Hasidic Judaism: Encyclopedia II - Hasidic Judaism - History

Hasidic Judaism - History

Hasidic Judaism - Prelude

In Poland, where the bulk of Jewry had established itself since the sixteenth century, the struggle between traditional rabbinic Judaism and radical Kabbalah-influenced mysticism became particularly acute after the Messianic movement of Sabbatai Zevi in the 17th century. Leanings toward mystical doctrines and sectarianism showed themselves prominently among the Jews of the south-eastern provinces of Poland, while in the north-eastern provinces, in Lithuania, and in White Russia, rabbinical orthodoxy held sway. Jews who follow this tradition are called Litvish (Lithuanian). In part, this division in modes of thought reflected social differences between the northern (Lithuanian) Jews and the southern Jews of Ukraine. In Lithuania the Jewish masses mainly lived in densely-populated towns where rabbinical academic culture (in the yeshivot) flourished; while in Ukraine the Jews tended to live scattered in villages far removed from intellectual centers.

Pessimism in the south became more intense after the Cossacks' Uprising (1648 - 1654) under Bohdan Chmielnicki and the turbulent times in Poland (1648 - 1660), which completely ruined the Jewry of Ukraine, but left comparatively untouched that of Lithuania. The economic and spiritual decline of the Jews of what became southern Russia created a favorable field for mystical movements and religious sectarianism, which spread in the area from the middle of the seventeenth to the middle of the eighteenth century.

Besides these influences, deeply-seated causes produced among many Jews a discontent with rabbinism and a gravitation toward mysticism. Rabbinism, which in Poland had become transformed into a system of religious formalism, no longer provided a satisfactory religious experience to many Jews. Although traditional Judaism had adopted some features of Kabbalah, it adapted them to fit its own system: it added to its own ritualism the asceticism of the "practical cabalists" of the East, who saw the essence of earthly existence only in fasting, in penance, and in spiritual sadness. Such a combination of religious practises, suitable for individuals and hermits, did not suit the bulk of the Jews.

Hasidism gave a ready response to the burning desire of the common people in its simple, stimulating, and comforting faith. In contradistinction to other sectarian teaching, early Hasidism aimed not at dogmatic or ritual reform, but at a deeper psychological one. It aimed to change not the belief, but the believer. By means of psychological suggestion it created a new type of religious man, a type that placed emotion above reason and rites, and religious exaltation above knowledge.

Hasidic Judaism - Israel ben Eliezer

The founder of Hasidism, Israel ben Eliezer, also became known under the title of the "Master of the Good Name" (the Ba'al Shem Tov, abbreviated as the Besht). His fame as a healer spread not only among the Jews, but also among the non-Jewish peasants and the Polish nobles. He allegedly could sometimes successfully predict the future.

To the common people, the Besht appeared wholly admirable. Characterized by an extraordinary sincerity and simplicity, he knew how to gain an insight into the spiritual needs of the masses. He taught them that true religion consisted not only of religious scholarship, but also of a sincere love of God combined with warm faith and belief in the efficacy of prayer; that the ordinary person filled with a sincere belief in God, and whose prayers come from the heart, is more acceptable to God than someone versed in and fully observant of Jewish law. This democratization of Judaism attracted to the teachings of the Besht not only the common people, but also the scholars whom the rabbinical scholasticism and ascetic Kabbalah failed to satisfy.

About 1740 the Besht established himself in the Podolian town of Miedzyboz. He gathered about him numerous disciples and followers, whom he initiated into the secrets of his teachings not by systematic exposition, but by means of sayings and parables. These sayings spread by oral transmission; later the founder's disciples set them in writing, developing the disjointed thoughts of their master into a system. The Besht himself did not write anything. As a mystic by nature, he regarded his teachings as a prophetic revelation.

Hasidic Judaism - The spread of Hasidism

Israel ben Eliezer's disciples attracted many followers; they themselves established numerous Hasidic sects across Europe. After the Besht's death, followers continued his cause, especially Dov Ber of Mezeritch. From his court students went forth; they in turn attracted many Jews to Hasidism, and many of them came to study in Mezhirech with Dov Ber personally. Hasidic Judaism eventually became the way of life of the majority of Jews in Ukraine, Galicia, and central Poland; the movement also had sizable groups of followers in Belarus-Lithuania and Hungary. Hasidic Judaism came to Western Europe and then to the United States during the large waves of Jewish emigration in the 1880s.

