Kabbalistic Yiddish: Aaron Zeitlin's Mystical-Messianic Poetics

This study presents annotated translations and analyses of Aaron Zeitlin's (1898-1973) “neo-kabbalistic” Yiddish poems written during the 1920s in Warsaw. Fusing deep zoharic knowledge with Yiddish avant-garde/modernist poetic form, Zeitlin's “cosmic poetry” represents a unique moment both in the history of Kabbalah and in the history of Yiddish literature. Metatron (a book length poem), Keter, and Yosef della Reina reveal a deep mythopoetic imagination writing at the intersection of messianism and mysticism. With a Yiddish foreword by Yitskhok Niborski.