“If we can have, say, feminist or Marxist or poststructuralist readings of great texts, we can have Chasidic readings of them whether or not they have any explicit Jewish content

If we can have, say, feminist or Marxist or poststructuralist readings of great texts, we can have Chasidic readings of them whether or not they have any explicit Jewish content. There is no reason — none — why we cannot read Shakespeare through a Chasidic or Jewish lens any less than we would read him through a Marxist or feminist or any other modern lens.

And precisely because Chasidic (and Jewish) thought can engage with any civilization’s greatest productions, it also means that the experience of great literature or philosophy in and of itself can be a Jewish spiritual practice. Mastering such a practice would certainly be demanding, because it would require knowledge (both intellectual and intuitive) of great Jewish texts. But all profound spiritual practices are demanding….

Jonathan Zasloff, “Proust was (Almost) a Chasid”, Jewish Journal (12-18 February 2016), 33.