Arthur Green

Arthur Green, born March 21, 1941,^[1] is an American scholar of Jewish mysticism and Neo-Hasidism. He is a professor in the non-denominational rabbinical program at Hebrew College in Boston. He was president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1987–1993.^[2]

Biography

Arthur (Art) Green grew up in Newark, New Jersey in a nonobservant Conservative movement Jewish home and attended Camp Ramah. He describes his father as a "militant atheist," but his mother, from a traditional family, felt obligated to give her son a Jewish education.

Academic and rabbinic career

In 1959, he studied at Brandeis University, where he went through a crisis of faith and sought new approaches to Judaism. Green's professors at Brandeis included Nahum Glatzer and Alexander Altmann. After earning his Ph.D., Green became Philip W. Lown professor (now emeritus) of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies. In 1967, he was ordained as a Conservative rabbi by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. In 1968, Green was one of the founders of Havurat Shalom.

Green has published many works on Jewish mysticism and hasidism. Invited to deliver a series of lectures at Yale University, Green was described as "one of the preeminent authorities on Jewish spirituality, mysticism and Hasidism."^[3]

Published works

• Speaking Torah: Spiritual Teachings from around the Maggid's Table. With Ebn Leader, Ariel Evan Mayse, and Or N. Rose. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2013. 2 volumes
• Radical Judaism: Rethinking God & Tradition. Yale University Press, 2010.^[4]
• A Guide to the Zohar. Stanford University Press, 2003.
• Ehyeh: A Kabbalah for Tomorrow. Jewish Lights Publishing, 2003.
• Seek My Face: A Jewish Mystical Theology. Jewish Lights Publishing, 2003.
• These Are the Words: A Vocabulary of Jewish Spiritual Life. Woodstock VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 1999.
• The Language of Truth: Teachings from the Sefat Emet. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1998.
• Keter: the Crown of God in Early Jewish Mysticism. Princeton University Press, 1997.
• Your Word is Fire: The Hasidic Masters on Contemplative Prayer (co-ed. Barry Holtz). Paulist Press, 1993.
• Devotion and Commandment: The Faith of Abraham in the Hasidic Imagination, The Efroymson Lectures of 1986. Hebrew University Press, 1989.
• Editor, Kol Ha-Neshamah. The Reconstructionist Prayer Book, 1989.
• Ed. Jewish Spirituality. Crosswood Books, 1987.
• Co-editor. Mysticism, Hermeneutics, and Religion: Studies in Judaism. SUNY Press, 1984.
• Ed. & trans.. Upright Practices and The Light of the Eyes: Homilies on Genesis, Menahem of Chernobyl. Paulist Press, 1982.
• Tormented Master: A Life of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav. University of Alabama Press, 1980.

References