In his treatise Nefesh ha-Ḥayyim, the outstanding Russian rabbinic scholar and educator Ḥayyim of Volozhin (1749–1821) presented a kabbalistic theology of Judaism. In his review of Avinoam Fraenkel’s English translation of this work, Alan Brill writes:

In contrast to ḥasidic thinking, Nefesh ha-Ḥayyim situates Torah study over prayer and piety (without, of course, rejecting either).The most famous idea from Nefesh ha-Ḥayyim is about the talmudic obligation to study Torah . . . “day and night.” . . . [According to] Nefesh ha-Ḥayyim, the Talmud’s intent is that one should maximize the actual time spent studying because of study’s mystical effect on the cosmos. Most contemporary yeshiva students do not know that the source for this approach is the Zohar [the principal work of kabbalah], not the Talmud. . . .

The greater availability of Nefesh ha-Ḥayyim [in English] will correct the widespread [and] mistaken view that its author, and the opponents of Ḥasidism in general (known as Misnagdim), advocated Talmud study without concurrent emphasis on kabbalah, the attainment of moral perfection, and worship. . .

Nefesh ha-Ḥayyim has not played a large role in American Jewish thought or in the [highly influential work] of the great scholar of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem. However, the work was translated into French in 1986 by Benno Gross and has played a significant role in modern French thought, where it has been used to derive Jewish ideas of cybernetics and semiotics. In several of his essays, the French-Jewish philosopher Emamnuel Levinas cites Nefesh ha-Ḥayyim to explain the need to transcend the self for infinite confrontation with divine will.

Addressing a recent meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Committee, Mahmoud Abbas criticized Hamas more sharply than he has previously (at least in public), calling them “sons of dogs.” The eighty-nine-year-old Palestinian Authority president urged the terrorist group to “stop the war of extermination in Gaza” and “hand over the American hostages.” The editors of the New York Sun comment:

Mr. Abbas has long been at odds with Hamas, which violently ousted his Fatah party from Gaza in 2007. The tone of today’s outburst, though, is new. Comparing rivals to canines, which Arabs consider dirty, is startling. Its motivation, though, was unrelated to the plight of the 59 remaining hostages, including 23 living ones. Instead, it was an attempt to use an opportune moment for reviving Abbas’s receding clout.

[W]hile Hamas’s popularity among Palestinians soared after its orgy of killing on October 7, 2023, it is now sinking. The terrorists are hoarding Gaza aid caches that Israel declines to replenish. As the war drags on, anti-Hamas protests rage across the Strip. Polls show that Hamas’s previously elevated support among West Bank Arabs is also down. Striking the iron while it’s hot, Abbas apparently longs to retake center stage. Can he?

Diminishing support for Hamas is yet to match the contempt Arabs feel toward Abbas himself. Hamas considers him irrelevant for what it calls “the resistance.”

[Meanwhile], Abbas is yet to condemn Hamas’s October 7 massacre. His recent announcement of ending alms for terror is a ruse.

Abbas, it’s worth noting, hasn’t saved all his epithets for Hamas. He also twice said of the Americans, “may their fathers be cursed.” Of course, after a long career of anti-Semitic incitement, Abbas can’t be expected to have a moral awakening. Nor is there much incentive for him to fake one. But, like the protests in Gaza, Abbas’s recent diatribe is a sign that Hamas is perceived as weak and that its stock is sinking.