Herbert Weiner

Herbert Weiner was an ordained American Reform^[1] rabbi in South Orange, New Jersey, and the author of The Wild Goats of Ein Gedi and Nine and a Half Mystics. Weiner is credited for introducing Jewish mysticism to many American Jews.^[2]

Herbert Weiner served as the founding rabbi of Temple Israel in South Orange, New Jersey. He also served as the first administrator of Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem.^[1]

Herbert Weiner's Nine and a Half Mystics, published in 1969, explores themes on Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism. Weiner also recounts his experiences with Jewish groups who incorporate the mystical tradition in their religious practice.^[3]

Weiner formed the book after visiting various Jewish communities in his search for Jewish mysticism.^[4] For many American Jews, Weiner's work was their first exposure to the Jewish mystical tradition.^[1][5]

Weiner's writings on Jewish mysticism help shape the Neo-Hasidic impulses among some American Jews. Rabbi Arthur Green, a leader in the Jewish Renewal movement and a proponent of Neo-Hasidism in general, was first exposed to Jewish mysticism by reading Weiner's Nine and a Half Mystics.^[6]

Weiner also authored a preface to neo-Hasidic guru Reb Zalman Schachter's Fragments of a Future Scroll: Hassidism For the Aquarian Age (Leaves of Grass Press, Germantown, PA: 1975).