Hasidism

The series ends in 18th Century Eastern Europe, with the rise of Hasidism. Dr. Fishbane contends that Hasidism is a form of modern Kabbalah focused on spiritual psychology and the devotional connection between humans and God. The kabbalah of Hasidism made mysticism more accessible to a broader audience with an explicit focus on the inner spiritual life of an individual.  

Show Notes

Kabbalistic Leaders 

  • Rabbi Yisrael ben Eliezer Ba’al Shem Tov (the Besht)—a healer, magician, mystic, and preacher in the Polish town of Mezhibozh in the mid-1700s (he died in 1760) 
  • Maggid Dov Baer of Mezritch 
  • Rabbi Nahman of Bratzlav (the great-grandson of the Besht)  
  • Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (the first Rebbe of Habad Lubavitch)  
  • Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev 

Transcript

Announcer: Welcome to Exploring Kabbalah—a JTS podcast with Dr. Eitan Fishbane, professor of Jewish Thought. Throughout this seven-part series, we’ll trace the evolution of Jewish mysticism—from Biblical and Rabbinic times, to the explosive creativity of the Medieval period, to the Hasidic movement in Eastern Europe. Join us for a tour through time and space in which Professor Fishbane provides insight into the thinkers, texts, and concepts that became central not only to the Jewish mystical tradition but to the fabric of Judaism itself. This is our seventh and final episode. We wrap up the series by exploring Hasidic mysticism in eighteenth-century Eastern Europe.

Dr. Eitan Fishbane: We continue our tour through the landscape of Jewish mysticism in the 18th century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the rise and flourishing of a mystical revivalist movement among the Yiddish-speaking, and mostly Hebrew-writing spiritualists of the movement that would become known as Hasidism.

Though certainly there was much important kabbalistic creativity and practice between 16th Century Tzefat, where we ended our last episode, and 18th Century Poland, given the necessarily selective nature of our overview, our focus will be directed to that remarkable mystical phenomenon of Hasidism that started out as a spiritual revival in contrast to more staid forms of devotion and went on to conquer the hearts and minds of Eastern European Jews in the 19th century. While it started as a spiritual revival, Hasidism evolved into the establishment and a movement that existed in tension with the rising tides of the Enlightenment and modernity.

Hasidic thought and practice should not be construed as a phenomenon separate from Kabbalah; rather, I argue, it is a form of modern Kabbalah, albeit much more focused on spiritual psychology and the devotional connection between the human being and God. As opposed to the fierce secrecy and more abstract thinking of earlier kabbalists referenced in this podcast, the kabbalah of Hasidism made various terms and ideas more accessible to a broader audience and more focused on the inner spiritual life of the person.

First centering on the personality and teachings of Rabbi Yisrael ben Eliezer Ba’al Shem Tov (the Besht)—a healer, magician, mystic, and preacher in the Polish town of Mezhibozh in the mid-1700s (he died in 1760)—then expanding to an increasingly widening circle of mystical teachers, early hasidism included such luminaries as the Maggid Dov Baer of Mezritch; Rabbi Nahman of Bratzlav (the great-grandson of the Besht); Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (the first Rebbe of Habad Lubavitch); and Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev; among a great many others.

Hasidic mystical thinkers developed an array of illuminating and inspiring spiritual ideas and practices that both built upon the core concepts of earlier kabbalah and charted new territory in imagining and guiding the spiritual life. Some of these insights, particularly a psychological approach to mysticism, still reverberate today among contemporary Jewish spiritual seekers.

Hasidic mysticism emphasized the radical immanentism of Divinity—the idea that the Presence of God is to be found in the here and now of Reality and in some cases that God is the Oneness of All Being. In early Hasidism, these theological ideas were most often expressed through the following three expressions:

  • מלא כל הארץ כבודו (His [God’s] Glory fills all the earth) A phrase drawn from Isaiah chapter 6;
  • אין עוד מלבדו (There is nothing [that exists] other than God) This is drawn from Deuteronomy chapter 4. In the original biblical context, the meaning is there is no God other than the Israelite God, but this expression articulates a pantheistic assertion.
  • לית אתר פנוי מניה (There is no place that is devoid of Him [God]) This line is drawn from the Zohar building upon an older rabbinic formulation.

Using these expressions, hasidic thinkers alternate between two ideas: that God fills all external reality as an energizing presence; and the more radical idea that all of being is a single organic whole, and that wholeness is God.

In addition to these bold ideas of God, the Hasidic masters also cultivated and preached about a higher spiritual awareness, often articulated in their teachings about prayer. The Baal Shem Tov and his disciples reflect on the difference between “small mind” or katnut and “Great Mind” or gadlut. In katnut we find a state of mental constriction in which the mystery of the divine presence is elusive. Gadlut occurs when the person in prayer may experience true transcendence, alignment with the sublime mystery of God. These terms—katnut and gadlut—are descended from intricate mythic ideas in earlier Lurianic Kabbalah where they expressed the inner workings of Divinity, but here hasidic mystics adapt these categories to apply to the inner life of the human being and their states of consciousness.

Within Hasidism, Katnut is the everyday state of mind in which the finite human being floats along upon the surface of perception, seeing things as simply ordinary, not feeling the connection to the transcendence of Divinity. By contrast, gadlut, Great or Expansive Mind, is the evanescent state of consciousness and feeling in which the person is able to achieve an exalted state of spiritual awareness — one they associated with devekut, a powerful connection to and unification with God.

 Another distinctive teaching of Hasidic mysticism is the practice of Avodah be-gashmiyut, worship through physicality, whether it be eating, bodily functions, business dealing, and so on. Avodah be-gashmiyut is about discovering God in ordinary material reality. This is also sometimes framed as uncovering the sparks of divinity within the shells of ordinary reality.

