Hasidic Judaism

Hasidic Judaism (Hebrew: Chasidut חסידות, meaning "pious" from the Hebrew root word chesed חסד meaning "loving kindness") is a Haredi Jewish religious movement. It is also known as Hasidism, and the adjective Chasidic/Hasidic (or in Yiddish Chasidish חסידיש) is applied. It originated in Eastern Europe (Belarus and Ukraine) in the 18th century.

History

Prelude

In Poland, where since the sixteenth century the bulk of the Jewry had established itself, the struggle between traditional rabbinic Judaism and radical Kabbalah influenced mysticism became particularly acute after the Messianic movement of Sabbatai Zevi. Leanings toward mystical doctrines and sectarianism showed themselves prominently among the Jews of the southeastern provinces of Poland, while in the north-eastern provinces, in Lithuania, and in White Russia, rabbinical Orthodoxy held sway. Jews that follow this tradition are called Litvish (Lithuanian). This was due in part to the social difference between the northern Lithuanian Jews and the southern Jews of Ukraine. In Lithuania the Jewish masses were mainly gathered in densely populated towns where rabbinical academic culture (in the yeshibot) was in a flourishing state; while in Ukraine the Jews were more scattered in villages far removed from intellectual centers.

Related Topics:
Poland - Sixteenth century - Sabbatai Zevi - Lithuania - White Russia - Litvish - Ukraine

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Pessimism in the south became more intense after the Cossacks' Uprising under Bohdan Chmielnicki and the turbulent times in Poland (1648-60), which completely ruined the Jewry of Ukraine, but left comparatively untouched that of Lithuania. The economic and spiritual decline of the South-Russian Jews created a favorable field for mystical movements and religious sectarianism, which spread there from the middle of the seventeenth to the middle of the eighteenth century.

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Besides these influences there were deeply seated causes that 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 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, was not suitable to the bulk of the Jews.

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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. Its aim was 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.

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Israel ben Eliezer

The founder of Hasidism was Israel ben Eliezer, the Ba'al Shem Tov, also known 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 was said to at times successfully predict the future.

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To the common people, the Besht was 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 was not religious scholarship, but 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 Besht not only the common people, but also the scholars whom the rabbinical scholasticism and ascetic Kabbalah failed to satisfy.

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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 were transmitted orally, and were later recorded in the works of his disciples, who developed the disjointed thoughts of their master into a system. Besht himself did not write anything. Being a mystic by nature, he regarded his teachings as a prophetic revelation.

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The spread of Hasidism

Israel ben Eliezer's disciples attracted many followers; they themselves established numerous Hasidic sects across Europe. After the Beshts death, his cause was carried on by his followers, 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.

Related Topics:
Europe - Dov Ber of Mezeritch - Ukraine - Galicia - Poland - Belarus - Lithuania - Hungary - Western Europe - United States

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Hasidism gradually branched out into two main divisions: (1) in Ukraine and in Galicia and (2) in Lithuania. The first of these divisions was directed by 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. Elimelech of Lezhinsk affirmed that belief in Tzaddikism is a fundamental doctrine of Hasidism. In his book No'am Elimelekh he conveys the idea that the Tzadik ("righteous one") is the mediator between God and the common people, and 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.

Related Topics:
Elimelech of Lezhinsk - Levi Yitzchak - Menachem Nahum - Chernobyl - Tzadik - Shneur Zalman - Chabad

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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 was made hereditary. There was a multiplication of Hasidic dynasties contesting for supremacy.

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Opposition

Early on, a serious schism evolved between the Hasidic and non-Hasidic Jews. European Jews who rejected the Hasidic movement were dubbed by the Hasidim as Mitnagdim, (lit. opponents). Some of the reasons for the rejection of Hasidic Judaism was a novel emphasis on different aspects of Jewish law; even more problematic was the overwhelming exuberance of Hasidic worship; their untraditional ascriptions of infallibility and Miracle-working to their leaders, and the concern that it might become a messianic sect, which in fact had occurred among the followers of both Shabbatai Zvi and Jacob Frank.

Related Topics:
Europe - Jew - Mitnagdim - Jewish law - Miracle - Shabbatai Zvi - Jacob Frank

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Some other important differences between Hasidim and Mitnagdim included:

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• 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. Depending on how such a teaching is stated, this could constitute either pantheism or panentheism. In opposition many Jewish religious rationalists held such views 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, there was a rapprochement between Hasidic Jews and those who would soon become known as Orthodox Jews. The reconciliation was brought on by the even greater threat of the Haskala, or Jewish Enlightenment. Since then all the sects of Hasidic Judaism have been subsumed into Orthodox Judaism, particularly Haredi Judaism.

Related Topics:
Cherem - Orthodox Jews - Haskala - Haredi Judaism

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Since the Holocaust

During the Holocaust the Hasidic centers of Eastern Europe were destroyed. Survivors moved to Israel or America, notably Brooklyn, 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, and Bobov Hasidim.

Related Topics:
The Holocaust - Europe - Israel - Breslov - Lubavitch - Satmar - Ger - Belz - Bobov

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For years, the two "superpowers" of the Brooklyn Hasidic world were Satmar and Chabad -- based, respectively, in Williamsburg and Crown Heights. Despite being so similar in the eyes of other Jews, the two groups had a hostile relationship. Satmar was militantly anti-Zionist, while Chabad was supportive of Israel, though the Lubavitcher rebbe never visited Israel. Satmar also disdained Chabad's tendency to do outreach among non-observant Jews. Satmars were especially offended by Chabad's sending of "mitzvah tank" caravans into their neighborhood, as if they needed prodding to be observant. In recent years the tension has cooled, as has Satmar's overt opposition to Zionism, though it still opposes the current form of Israeli government as a secular democracy.

Related Topics:
Williamsburg - Crown Heights

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There has been significant revival of interest in Hasidic Judaism on the part of non-Orthodox Jews due to the writings of non-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish authors like Martin Buber, Arthur Green and Abraham Joshua Heschel. As such, one now finds some minor Hasidic influences in the siddurim (prayer books) of Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism.

Related Topics:
Martin Buber - Arthur Green - Abraham Joshua Heschel - Siddur

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