April
9 ,
2004
Front-Page
News
Fine
Writing Lawrence Fine’s
Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos:
Isaac Luria and His Kabbalistic Fellowship (2003, Stanford University Press) is “a
stunning new biography of the 16th-century kabbalist of the Galilee,” wrote
reviewer Allan Nadler in the March 17 edition of the Jewish weekly Forward. “There already exists a wealth of traditional commentary,
as well as much modern critical scholarship, on the bold mystical
teachings of the Ari,” Nadler wrote, using a familiar reference
to Luria. “And Luria’s central kabbalistic doctrine—tikkun,
or cosmic reparation—has been appropriated by postmodern
Jews in all kinds of original ways, from synagogue programs feeding
the homeless to the name of a liberal Jewish magazine. Still, precious
little is known about the man behind the famous school of thought
known as ‘Lurianic kabbala.’” The new book by
Fine, Irene Kaplan Leiwant Professor of Jewish Studies, “will
dramatically change all that,” Nadler wrote. “Writing
Luria’s biography is no small task, since the extant, worshipful
hagiographies by his disciples are historically unreliable. But
Fine, a professor of Jewish studies at Mount Holyoke College, has
overcome the many obstacles, largely through his diligent, scholarly
reconstruction of the world in which Luria lived.” Nadler
offers praise for Fine’s ability to write a book that is
both scholarly and engaging. “Despite its weighty academic
content, this book is written in a manner that will render it easily
accessible to a broad readership of nonspecialists. And scholars
will find many treasures, most of which Fine wisely consigned to
the endnotes. All of which makes this book among the finest works
of recent Judaic scholarship,” he concluded. The review was
reprinted in the Israeli daily Haaretz.
Making It with Music Musicorda and its founders—Jacqueline
Melnick, professor emeritus of music, and Leopold Teraspulsky—were
featured on WGBY’s Making It Here Saturday, March 27. The
Musicorda Summer Festival has been in residence at Mount Holyoke
since its beginning in 1987. The core activity, the Chamber Music
Institute, is a six-week study and performance program for students
from around the world from the age of 14 to the postgraduate
years. The mission of Musicorda is to forge
an international community of artists and students dedicated
to sharing their joy in making music and to enriching the lives
of diverse audiences through excellence in performance and education.
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