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Buber versus Scholem and the Figure of the Hasidic Jew: A Literary Debate between Two Political Theologies

Hannan Hever

in Jews and the Ends of Theory

This chapter looks at one of the most famous and significant debates in Jewish studies: between Gershom Scholem and Martin Buber over the character of Hasidism. On the face of it, the debate was a ... More

This chapter looks at one of the most famous and significant debates in Jewish studies: between Gershom Scholem and Martin Buber over the character of Hasidism. On the face of it, the debate was a literary one, centering on the significance of the Hasidic tale and its role in the interpretation of the Hasidic movement. It was a debate between two conceptions of Hasidism, one as a system of theological concepts, and the other as a way of life. Yet this debate was not merely historicist, but topical and political as well. For in this debate, Buber and Scholem negotiated the question of Jewish sovereignty and endeavored to determine the desired relationship between Jews and the state.Less

The Gaon versus Hasidism

Eliyahu Stern

in The Genius

This chapter discusses Elijah ben Solomon's opposition to the eighteenth century eastern European Hasidic movement. Elijah became an ardent opponent of the movement. He even accused the leaders of ... More

This chapter discusses Elijah ben Solomon's opposition to the eighteenth century eastern European Hasidic movement. Elijah became an ardent opponent of the movement. He even accused the leaders of Hasidic movement of Sabbatian tendencies. It explains that the Hasidic movement was established by the charismatic spiritual leader Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem. This movement minimized the legalistic, elite intellectual and ascetic elements in the Jewish tradition and promoted God's imminence, prayer, spiritual ecstasy, and popular social practices. Elijah opposed the Hasidic principle that humanity could access the Divine only through the medium of the Torah, which he viewed as a dangerous overestimation of the individual's ability to communicate with God.Less

Conclusion: Tracing the Maiden

Nathaniel Deutsch

in The Maiden of Ludmir: A Jewish Holy Woman and Her World

This chapter addresses the traces made in writing by the Maiden of Ludmir. Throughout the process of writing, the Maiden has remained an elusive subject. It is tempting to see her as a pioneer in the ... More

This chapter addresses the traces made in writing by the Maiden of Ludmir. Throughout the process of writing, the Maiden has remained an elusive subject. It is tempting to see her as a pioneer in the struggle for Jewish women's spiritual empowerment. One of the most striking and, for the biographer, frustrating aspects of the Maiden's life is that she does not appear to have written anything herself. She is popularly known as the only “woman rebbe” in history. The Maiden's story can be read as a powerful metaphor for two contrasting and competing modes of spiritual leadership within the Hasidic movement. There is little knowledge on how the Maiden felt about her new life in Palestine.Less

:Trance and the Nomian

in Shamanic Trance in Modern Kabbalah

This chapter argues that shamanic trance often seems in contexts of a markedly nomian nature. The Hasidic movement can be shown as a prime example of the intimate link between trance experience and ... More

This chapter argues that shamanic trance often seems in contexts of a markedly nomian nature. The Hasidic movement can be shown as a prime example of the intimate link between trance experience and nomian practice. The placement of trance within a graduated path explains the prevalence of the rabbinic ladder of ethical and nomian progression in Kabbalistic texts on trance. The nomian practice of immersion should be demonstrated as a crucial aspect of the daily mystical regimen of the central Hasidic figures, and that of other kabbalists, such as the Sephardic masters. It is immersion that differentiates the identity of the Hasidic path from antinomian mystical deviations such as Sabbateanism. The cultural determination of trance and other shamanic moments in mystical life reinforces the “contextual” school in the understanding of mystical experience, without negating the value of comparative study.Less

Hasidism

Louis Jacobs

in Hasidic Prayer

This chapter discusses the meaning of Hasidism and the history of the movement. The Hasidic movement was born in the Jewish communities of Volhynia and Podolia during the eighteenth century. The ... More

This chapter discusses the meaning of Hasidism and the history of the movement. The Hasidic movement was born in the Jewish communities of Volhynia and Podolia during the eighteenth century. The chapter shows that despite the fiercest opposition on the part of the Jewish establishment, Hasidism spread quickly. Fifty years after the death of its founder, R. Israel b. Eliezer (d. 1760), known as the Baal Shem Tov (‘Master of the Good Name [of God] ’), the movement had succeeded in winning over half the Jewish population of Russia and Poland — the great centres of Jewish life in the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries. Indicative of its hold over the masses is the fact that the upholders of the status quo were very soon referred to as Mitnaggedim (‘opponents’), implying that they, and not the Hasidim (singular, Hasid), were obliged to be on the defensive.Less

From the Historical Besht to the Usable Besht: The Image of the Ba’al ShemTov in Early Habad

Moshe Rosman

in Founder of Hasidism: A Quest for the Historical Ba'al Shem Tov

This chapter analyzes the image of the Besht as a man who fit in with the institutions, doctrines, and practices of his time. It points out how the Besht was considered a religious or social activist ... More

