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Flipping into Ecstasy: Towards a Syncopal Understanding
of Mystical Hasidic Somersaults

Publication date: 2014

Studia Judaica, 2014, Nr 1 (33), pp. 157 - 183

Authors

Zvi Leshem
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Titles

Flipping into Ecstasy: Towards a Syncopal Understanding
of Mystical Hasidic Somersaults

Abstract

Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapira (1889–1943), Rebbe of the Polish Hasidic group of Piaseczno, was one of the outstanding Jewish mystics of the
twentieth century. In an undated entry in his personal spiritual diary Tsav ve-ziruz, he describes an occasion when he somersaulted at a Torah Scroll dedication ceremony. This remarkable passage, which has gone largely unnoticed in research on the Piaseczno Rebbe, offers a unique insight into R. Shapira’s mystical practices and aspirations. This paper provides a brief survey of literature on Hasidic somersaults and attempts to clarify R. Shapira’s description of his own experience. The nature of this mystical technique is interpreted in the context of other Jewish mystical practices in order to explain on the basis of the theory of syncope, how a somersault can serve as a mystical technique.

References

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Information

Information: Studia Judaica, 2014, Nr 1 (33), pp. 157 - 183

Article type: Original article

Titles:

Polish:

Flipping into Ecstasy: Towards a Syncopal Understanding
of Mystical Hasidic Somersaults

English:

Flipping into Ecstasy: Towards a Syncopal Understanding
of Mystical Hasidic Somersaults

Published at: 2014

Article status: Open

Licence: None

Percentage share of authors:

Zvi Leshem (Author) - 100%

Article corrections:

-

Publication languages:

English

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