Joel Hecker, Ph.D.

Chair, Department of Modern Jewish Civilization; Associate Professor of Jewish Mysticism

215.576.0800, ext. 217
jhecker@rrc.edu

Joel Hecker, Ph.D., has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania; served as a visiting instructor at the University of Pennsylvania, the Jewish Theological Seminary and Yeshiva University; and lectured at a range of universities, a host of adult-education institutions and synagogues of all four major denominations.

He holds an Honors Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from the University of Toronto, rabbinic ordination and a Master of Science degree in Jewish philosophy from Yeshiva University, and a doctorate in Judaic studies, specializing in Jewish mysticism, from New York University.

Hecker is the author of Mystical Bodies, Mystical Meals: Eating and Embodiment in Medieval Kabbalah (Wayne State University Press, 2004) and has published widely on a range of themes in Jewish mysticism. Currently he is working on The Zohar: Pritzker Edition volume 11, a translation and commentary on the Zohar's mystical homilies on the Song of Songs, Ruth, and Lamentations. His scholarly interests include ritual, embodiment, and mystical experience and mystical techniques in the kabbalah, as well as the history of Jewish magic.