Fall 2025

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The Hidden Pulse:

Poetics of Shabbat in Hasidic Thought

A live, interactive series led by
R. Prof. Elie Holzer
 

Beneath Shabbat’s quiet lies a hidden pulse—the inner heartbeat of the week and of the soul. This series invites you into a poetic exploration of spiritual writings by Hasidic masters, who reveal Shabbat as a sanctified rhythm of presence, flowing through body, time, and awareness.

This pulse is felt in the way we inhabit our bodies, expand our consciousness, share food, dwell, and sing with others—moments which may reveal a sudden, eternal gleam.

Poetics here refers both to the subtle, ineffable textures these teachings make perceptible, and to the way we engage them. Reading, listening, discussing and lingering with these texts are designed to serve as a spiritual practice of inner attunement.

You are warmly invited to enter this unfolding—learning with the Hasidic masters, and with one another.

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The underlying concept of our learning is that close, attuned, and dialogical engagement with Hasidic drashot and their spiritual poetics unlocks wellsprings for our individual spiritual avoda.
Such reading is a practice that allows us to slow down, engage deeply with a given Hasidic text, and pay attention to the poetics and imagery opened by language. We mix intellect, imagination, and emotion in each session. We learn to bring a fresh mind to reading, and we develop a creative, actively engaged relationship with our own and our colleagues' insights. In doing so, we reconnect to ancient Jewish spiritual traditions of transformative reading.
To facilitate our learning process, we seek to dedicate two sessions for each drasha. Drashot will be selected from a variety of Hasidic masters.