Yaacob Dweck

super interesting and easy to read book about a not so well known figgure that the Jewish community owns a debt of gratitude for staying strong and clear eyed in a time that almost everyone got swept into the wind of Shabsai Tzvi. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in that era.

The Scandal of Kabbalah is the first book about the origins of a culture war that began in early modern Europe and continues to this day: the debate between kabbalists and their critics on the nature of Judaism and the meaning of religious tradition. From its medieval beginnings as an esoteric form of Jewish mysticism, Kabbalah spread throughout the early modern world and became a central feature of Jewish life. Scholars have long studied the revolutionary impact of Kabbalah, but, as Yaacob show more Dweck argues, they have misunderstood the character and timing of opposition to it. show less