Next we turn to the concept of Hitlahavut, the flaming fiery passion of devotion in prayer and Torah study. The use of this concept and its implementation in ritual practice was central to the spiritual revivalist project of early Hasidism which emphasized joy, music, dance, and an intense meditative connection to God. In its earliest years, hitlahavut was one aspect of Hasidism that caused controversy especially from the yeshiva establishment of the time, led by the Vilna Gaon and his disciples who saw it as a departure from what they perceived to be proper decorum and seriousness in prayer and Torah study. That is not to say that the Hasidic approach was frivolous or lacking in seriousness. Instead it focused on passionate devotion and bold outward expression as a key to achieving closeness to God. Despite this early controversy and enduring division among segments of the Jewish community, Hasidism evolved from mystical revival to mass movement with expressions of hitlahavut at its center.

Part of this turn to spiritual revival in Hasidic mysticism stressed the significance of  the inner life of the person, often referred to as Penimiyut or inwardness. The Hasidic masters emphasize the cultivation of the inner spiritual life, rooted in the project of psychologization, the transformation of abstract ideas about God in the heavenly realms into the mystical psychology of each individual. Returning to the earlier concept of immanentism, this is yet another way of showing God’s manifestation in our world and in our innermost selves. This also involved the development of a mystical musar practice characterized by one prominent Hasidic preacher as the constant imperative to “work on oneself.”

To be a Hasid was and is to be a spiritual disciple of a specific spiritual master/teacher/guide within a shared community. One is a Hasid of a particular Rebbe, not simply a Hasid in the abstract. This is notably different from how the word hasid was used in earlier forms of Jewish pietism and spirituality, which simply referred to someone who was extremely pious. Hasidism understands this piety in relation to the figure of the of the Rebbe,  and the larger community of which he is the leader.  The rebbe was the center of communal life, with close disciples studying and learning with the rebbe, while members of the broader community would interact with the rebbe through public sermons or derashot. They would also come to the rebbe to request blessings related to the varied challenges and hopes in their lives.

There are three main genres of hasidic literature, the vast majority of which was written in Hebrew (as lashon ha-kodesh): 1) hanhagot, prescriptions for spiritual/moral/pietistic conduct; 2) the stories of the Hasidim, which preserve folktales about the rebbes and their communities; and 3) the aforementioned derashot —commentaries on the Torah and other sections of Tanakh and the holidays.  This reflected the often mystical teachings delivered in Yiddish to the disciples and frequently to larger audiences gathered around the seudah shelishit (shala-shudes) table of the Rebbe on late Shabbat afternoon. One such classic spiritual teaching in this genre is expressed by the famous preacher, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev:

In asking the question, why do we say “Yotzer Or uvorei hoshekh (who forms light and creates darkness),” a phrase found in the morning liturgy, in the present tense instead of the past tense, since supposedly God created these elements at the beginning of creation—Rabbi Levi Yitzchak answers, It is to teach us that God is always and forever creating the world anew each and every day, in each and every moment of time. God’s presence and life force is perennially flowing through us and being revealed to us.

In the thought of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak and other Hasidic masters, God is immanent in the world. Divinity fills all of reality and is not just something of the past, but a vital energy of the present, of the here and now.

Throughout this season, we have explored a range of ideas and practices that characterize the history of kabbalah and Jewish mysticism more broadly. These four themes cross the varied times and spaces that we encountered throughout this podcast.

First, mysticism in Judaism can be characterized as a mentality and state of awareness in which reality as it appears at first glance is not the ultimate truth; everything that we experience in the earthly realm (natural world, human self, Torah and Mitzvot) are all markers of deeper mysteries of the Divine. This is often described as the belief in an inner spiritual meaning that is encased in ordinary superficial perception.

Second, Jewish mysticism, like other religions, places great emphasis on the intuition and assertion that all of being is one interconnected whole. That oneness is God; God is the ALL of existence.

Third, Jewish mysticism articulates an intense yearning for the revelatory experience and develops varied contemplative and meditative techniques to achieve that state of consciousness

Fourth and finally, Jewish mystical thinkers emphasize the centrality of theurgy, the impact that human action and intention has upon the upper divine reality. This could be in drawing down the flow of energy from the upper to the lower realms or in their language reunifying seemingly fragmented dimensions of the inner Divine self. This action is pervasively referred to as Tikkun, repairing and impacting the nature of divinity.

While they placed an emphasis on secrecy and elitism, in terms of the evolution of Jewish thought, Kabbalah was fully integrated with central pillars of the life of mitzvot and Torah.

We have journeyed through a broad span of time and space (thousands of years and miles) in our exploration of Jewish mysticism, covering many of the highlights and conceptual pillars of the tradition. We have delved into the deeply important ways in which mystical thinking and practice has been a central pillar of Jewish civilization and creativity, and this tradition continues to be a source of inspiration for us today in the cultivation of the spiritual life. I hope through this podcast you have gotten a taste of the treasure of the Jewish mystical imagination that is an important legacy for us all.

Announcer: Thanks for listening to the Exploring Kabbalah podcast with Professor Eitan Fishbane, a JTS podcast. It was recorded and produced by Ellie Gettinger, JTS’s Director of Digital Learning. Editing assistance by Sarah Brown. I’m Rabbi Julia Andelman, JTS’s Director of Community Engagement. The music for this series is Yah Notein Binah, by sixteenth-century Kabbalist, Israel Najara from the album Seeds of Song produced by JTS. If you’ve enjoyed this series, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. For those who want to dig deeper, visit jtsa.edu/podcasts, where you’ll find sources, archival material, and more in the Exploring Kabbalah show notes, along with the complete library of JTS podcasts.

More by