Hasidism gradually branched out into two main divisions: (1) in Ukraine and in Galicia and (2) in Lithuania. Three disciples of Dov Ber of Mezeritch (Elimelech of Lezhinsk, Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev, and Menachem Nahum of Chernobyl), besides the grandson of the Besht, Baruch of Tulchin, directed the first of these divisions. Elimelech of Lezhinsk affirmed belief in Tzaddikism as a fundamental doctrine of Hasidism. In his book No'am Elimelekh he conveys the idea of the Tzadik ("righteous one") as the mediator between God and the common people, and suggests that through him God sends to the faithful three earthly blessings: life, a livelihood, and children, on the condition, however, that the Hasidim support the Tzaddik by pecuniary contributions ("pidyonim"), in order to enable the holy man to become completely absorbed in the contemplation of God. Lithuanian Hasidim followed Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, who founded Chabad Hassidism.

This teaching practically led to the contribution by the people of their last pennies toward the support of their tzaddik (rebbe), and the tzaddik untiringly "poured forth blessings on the earth, healed the sick, cured women of sterility," etc. The vocation of tzaddik became hereditary. A multiplicity of Hasidic dynasties contested for supremacy.

Hasidic Judaism - Opposition

Early on, a serious schism evolved between the Hasidic and non-Hasidic Jews. The Hasidim dubbed European Jews who rejected the Hasidic movement as Mitnagdim, (literally "opponents"). Critics of Hasidic Judaism:

• decried the novel Hasidic emphasis on different aspects of Jewish law;
• found even more problematic the overwhelming exuberance of Hasidic worship;
• distrusted as non-traditional Hasidic ascriptions of infallibility and Miracle-working to their leaders;
• expressed concern that Hasidism might become a messianic sect (which in fact had occurred among the followers of both Shabbatai Zvi and Jacob Frank)

Some other important differences between Hasidim and Mitnagdim included:

• Hasidism believed in miracle workers; they believed that the Ba'al Shem Tov and some of his disciples literally performed miracles. Stories of their miracles became a part of Hasidic literature. In opposition many Jewish religious rationalists held such views as heretical, based on classical rabbinic works such as Saadia Gaon's Emunoth ve-Deoth.
• The Hasidic way of dress was seen as a way to outwardly appear pious; this was opposed as improper.
• Chassidic philosophy (Chassidus) holds as a core belief that God permeates all physical objects in nature, including all living beings. This belief is understood by Hassidim in a panentheistic way that God is the animating force behind the universe. However many of the Hasidic teachings if taken literally and not in the way that those teachings are explained, can be misunderstood as pantheism. In opposition many Jewish religious rationalists viewed these writings literally, and their pantheistic understanding of them as being a violation against the Maimonidean principle of faith that God is not physical, and thus was seen as heretical.
• Chassidus teaches that there are sparks of goodness in all things, which can be redeemed to perfect the world. Many held such a view to be false and dangerous.

On a more prosaic level, other Mitnagdim argued that Jews should follow a more scholarly approach to Judaism. At one point Hasidic Jews were put in cherem (a Jewish form of communal excommunication); after years of bitter acrimony, a rapprochement occurred between Hasidic Jews and those who would soon become known as Orthodox Jews. The reconciliation took place in response to the perceived even greater threat of the Haskala, or Jewish Enlightenment. Since then Orthodox Judaism, and particularly Haredi Judaism, has subsumed all the sects of Hasidic Judaism.

Hasidic Judaism - Since the Holocaust

During the Holocaust anti-Semitism destroyed the Hasidic centers of Eastern Europe. Survivors moved to Israel or to America, notably to Brooklyn (New York), and established new centers of Hasidic Judaism. Some of the larger and more well-known Hasidic sects still extant include Breslov, Lubavitch (Chabad), Satmar, Ger, Belz, Vizhnitz, Sanz, Puppa, Munkacz, Spinka, and Bobov Hasidim.

For years, two "superpowers" of the Brooklyn Hasidic world existed: Satmar and Chabad — based in Williamsburg and in Crown Heights respectively.

A major Hasidic center also exists in fourth arrondissement of Paris, near the famous Jewish quarter of the rue des rosiers.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki