Elliot Wolfson: Mysticism, Paradox, and Speaking the Unspeakable

Professor Elliot Wolfson is one of the most remarkable minds working in Jewish academic thought today. A scholar, philosopher, poet, and artist, Wolfson holds the Marsha and Jay Glazer Chair in Jewish Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and has spent decades mapping the innermost terrain of Jewish mysticism with a rigor and depth that few can match. Born on the nineteenth of Kislev — the holiday known in Chassidic tradition as the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus, the day the Alter Rebbe was released from Czarist imprisonment and the inner teachings of the Torah were given new license to flow into the world — one might say his birthday itself portended a life devoted to the depths of Jewish mystical thought. We speak about mysticism and philosophy, paradox, the unspeakable, and what this lifelong quest means to him personally. Thank you for listening!