Andrea Gondos

My scholarship explores early modern and medieval kabbalah in conversation with Jewish cultural and intellectual history. I am particularly interested in how esoteric knowledge was preserved, transmitted, and reimagined in the premodern period. My recently published co-edited book, Life of the Soul: Jewish Perspectives on Reincarnation from the Middle Ages to the Modern Period (SUNY, 2024), explores wide-ranging theories Jewish mystics and philosophers have offered on the concept of reincarnation. My earlier research analyzed the literary characteristics of the medieval mystical classic, the Sefer ha-Zohar (Book of Enlightenment), and its popularization among Jews and Christians in the age of print. My first monograph, Kabbalah in Print: The Study and Popularization of Jewish Mysticism in Early Modernity (SUNY, 2020), examined how the technology of print influenced the popularization of kabbalah in the early modern period paying special attention to the literary strategies and pedagogic objectives authors pursued. My current book project centers on the gendered aspects of healthcare and wellbeing in early modern Jewish recipe books of magic and practical Kabbalah. In this monograph, I am particularly interested in uncovering the material aspects of Jewish magic by examining the types of healing strategies Jewish male miracle workers (Ba'alei Shem) deployed for the management and treatment of the female body and its reproductive functions.

Selected Publications:

Books:

·       The Life of the Soul: Jewish Perspectives on Reincarnation from the Middle Ages to the Modern Period, eds. Andrea Gondos and Leore Sachs-Shmueli (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2024).

·       Kabbalah in Print: The Study and Popularization of Jewish Mysticism in Early Modernity (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press), 2020.

Journal Editorship (Guest)

2025                 Special issue, “Repairing the Body, Restoring the Soul: Kabbalah, Magic, and Philosophy in Premodern Jewish Healthcare,” co-edited with Dr. Magdaléna Janošíková in Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 33.1 (2025): 1–175.

Articles:

·       “The Female Body and the Male Gaze: Magic, Kabbalah, and Medicine in Early Modern East-Central Europe,” Jewish Quarterly Review 115.1 (2025): 33–68. 

·       “The Secrets of Conception: Somatogenic and Magical Approaches to Love in Learned Medicine and East European Jewish Books of Secrets, Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 33.1 (2025): 110–150.

·       “Repairing the Body, Restoring the Soul: Kabbalah, Magic, and Philosophy in Premodern Jewish Healthcare,” with Dr. Magdaléna Janošíková, “Introduction” to Special Issue on ‘Jews and Medicine,’ Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 33.1 (2025): 1–11.

·       “Skin-Deep: Cosmetic Preparations, Bodycare, and Practical Kabbalah in Early Modern Jewish Books of Secrets.” The Jewish Quarterly Review 113.4 (2023): 579–585.

·       “Recipes for Safe Passage: The Magical Travel Chest of Itinerant Ba'alei Shem,” AJS Perspectives: The Travel Issue (Spring 2022): 56-58.

·     “‘To Know Everything:’ Encyclopedias and the Organization of Kabbalistic Knowledge.” European Journal of Jewish Studies 16 (2022): 1-27. 

·       “Decoding the Language of the Zohar: Lexicons to Kabbalah in Early Modernity.” AJS Review 45, 1 (2021): 24–47.