Overview

In 1913, just before the outbreak of the First World War, a 19-year-old Czech Jew named Jiri Langer left his assimilated family to live in the remote village of Belz, Galicia (now Ukraine). He had gone to live under the Chassidic (or Hasidic) Rokeach dynasty, a line of Rabbis that survives to this day. Nine Gates is the record of Langer's time amongst these isolated Chassidic mystics of Eastern Galicia, and a window into their world. Langer tells of their enthusiasm, their simple faith, their ecstasies, their austerities, their feasts, their wonder-working Holy Rabbis and their esoteric wisdom. Most of all, he recounts a collection of shrewd and earthy folk tales told by the holy men who ruled these little spiritual kingdoms for generation after generation. Over 80 years since its original publication in Czech, this translation by Stephen Jolly remains the definitive English version of this towering work of Jewish introspection. Nine Gates is a document from another time and place, and yet it captures the same spirit of religious longing and exploration that attracts a growing number of seekers today.

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9780718896300

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'Lo! As he reached the roof, an unknown hand gave him a light' Nine Gates is not primarily for those whose approach to Hasidism is detached and analytical, although it would even be interesting to them. It is a book for the reader who wants to breathe Hasidic air. . . . Like the Rebbe Reb Shmelke, the reader of the Nine Gates is given the light without realizing from whence it comes. Isaac Bashevis Singer

Author Information

Jiri Langer was born in 1894 to a Jewish assimilated family in Prague. Attracted to the mysticism of the Chassidim, he became a devotee and assiduous chronicler of their way of life. His writings were banned and destroyed when the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia but his legacy has subsequently been reaffirmed, and he has been recognised for teaching his friend Franz Kafka Hebrew. He was able to escape the Nazi invasion and fled to Palestine in 1939, but died in 1943 of illnesses brought on by the hardships of the journey.

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