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ERRATUM: A translation error in one of the stories in the book is corrected here.

This book grew out of my enchantment with Hasidic stories – though it also engages with stories I find harsh and difficult. It is part of an ongoing conversation about Hasidism and its tales, carried on among scholars, storytellers and Hasidim themselves. Each new study of the topic takes a different approach, deepening our understanding, yet there is always more to say.

Imagining Holiness: Classic Hasidic Tales in Modern Times

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Review of Imagining Holiness by Alan Brill

Review of Imagining Holiness by Israel Drazin

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"Until now, no English language author has explored the literary sources for Martin Buber's collections of Hasidic tales and asked broader questions about how the 'original' Hasidic collections were produced, by whom, and for what purpose. Lewis has done precisely this in this groundbreaking work. Imagining Holiness is the most important work on the topic yet produced in the English language."

- Nathaniel Deutsch, University of California, author of The Maiden of Ludmir: A Jewish Holy Woman and her World

"Justin Jaron Lewis combines the artistry of the storyteller and the perspective of the historian in order to bring the reader to new levels of understanding of the dynamics of the Hasidic story, and of Hasidism itself."

- Ira Robinson, Concordia University, author of Rabbis and their Community