Moshe Idel is Professor of Jewish Thought at theHebrew University of Jerusalem. He holds a Ph.D. in Kabbalah and has served as visiting professor and researcher at many universities and institutions worldwide, including Yale, Harvard and Princeton Universities in the USA and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. His numerous publications include Kabbalah: New Perspectives and Messianic Mystics (both by Yale University Press), and Hassidism: Between Ecstasy and Magic (SUNY, Albany). In 1999, Prof. Idel received the prestigious Israel Prize for excellent achievement in the field of Jewish Philosophy.