{{Infobox person | name = Boaz Huss | image = Boaz huss.jpg | alt = | caption = | native_name = בועז הוס | birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name --> | birth_date = | birth_place = Jerusalem, Israel | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} or {{Death-date and age|death date†|birth date†}} --> | death_place = | native_name_lang = he | other_names = | occupation = Professor of Kabbalah | known_for = Chair of the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, leading scholar in contemporary Kabbalah }}
'''Boaz Huss''' ({{Langx|he|בועז הוס}}; born 1959)<ref name=boaz>{{cite web |url=http://www.bgu.ac.il/~bhuss/index.html|title=Boaz Huss| publisher=Ben-Gurion University of the Negev|accessdate=18 December 2013}}</ref> is a professor of Kabbalah at the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is a leading scholar in contemporary Kabbalah.
==Early life and education== Boaz Huss was born in Jerusalem, Israel.<ref name=boaz/> He completed his undergraduate and graduate work at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he earned a B.A. in Philosophy and History of Jewish Thought in 1986 and a Ph.D. in History of Jewish Thought in 1993.<ref name=education/> His doctoral thesis, ''Ketem Paz – The Kabbalistic Doctrine of Rabbi Simeon Lavi in His Commentary to the Zohar'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://jec2.chez.com/absthesboaz.html|title=Ketem Paz – The Kabbalistic Doctrine of Rabbi Simeon Lavi in his Commentary of the Zohar|last=Huss|first=Boaz|date=October 1992}}</ref> was supervised by Professor Moshe Idel.<ref name=education>{{cite web |url=http://www.bgu.ac.il/~bhuss/HussEducation.html|title=Boaz Huss – Education|publisher=Ben-Gurion University of the Negev|accessdate=18 December 2013}}</ref>
He was a Fulbright post-doctoral fellow at Yale University (1993/4), a Starr fellow at the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University (2002), and a fellow at The Institute for Advanced Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1998/9, 2008/9).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bgu.ac.il/~bhuss/HussAwards%20and%20Fellowships.html|title=Boaz Huss – Awards and Fellowships| publisher=Ben-Gurion University of the Negev|accessdate=18 December 2013}}</ref> He lectured at Hebrew University (1994–1996) and Tel Aviv University (1995–1996) before coming to the Goldstein-Goren department of Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bgu.ac.il/~bhuss/HussEmployment%20History.html |title=Boaz Huss – Employment History (Academic Appointments) |publisher=Ben-Gurion University of the Negev|accessdate=18 December 2013}}</ref> he has chaired the department in 2010–2012.<ref name=activities>{{cite web |url= http://www.bgu.ac.il/~bhuss/HussProfessionnal%20Activities.html|title=Boaz Huss – Professional Activities|publisher=Ben-Gurion University of the Negev|accessdate=18 December 2013}}</ref> He has received several research grants, including two 4-year grants from the Israel Science Foundation on the subjects of "Major Trends in 20th Century Kabbalah" (2005) and "Kabbalah and the Theosophical Society (1875-1936)".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bgu.ac.il/~bhuss/HussResearch%20Grants.html|title=Boaz Huss – Research Grants| publisher=Ben-Gurion University of the Negev|accessdate=18 December 2013}}</ref>
Huss is a board member of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism, and has served on the editorial boards of the Zohar Education Project in Chicago and the International Journal for the Study of New Religions.<ref name=activities/>
==Scholarship== Huss' research interests cover the Zohar and its reception, modern and contemporary Kabbalah, Western esotericism, and the New Age. His first monograph was dedicated to the Kabbalah of Rabbi Shimon Lavi, one of the first commentators of the Zohar. In his second monograph he examined the reception of the Zohar and the construction of its symbolic value. Huss was one of the first scholars to "take seriously more contemporary expressions of Jewish mysticism that have been largely ignored by scholars".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Wolfson|first=Elliot R. |title=Structure, Innovation, and Diremptive Temporality: The Use of Models to Study Continuity and Discontinuity in Kabbalistic Tradition|journal=Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies|volume=6|issue=18|year=2007|page=162}}</ref>
