Professor Emeritus Yehuda Liebes | |
|---|---|
יהודה ליבס | |
 Liebes in 2012 | |
| Born | 1947 (age 77–78) |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Known for | Kabbalah scholarship |
| Spouse | Esther |
| Children | 3 |
| Awards | Israel Prize (2017) |
| Academic background | |
| Education | PhD,Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1976 |
| Thesis | Peraḳim be-milon sefer ha-Zohar (Chapters in the Dictionary of the Book of the Zohar) (1976) |
| Doctoral advisor | Gershom Scholem |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | Hebrew University of Jerusalem |
| Main interests | Kabbalah,Zohar, Jewishmyth,Sabbateanism |
| Website | http://liebes.huji.ac.il/ |
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Yehuda Liebes (Hebrew:יהודה ליבס; born 1947)[1] is an Israeli academic and scholar. He is the Gershom Scholem Professor Emeritus of Kabbalah at theHebrew University of Jerusalem. Considered a leading scholar ofKabbalah, his research interests also include Jewishmyth,Sabbateanism, and the links betweenJudaism andancient Greek religion,Christianity, andIslam. He is the recipient of the 1997Bialik Prize, the 1999 Gershom Scholem Prize for Kabbalah Research, the 2006 EMET Prize for Art, Science and Culture, and the 2017Israel Prize inJewish thought.
Yehuda Liebes was born inJerusalem.[1] His father,Joseph Gerhard Liebes (1910–1988), a noted Hebrew translator of classic literature, left his native Germany at the age of 18 to study at theHebrew University of Jerusalem. He returned to his homeland to continue his education, but was expelled from his university due to theNuremberg Laws. He then undertook agricultural training inLatvia with a Zionist movement. There he married his first wife, with whom he settled inPardes Hanna inMandatory Palestine and had two daughters before they divorced. In 1941 Liebes married his second wife, Mira, a native ofRiga who had grown up inBerlin.[2] They had two children, a daughter (Tamar, today head of the Department of Communications at Hebrew University) and a son (Yehuda).[2] On his mother's side, Liebes was a cousin of Israeli intellectualYeshayahu Leibowitz.[2]
Liebes was acquainted withGershom Scholem, the father of modern Kabbalah scholarship, from an early age, as his parents were friends of Scholem. Scholem attended Yehuda'sBar Mitzvah and gave him as a giftYeshayahu Tishby's bookMishnat HaZohar ("The Wisdom of theZohar").[3]
Liebes graduated from theHebrew University Secondary School.[2] In 1965, he enlisted in theParatroopers Brigade for hiscompulsory army service, and in 1967, served in theSix-Day War as a non-commissioned officer.[2] Duringreserve duty in 1969, he was injured during a Palestinian attack on his post in theJordan Valley, lost several teeth, and was hospitalized for several months.[2]
In 1967, Liebes began his studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.[1] After earning undergraduate and graduate degrees, he pursued his doctoral research under Scholem.[4][5] Scholem gave Liebes access to handwritten note cards he had prepared for a lexicon ofZohar terminology that he never wrote,[5] and Liebes submitted his dissertation onPeraḳim be-milon sefer ha-Zohar (Chapters in the Dictionary of the Book of the Zohar) (1976).[2]
Liebes and his wife, Dr. Esther Liebes, have three children. In 1977, after he completed his doctorate, they joined the nucleus of the newIsraeli settlement ofShilo in theWest Bank, living in a caravan nearOfra, but left after nine months.[3] The couple resides in theKiryat Moshe neighborhood of Jerusalem.[2] Esther, a scholar ofHasidism, formerly worked as the director of the Gershom Scholem Collection for Kabbalah and Hasidism at theNational Library of Israel.[3] She edited some of the works ofGershom Scholem.
Liebes identifies politically with theright wing of Israeli politics and religiously withReligious Zionism.[2]
Liebes began lecturing in the Hebrew University's Department of Jewish Thought in 1971. He became a full professor in 1993.[2] His course subjects include Kabbalah, Jewish myth, and the Zohar.[1] He has also taught on Zohar at theUniversity of Chicago.[1]
I do not really like the term 'Jewish mysticism'. The order of the words is not correct. You have to say 'mystical Judaism', because Kabbalah is first and foremost an interpretation of an aspect of the Jewish religion. … The inclusion of all mystical phenomena under the heading 'mysticism' is a mistake, because it causes people to think everything is the same—Christian mysticism, Jewish mysticism, Muslim mysticism. The Kabbalah is an interpretation of the Jewish religion, ofTorah andmitzvot, of the people and the land of Israel".
Liebes is considered a leading scholar of Kabbalah.[4][3] His work is said to be representative of "the Hebrew University's new wave of kabbalistic research".[4] Liebes explores the mythic and messianic dimensions in Judaism and Kabbalah, and Christian and Sabbatean influences on Kabbalah.[4] He has written extensively on "the Zohar,Lurianic Kabbalah, Sabbateanism,Breslov Hasidism and theGaon of Vilna and his disciples".[1] He studies the links betweenJudaism andancient Greek religion,Christianity, andIslam.[1][2] His work is often cited by scholars.[6][7][8][9][10]
Liebes has also translated Greek, Latin, and Arabic religious poetry into Hebrew.[1][2]
Challenging the traditional ascription of the Zohar to the 2nd-century disciples ofShimon bar Yochai inIsrael, Liebes asserts that a group of 13th-century Spanish Kabbalists, which includedMoses de León, composed the work, each reflecting his own approach to Kabbalah.[4] Liebes claims that theKetem Paz on the Zohar and the Kabbalistic hymnBar Yochai were written by two different authors with similar names, not the oneShimon Lavi who is traditionally credited with authoring both works.[11] Liebes also finds Christian and Sabbatean inspiration in the ideas of RebbeNachman of Breslov[4] and, at the same time, Sabbatean influences on the disciples of the Vilna Gaonwho opposed Hasidism.[2]
Liebes angeredNational Religious Jews in Israel when he claimed to find a Christian allusion in theAmidah, the central prayer of theJewish liturgy. Liebes asserted that the conclusion of the 14th blessing, "keren yeshua" ("horn of salvation") refers not toDavid, but toJesus (Yeshua in Hebrew).[2]
Liebes publishes in Hebrew and has expressed opposition to the study of Jewish thought in English. He has allowed only a few of his works to be translated into English, in conjunction with his academic degree and tenure.[2]
Liebes received the 1997Bialik Prize for his bookThe Secret of the Sabbatean Faith (1995).[2] In 1999 he received the Peace Prize for the study of Kabbalah[1] and the Gershom Scholem Prize for Kabbalah Research.[12] He was awarded the 2006 EMET Prize for Art, Science and Culture, in the category of Humanities, for his work on Sabbateanism.[2][13] In 2017 he received theIsrael Prize for his work on Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism.[1][14]
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