rabbi Dr. David Bashevkin, it's a privilege and pleasure to be with my dear friend, which I've heard you say about so many other people in your incredible podcast, but you know, the founder and host of 18Forty, teaching across America and really across the world, writing for so many people. Thank you so much for joining us. And just to be sitting with an old friend is really, really special. So, people see you in different lights and in different ways and you're really one of the most incredible interdisciplinary thought leaders of our time. One of the areas that sometimes peers through is mysticism. I'd like to focus on that today and understand what is Jewish mysticism. So I come from a very particular school of thought. My interaction and relationship to Jewish mysticism comes through the lens of a Hasidic thinker who I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot from over the course of our conversation and that is Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen MiLublin, a Hasidic thinker who was born in 1823 and died in 1900. And I was attracted to him because of that interdisciplinary nature of his writings, the way he weaves together halacha, which is Jewish law, and Kabbala, Jewish mysticism, Hasidic thought. His life itself was interdisciplinary. He was raised in a non-Hasidic home and he later became Hasidic. And he has an essay called “Sefer Zichronot [Book of Memories],” in which he goes and he writes on each mitzva in the Torah. And in that essay he has a very long piece that considers what is the definition of Jewish mysticism?

Jump to a moment

1. 0:01Rabbi Dr. David Bashevkin, it's a privilege and pleasure to be with my dear friend, which…
2. 5:24something that has occupied much of my thought and much of my writings to this very…
3. 10:47language and process to realize that's also how we ever are to learn about ourselves. So…
4. 16:17a very coherent approach. I understand it. To me, the layers of interpretation almost parallel the…
5. 22:11sanctify it? How do you find meaning and purpose in it? That's what we are doing…
6. 27:41what they're doing, and you can decide to give money and you can decide not to…
7. 33:17too little, and both are possible. It's possible to have an unhealthy relationship with Jewish commitment,…
8. 39:22the Christian view of creation. The Jewish view holds both simultaneously. We have the plain meaning…
9. 44:47and vayedaber? All of a sudden, Josh. If you're compelled to say something. He needs to…
10. 50:10Well, we'd all experience Mashiach for someone else. God willing. So is the State of Israel…

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