He has written about the communist Kabbalah of Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag,<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.kabbalah.info/engkab/kabbalah-worldwide/haaretz|title=Latter-Day Luminary|first=Micha|last=Odenheimer|work=Haaretz|accessdate=18 December 2013}}</ref> about Kabbalistic motifs used by Madonna,<ref>{{cite journal |title= All You Need Is LAV: Madonna and Postmodern Kabbalah|journal=Jewish Quarterly Review|volume=95|issue=4|date=Fall 2005|pages=611–624|doi=10.1353/jqr.2005.0077 |last1= Huss|first1= Boaz|s2cid=170180659}}</ref> and about the New Age and postmodern characteristic of contemporary Kabbalah.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The New Age of Kabbalah: Contemporary Kabbalah, New Age, and Postmodern Spirituality|date=July 2007|journal=Modern Jewish Studies|volume=6|issue=2|pages=107–125|doi=10.1080/14725880701423014|s2cid=143399862}}</ref> Huss also studied the history of Kabbalah research, and criticized the use of the term "mysticism" as the defining category of Kabbalah and Hasidism, and the theological framework of the academic study of Jewish mysticism.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://zeek.forward.com/articles/115669/|title=Is Kabbalah Mysticism? Continuing the Debate|date=17 October 2009|accessdate=18 December 2013|publisher=Zeek}}</ref> He is widely quoted in contemporary Kabbalah literature.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/riverflowsfromed0000hell|url-access=registration|quote=huss.|title= A River Flows from Eden: The Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar|first1=Melila |last1=Hellner-Eshed|first2=Nathan|last2=Wolski|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0804776240|pages=[https://archive.org/details/riverflowsfromed0000hell/page/429 429]–430}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e_HhTYQfZ34C&dq=huss&pg=PA15|title= As Light Before Dawn: The Inner World of a Medieval Kabbalist|first=Etan|last=Fishbane|year=2009|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn= 978-0804774871|pages=15–16}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R2eCTlBrYdQC&dq=boaz+&pg=PA53|page=53|title= Renaissance and Rebirth: Reincarnation in Early Modern Italian Kabbalah|first=Brian|last=Ogren|publisher=Brill|year=2009|isbn= 978-9004177642}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dfw6PcG1ojQC&dq=boaz+huss+&pg=PA222|title=Gender and Jewish History|first1=Marion A. |last1=Kaplan|first2=Deborah |last2=Dash Moore|year=2011|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0253222633|pages=222–223}}</ref>
In 2006 he appeared as himself in the TV movie "Decoding the Past: Secrets of Kabbalah", together with other Kabbalah scholars such as Michael Berg, Pinchas Giller, Moshe Idel, Daniel C. Matt, Ronit Meroz, and Byron Sherwin.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0956333/?ref_=nm_flmg_slf_1|title=Decoding the Past: Secrets of Kabbalah|publisher=Internet Movie Database|accessdate=18 December 2013}}</ref>
==Selected bibliography== *{{cite book |title=The Zohar: Reception and impact|date=October 2015|publisher=Littman|isbn=978-1-904113-96-6}} *{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=74uStwAACAAJ&q=boaz+huss|title=Kabbalah and Contemporary Spiritual Revival|publisher=Ben-Gurion University Press|location=Beer Sheva|year=2011|isbn=9789655360431}} *{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mIGMsLiol7EC&q=boaz+huss|title=Kabbalah and Modernity: Interpretations, Transformations, Adaptations|publisher=Brill|year=2010|isbn=978-9004182844}} (ed. with Marco Pasi, Kocku von Stuckrad) *{{cite book|url=http://www.bialik-publishing.co.il/product_info.php?products_id=1336|title=Like the Radiance of the Sky: Chapters in the reception history of the Zohar and the construction of its symbolic value|publisher=Bialik Press & Ben Zvi Institute|location=Jerusalem|year=2008|access-date=2013-12-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131009163116/http://www.bialik-publishing.co.il/product_info.php?products_id=1336|archive-date=2013-10-09|url-status=dead}} *{{cite book |title=Sockets of Fine Gold: The Kabbalah of R. Shimo'n Ibn Lavi|publisher=Magnes Press & Ben-Zvi Institute|location=Jerusalem|year=2000}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.bgu.ac.il/~bhuss/ homepage] * [https://bgu.academia.edu/Boazhuss Boaz Huss at Academia.edu] * [http://www.esswe.org/#members/427/index.html Boaz Huss at ESSWE] * [https://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Academia-looks-seriously-at-Kabbalah "Academia looks seriously at Kabbalah"] ''The Jerusalem Post'', May 22, 2008
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Huss, Boaz}} Category:1959 births Category:Living people Category:Academics from Jerusalem Category:Kabbalistic scholars Category:Academic staff of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Category:Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Category:Harvard University people Category:Western esotericism scholars