No Masters But God - (Contemporary Anarchist Studies) by Hayyim Rothman

About the Book

No masters but God constitutes an in-depth study in the writings of a transnational constellation of rabbis, scholars, activists, and theologians active during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It explores how, through the lense of biblical, rabbinic, and kabbalistic literature, they developed themes of anti-authoritarianism, antinomianism, nationalism, and pacifism.

Book Synopsis

The forgotten legacy of religious Jewish anarchism, and the adventures and ideas of its key figures, finally comes to light in this book. Set in the decades surrounding both world wars, No masters but God identifies a loosely connected group of rabbis and traditionalist thinkers who explicitly appealed to anarchist ideas in articulating the meaning of the Torah, traditional practice, Jewish life and the mission of modern Jewry. Full of archival discoveries and first translations from Yiddish and Hebrew, it explores anarcho-Judaism in its variety through the works of Yaakov Meir Zalkind, Yitshak Nahman Steinberg, Yehudah Leyb Don-Yahiya, Avraham Yehudah Heyn, Natan Hofshi, Shmuel Alexandrov, Yehudah Ashlag and Aaron Shmuel Tamaret. With this ground-breaking account, Hayyim Rothman traces a complicated story about the modern entanglement of religion and anarchism, pacifism and Zionism, prophetic anti-authoritarianism and mystical antinomianism.

From the Back Cover

The forgotten legacy of religious Jewish anarchism, and the adventures and ideas of its key figures, finally comes to light in this book.

Set in the decades surrounding both world wars, No masters but God identifies a loosely connected group of rabbis and traditionalist thinkers who explicitly appealed to anarchist ideas in articulating the meaning of the Torah, traditional practice, Jewish life and the mission of modern Jewry. Filled with archival discoveries and first translations from Yiddish and Hebrew, the book explores anarcho-Judaism in all its variety through the works of Yaakov Meir Zalkind, Yitshak Nahman Steinberg, Yehuda Leyb Don-Yahiya, Avraham Yehudah Hen, Natan Hofshi, Shmuel Alexandrov, Yehudah Ashlag and Shmuel Tamaret.

With this ground-breaking account, Hayyim Rothman traces a complicated story about the modern entanglement of religion and anarchism, pacifism and Zionism, prophetic anti-authoritarianism and mystical antinomianism.

Review Quotes

'The panoramic view of these thinkers over the course of the book's ten chapters is an especially important contribution for the English reader since it fills a noticeable gap in scholarship by offering first-ever English translations of Hebrew and Yiddish texts and lays the foundation for future research.'
Lehrhaus

'A pioneering, thoroughly researched, and comprehensive portrait of [...] 8 advocates of religious Jewish anarchism.'
Lilian Türk, Religion, State and Society, Volume 50 (2022)

About the Author

Hayyim Rothman is a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow at Bar Ilan University, Israel