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

18Forty Podcast

18Forty

Judaism, Religion & Spirituality

4.7 • 704 Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2025

⏱️ 108 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Check out our new series in partnership with SHARE, 18 Questions, 40 Jewish Mystics.

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

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi friends and welcome to the 1840 podcast where each month we explore different topic balancing modern sensibilities with
0:21.3	traditional sensitivities to give you new approaches to timeless Jewish ideas. I'm your host
0:26.9	Devon Bischefkin and this month we're continuing our exploration of Jewish mysticism, the ideas that
0:33.3	really ground the why of Judaism. This podcast is part of a larger exploration of those big,
0:39.6	juicy Jewish ideas. So be sure to check out 1840.org. That's 1-8-F-O-R-T-Y.org, where you can also
0:45.9	find videos, articles, recommended readings, and weekly emails. People who have been listening
0:51.3	to me for quite some time know that there are certain figures,
0:55.7	certain scholar, certain Torah thinkers, Torah educators who have had an unusual imprint on my own thought,
1:03.2	and I really try to transmit that to our audience.
1:06.6	Probably the name that I quote most frequently is Revzadadoq Haqoen Melublin, the great
1:12.5	Hasidic thinker who lived from 1823 to 1900. There is another figure who looms large in my life.
1:20.9	And I want to share that with you today for a host of reasons, first and foremost, because this
1:26.6	thinker, Rev Yitzhak Huttner, played a very
1:29.4	important role in building the bridge and the breath that I find so inspiring and illuminating
1:35.8	in Jewish thought and Jewish life. And also because his Yartzite, the day of his passing,
1:41.3	the day of his death, that's what the word Yartzite means.
1:46.0	It's one of the great Jewish words.
2:03.2	Secular world does not have a great parallel for the day of someone's death, the anniversary of death. So long as they say, died on this day, I think the best Jewish word is Yartzite, which is Yiddish. That is the anniversary of the person's death. and Ruf Hutner died on the 20th day of the Hebrew month of Kisleave that we are in,
2:01.6	which this year i believe falls out on december 9th 2025 the night
2:09.8	of december 9th is when the yurtzai begins that is the 20th of kislev but i want to share a little bit
2:15.6	about who he is and why specifically on 1840 do
2:19.9	I think the life of Ruf Huttner merits the attention of the contemporary Jewish world,
	...

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