Alon Shalev: How Rav Hutner Found Existential Meaning [Mysticism III 1/3]

Update: 2025-12-09

Description

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we speak with Alon Shalev, a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, about how Rav Hutner found existential meaning.In this episode we discuss:

How do we find and build purpose within our short lives?
What is the role of individualism and self-expression in Jewish life?
How should we respond to the crisis of perceived meaninglessness in the modern world?

Tune in to hear a conversation about the coming together of machshavah, nigleh, and nistar.

Interview begins at 23:20 .

Alon Shalev is a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and a Research Associate at the Jonathan Sacks Institute at Bar-Ilan University. He holds a doctorate in Jewish Thought from the Hebrew University. He deals with the question of meaning in life in Jewish thought and philosophy, ethics, and political philosophy. His book Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner’s Theology of Meaning was published by Brill. Alon lives in Tzur Hadassah, and is married with three children.

References:

Terror in Black September: The First Eyewitness Account of the Infamous 1970 Hijackings by David Raab

Pachad Yitzchak Shavuos by Rav Yitzchok Hutner

Pachad Yitzchak Purim by Rav Yitzchok Hutner

“Letters of Love and Rebuke From Rav Yitzchok Hutner” by David Bashevkin

Berakhot Chapter 2

Between Berlin and Slobodka: Jewish Transition Figures from Eastern Europe by Hillel Goldberg

Great Jewish Letters by Moshe Bamberger

Proverbs 24:16

Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner’s Theology of Meaning by Alon Shalev

Heidegger and Kabbalah by Elliot R. Wolfson

Heidegger and His Jewish Reception by Daniel M. Herskowitz

Mesillat Yesharim by Moses Chaim Luzzatto

Who Is Man? by Abraham J. Heschel

Halakhic Man by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik

Dr. Alon Shalev on The Podcast of Jewish Ideas

Pachad Yitzchok Chanukah Rav Yitzchok Hutner

For more 18Forty:
NEWSLETTER: 18forty.org/join
CALL: (212) 582-1840
EMAIL: info@18forty.org
WEBSITE: 18forty.org

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/18forty-podcast--4344730/support.