James Jacobson-Maisels

James is adjunct faculty at Pardes. He grew up outside Hershey, PA and in Bloomfield Hills, MI. He teaches Jewish Thought and Mysticism and Jewish Spiritual Practices and Meditation at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, at Yeshivat Hadar in New York City at Haifa University and at the Hannaton Educational and Spiritual Center in the Galilee.

James holds a PhD in Jewish Studies from the University of Chicago, a B.A. in Philosophy and Judaic Studies from Brown University and a M.St. in Modern Jewish Studies from Balliol College the University of Oxford. He studied at the Conservative Yeshiva, the Shalom Hartman Institute and in the Advanced Learning Seminar at Pardes and received rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Daniel Landes in Jerusalem. He has taught in a variety of settings in America and Israel on Judaism, Jewish mysticism and Jewish spirituality. In addition to teaching at Pardes, he also teaches at Drisha. He strives to integrate his study and practice and to help teach and live Judaism as a spiritual discipline.

Online learning: Click here to view online learning material from James on Elmad, online learning powered by Pardes.

Books/Publications:

  • Jacobson-Maisels, James. “My Aid Will Come From Nothingness: The Practice of Negative Theology in in Maggid Devarav Le-Ya’akov.” Negative Theology as Jewish Modernity. Ed. Michael Fagenblatt. Forthcoming.
  • Jacobson-Maisels, James. “Inviting the Demons In: A Hasidic Approach to Suffering, Conflict and Human Failings.” Kerem, 11, 5768 (2007-2008).
  • Jacobson-Maisels, James. “Non-Dual Judaism.” Jewish Theology in Our Time: A New Generation Explores the Foundations and Future of Jewish Belief. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2010.
  • Jacobson-Maisels, James. “Prayer as Transformation: A Vision of Tefillah Education.” HaYidion, Spring 2013, pp. 18-20, 31.
  • Jacobson-Maisels, James. “Tikkun Olam, Tikkun Atzmi: Healing the World and Healing the Self.” Tikkun Olam: Judaism Engages with a Broken World. Ed. Martin Cohen. Matrix Publications, forthcoming.
  • Jacobson-Maisels, James. “Receiving Blessing: The Priestly Blessings and Receptivity.” Priestly Blessings. Ed. Martin Cohen. Matrix Publications. Forthcoming.
  • Jacobson-Maisels, James. “Sanctification as Expansiveness.” Kaddish. Ed. Martin Cohen. Matrix Publications. Forthcoming.
  • Jacobson-Maisels, James. “Review, Moshe Halbertal, Concealment and Revelation: Esotericism in Jewish Thought and its Philosophical Implications.” Conservative Judaism 64:1, Fall 2012.
  • Jacobson-Maisels, James. “Review, Arthur Green, Radical Judaism: Rethinking God & Tradition.” Conservative Judaism Volume 65, Numbers 1-2, Fall-Winter 2013-2014, pp. 107-115.
    Liebes, Yehudah, “Ma’ase Merkava u-Ma’ase Bereshit as Esoteric Subjects in Philo of Alexandria.”  Trans. James Jacobson-Maisels; in: Scriptural Exegesis: The Shapes of Culture and the Religious Imagination: Essays in Honor of Michael Fishbane. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Contact: jamesmoshejm@gmail.com