This chapter analyzes the image of the Besht as a man who fit in with the institutions, doctrines, and practices of his time. It points out how the Besht was considered a religious or social activist and a near-ignoramus or profound thinker. Nearly all the standard accounts made the Besht into a religious revolutionary who established something new and virtually unprecedented. His accounts were perceived as doctrinal and institutional constellations that quickly coalesced into the new Hasidic movement. The chapter highlights the image of the Besht that emerged around the Lubavitch, or Habad, Hasidic court at the time of its transition from the generation of its first zaddik, Shneur Zalman of Ladi, to its second, his son, Dov Ber of Lubavitch.Less

Hasidic Prayer in the Responsa

Louis Jacobs

in Hasidic Prayer

This chapter examines some rabbinic responsa relating to Hasidic prayer. Alongside R. Ezekiel Landau, multiple prominent rabbis who were either opposed or neutral to the growing Hasidic movement in ... More

This chapter examines some rabbinic responsa relating to Hasidic prayer. Alongside R. Ezekiel Landau, multiple prominent rabbis who were either opposed or neutral to the growing Hasidic movement in the eighteenth century issued several responsa regarding Hasidism. The chapter thus takes up responsa regarding a wide variety of subjects relating to Hasidic prayer, including the appropriate garments for prayer, the use of individuals for officiating, the issue of taking meals before prayer, and even which prayer book to use. In doing so, this chapter reveals a long series of dialogue and response from multiple rabbi. These shed light on many different views regarding Hasidic practice at the time.Less

Raphael Mahler. Hasidism and the Jewish Enlightenment. Translated from the Yiddish by Eugene Orenstein, translated from the Hebrew by Aaron Klein and Jenny Machlowitz Klein. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America. 1985. Pp. xiv, 331.

Ada Rapoport-Albert

in Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 1: Poles and Jews: Renewing the Dialogue

This chapter reflects on Raphael Mahler's Hasidism and the Jewish Enlightenment (1985). This is a welcome addition to the slowly growing body of classic studies of Hasidism in English translation. ... More

This chapter reflects on Raphael Mahler's Hasidism and the Jewish Enlightenment (1985). This is a welcome addition to the slowly growing body of classic studies of Hasidism in English translation. The first part of the book, concerning Galicia, was first published in Yiddish in 1942. The second part, which deals with Congress Poland, appeared together with the first in an expanded Hebrew version in 1961. An avowed subscriber to ‘the method of historical materialism’, Mahler presents the clash between Hasidism and Haskalah as ‘the antithesis that reflected the conflicting interests and philosophies of two classes of the Jewish people’. The non-Hasidic Orthodoxy of Galicia is classified in this scheme as representing the same class interests as those associated with the Maskilim, an affinity which, according to Mahler, accounts for the Enlighteners' initial hope of aligning themselves with the Orthodox opponents of Hasidism in the campaign to eradicate the socially disruptive and religiously dissenting Hasidic movement.Less

Jewish Diglossias—Differential and Integral

in From Continuity to Contiguity: Toward a New Jewish Literary Thinking

This chapter discusses the Hebrew–Yiddish diglossia, which underwent drastic changes that gradually but thoroughly changed its character, starting in the second half of the eighteenth century. Two ... More

This chapter discusses the Hebrew–Yiddish diglossia, which underwent drastic changes that gradually but thoroughly changed its character, starting in the second half of the eighteenth century. Two developments triggered the change: the gradual replacement of Yiddish by non-Jewish languages (German, French, Dutch, Italian) in western Europe (Germany, Alsace-Lorrain, North Italy, Holland, Switzerland) and the advent of the Hasidic movement in eastern Europe. Whereas the former gradually nullified the status of Yiddish as the spoken vernacular of western Ashkenazic Jewry, as well as that of its written language serving the religious-ritualistic needs of women and popular homiletic and entertainment literature, the latter toppled the equilibrium of the diglossia by assigning to Yiddish a role it had hardly played before—that of a “holy” Jewish language in its own right, in which sacred literature—hagiographic, allegorical, and narrative was written.Less

The Narcissism of Small Differences?: Rituals and Customs as Hasidic Identity-Markers

Gadi Sagiv

in Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 33: Jewish Religious Life in Poland since 1750

This chapter highlights the problematic nature of every attempt to characterize the diverse Hasidic groups, schools of thought, and sects, which comprise the Hasidic movement. It talks about three ... More

This chapter highlights the problematic nature of every attempt to characterize the diverse Hasidic groups, schools of thought, and sects, which comprise the Hasidic movement. It talks about three well-known Hasidic leaders: ’the Yehudi,’ Simhah Bunem of Pshiskhe, and the Rabbi of Kotsk, who are generally considered founders of the distinctive Pshiskhe–Kotsk school but differed greatly in their respective spiritual orientations. It also explains Hasidism as a collection of distinct and often conflicting groups that comprises one charismatic leader each, who usually belongs to a dynasty of hereditary leaders. The chapter discusses the awakening of the collective consciousness of belonging to one movement among the disciples of the Magid of Mezeritsh. It describes the fragmented structure of the movement that was inherent from its earliest formative period.Less