Chasidim Just Laugh

Deuteronomy Press is excited to announce the publication of Chasidim Just Laugh, from the late Rabbi Menachem Froman.

Translated from the Hebrew original, Chasidim Just Laugh contains a collection of reflections, aphorisms, and teachings from one of the most extraordinary Israel thinkers and spiritual leaders in recent decades.

With accompanying commentary and stories about Rabbi Froman, this edition provides the English-language reader with a highly accessible but thought-provoking overview of his essential thought on Jewish-Arab relations, Israeli society, marriage and relationships, faith, doubt, joy, religion, ritual, and so much else.

160 pages, soft cover; book dimensions: 6″ x 9″

Includes 16 pieces of original art by Hagai Halbertal, the highly talented student of Rav Froman, made exclusively for this book.

BIO

A modern-day mystic, a maverick Rabbi, a messianic figure. The late Rav Menachem Froman has been called all three. The chief Rabbi of the Israeli settlement town of Tekoa was a lightning-rod of controversy throughout his public life at the nexus of both the settler and peace movements and has defied easy categorization ever since. Hailed by The New York Times as an “Old Testament seer,” Rav Froman remains as relevant as ever to the present day. As Chasidim Just Laugh makes clear, in the ten years since his untimely death, his thought has become no less original, profound, confrontational, surprising – and vital.

Praise for Chasidim Just Laugh

“Everyone who knew Rav Menachem experienced a different facet of his being. Settlers and leftists, Orthodox and secular, poets and politicians: in some sense he belonged to them all. In an Israel that resorts to easy categories to manage its bewildering diversity, Menachem Froman was defiantly, joyfully, a category of one.”
—Yossi Klein Halevi

“This book provides the English Torah public with an intimate glance into the thoughts and emotions of one of the pioneers of Hasidut Eretz Yisrael, the unique approach to Hasidism, combined with the thought of Rav Kook z’l, which in recent decades has made great inroads in the Religious Zionist community in Israel and beyond. Read this book thoughtfully, but not too seriously. At the end of the day, if you don’t agree with something, just laugh it off as a good Hasidic joke.”
—Rabbi Dr. Zvi Leshem, Director of the Gershom Scholem Collection at the National Library of Israel

“With spiritual and intellectual sensitivity, translator Leah Hartman and editor Levana Chajes have successfully captured not only Rabbi Menachem’s words but also his unique spirit.Thanks to Deuteronomy Press, this work is an important step towards making Rabbi Menachem’s teachings accessible beyond the Hebrew-speaking world. Readers will not only become acquainted with Rabbi Menachem’s pearls of wisdom but will also hear the Hasidic laughter and participate in the theatrical yet serious play that characterized his religious and political existence.”
—Mordechai Miller, a fellow at Ben Gurion University

Yeshivat Otniel at Night by Hagai Halbertal