Joseph Dan
Joseph Dan (Hebrew: יוסף דן, 1935 – 23 July 2022)[1] was an Israeli scholar of Jewish mysticism. He taught for over 40 years in the Department of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was the first incumbent of the Gershom Scholem Chair in Jewish Mysticism at The Hebrew University.
Biography
Dan was born in 1935 in Budapest, Hungary, from where, at the age of four, he and his family fled out of fear of Nazism, settling later in Jerusalem. All the biographical documents about Joseph Dan (including his own website) give his birthplace as Bratislava, Slovakia, a version created by his father to escape repatriation by the British government in Palestine.[2]
In the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Dan began a double major in Assyriology and Jewish Thought. Under the influence of the revered teacher Gershom Scholem, he was attracted towards Jewish mysticism. He received his doctorate in 1964 under the guidance of Isaiah Tishby, his thesis titled The Speculative Basis of the Ethical Teachings of Chassidei Ashkenaz.[3]
Having written more than 60 books, he had published by the time of his death the first thirteen volumes of a project titled "Toledot Torat Hasod Ha'ivrit" ("History of Hebraic Mysticism and Esotericism", Zalman Shazar Center, Jerusalem), which he described as "an attempt by one individual to write the entire history of Jewish mysticism: not some executive summary, but rather a full-blown academic survey abridgment for executives but with academic detail".[2]
Books
Kabbalah: Oxford Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. 2006.
Awards
In 1997, Dan was awarded the Israel Prize, for Jewish thought.[4]
See also
References
- ^ Passing of Prof. Joseph Dan
- ^ a b Sheleg, Yair, Mystic Circles, in ha-Aretz, 23.10.08
- ^ Hebrew: "הבסיס העיוני לתורת המוסר של חסידות אשכנז"
- ^ "Israel Prize Official Site – Recipients in 1997 (in Hebrew)". Archived from the original on 27 December 2008.
External links
- Joseph Dan's web page (archived)
- Interview with Joseph Dan in Haaretz
- A comprehensive History of Jewish Mysticism, Kabbalah, a newsletter of current research in Jewish mysticism, Volume 2, Number 3, Fall/Winter 1987, Tevet 5748, Jerusalem, pp. 1, 6 - 8, on Academia.edu. Interview.]
- Books written by Joseph Dan
- Articles written by Joseph Dan[permanent dead link]
- Israeli interview with Joseph Dan on the beginning of the Bible (Hebrew video)
- Israeli interview with Joseph Dan about the existence of God (Hebrew video) on YouTube
- Articles with short description
- Short description is different from Wikidata
- Use dmy dates from July 2022
- Articles containing Hebrew-language text
- All articles with dead external links
- Articles with dead external links from April 2017
- Articles with permanently dead external links
- Articles with ISNI identifiers
- Articles with VIAF identifiers
- Articles with BIBSYS identifiers
- Articles with BNE identifiers
- Articles with BNF identifiers
- Articles with BNFdata identifiers
- Articles with CANTICN identifiers
- Articles with GND identifiers
- Articles with ICCU identifiers
- Articles with J9U identifiers
- Articles with KBR identifiers
- Articles with LCCN identifiers
- Articles with Libris identifiers
- Articles with NKC identifiers
- Articles with NLA identifiers
- Articles with NLK identifiers
- Articles with NTA identifiers
- Articles with PLWABN identifiers
- Articles with VcBA identifiers
- Articles with CINII identifiers
- Articles with Trove identifiers
- Articles with SUDOC identifiers
- 1935 births
- 2022 deaths
- People from Budapest
- Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Israel Prize in Jewish thought recipients
- Israeli Jews
- Hungarian Jews
- Jewish mysticism
- Judaic scholars
- Kabbalah
- Hungarian emigrants to Israel
- Israeli people of Hungarian-Jewish descent