"Moving and deeply poetic...a fresh, new document filled with ancient wisdom. Readers will want to use this book for reflection and teaching around the Shabbat table." --Rabbi Arthur Green, PhD, author of Radical Judaism
"Professor Fishbane assembles many of Hasidism's key spiritual teachings on Shabbos into a rich, literate, and compelling banquet... He wisely guides us through them all and Judaism's spiritual center. We are all in his debt." --Rabbi Lawrence Kushner
"Eitan Fishbane's book is an inspiring gift to all those who wish to sanctify the Sabbath and create a day of holiness to uplift their souls." --Professor Susannah Heschel, Dartmouth College
"The Sabbath Soul is rich nourishment for the modern soul. Learned, lucid, inspiring and sacred." --Rabbi David Wolpe, author of Why Faith Matters
Drawing from the origins of the movement in late eighteenth-century Poland to late twentieth-century Jerusalem, Eitan Fishbane evokes the movement of the Sabbath experience--advancing from candle lighting and the donning of white clothing to the Friday night Kiddush and the act of sacred eating. Fishbane also translates and interprets sources that reflect the spiritual transformation that takes place for the mystic on the seventh day--one in which the person undergoes a radical shift in awareness, a journey into the realm that is all soul.
Fishbane offers original translations from a wide landscape of Hebrew Hasidic sources and extended commentary to help you enrich your experience of the Sabbath. He also includes passages from the personal prayers of the Bratzlav Hasidic tradition, special writings that express the spiritual dimension of Shabbat in the language of devotional and individual yearning.