24 Facts About Yehuda Liebes

Yehuda Liebes is an Israeli academic and scholar.

Yehuda Liebes is the Gershom Scholem Professor Emeritus of Kabbalah at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Yehuda Liebes is the recipient of the 1997 Bialik Prize, the 1999 Gershom Scholem Prize for Kabbalah Research, the 2006 EMET Prize for Art, Science and Culture, and the 2017 Israel Prize in Jewish thought.

Yehuda Liebes returned to his homeland to continue his education, but was expelled from his university due to the Nuremberg Laws.

Yehuda Liebes then undertook agricultural training in Latvia with a Zionist movement.

In 1941 Liebes married his second wife, Mira, a native of Riga who had grown up in Berlin.

On his mother's side, Yehuda Liebes was a cousin of Israeli intellectual Yeshayahu Leibowitz.

Yehuda Liebes was acquainted with Gershom Scholem, the father of modern Kabbalah scholarship, from an early age, as his parents were friends of Scholem.

In 1967, Yehuda Liebes began his studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Yehuda Liebes edited some of the works of Gershom Scholem.

Yehuda Liebes identifies politically with the right wing of Israeli politics and religiously with Religious Zionism.

Yehuda Liebes began lecturing in the Hebrew University's Department of Jewish Thought in 1971.

Yehuda Liebes has taught on Zohar at the University of Chicago.

Yehuda Liebes's work is said to be representative of "the Hebrew University's new wave of kabbalistic research".

Yehuda Liebes explores the mythic and messianic dimensions in Judaism and Kabbalah, and Christian and Sabbatean influences on Kabbalah.

Yehuda Liebes has written extensively on "the Zohar, Lurianic Kabbalah, Sabbateanism, Breslov Hasidism and the Gaon of Vilna and his disciples".

Yehuda Liebes has translated Greek, Latin, and Arabic religious poetry into Hebrew.

Yehuda Liebes finds Christian and Sabbatean inspiration in the ideas of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov and, at the same time, Sabbatean influences on the disciples of the Vilna Gaon who opposed Hasidism.

Yehuda Liebes angered National Religious Jews in Israel when he claimed to find a Christian allusion in the Amidah, the central prayer of the Jewish liturgy.

Yehuda Liebes asserted that the conclusion of the 14th blessing, "keren yeshua" refers not to David, but to Jesus.

Yehuda Liebes publishes in Hebrew and has expressed opposition to the study of Jewish thought in English.

Yehuda Liebes has allowed only a few of his works to be translated into English, in conjunction with his academic degree and tenure.

Yehuda Liebes received the 1997 Bialik Prize for his book The Secret of the Sabbatean Faith.

Yehuda Liebes was awarded the 2006 EMET Prize for Art, Science and Culture, in the category of Humanities, for his work on Sabbateanism.