Authors: Ada Rapoport-Albert
ISBN-13: 9781874774358, ISBN-10: 1874774358
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization
Date Published: January 1997
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Hasidism has been a seminal force and source of controversy in the Jewish world since its inception in the second half of the eighteenth century. Indeed, almost every ideological trend that has made itself felt among Jews since that time-from Zionism and Orthodoxy to contemporary Jewish feminism and movements within the yeshiva world-has claimed to have derived some inspiration from this vibrant movement. While this is sure testimony to its vitality and originality, it has also given rise to many misconceptions as to what hasidism is about.
This major work, the first comprehensive critical study of hasidism in English, offers a wide-ranging treatment of the subject in all its aspects by what is effectively the entire present generation of scholars working in the field. With contributions ranging from the history of theology and of ideas through social and economic history to contemporary sociology, Hasidism Reappraised encompasses a complete field of modern scholarship in a discipline that is central to the understanding of modern Jewish history and the contemporary Jewish world.
The twenty-eight authors who have contributed to the main body of the book are almost without exception established scholars with international reputations. The volume as a whole is dedicated to the memory of Joseph Weiss, and its opening section assesses his contribution to the study of hasidism in the context of his relationship with Gershom Scholem and Scholem's long-standing influence on the field. The remaining contributions are arranged thematically under seven headings: the social history of hasidism; the social functions of mystical ideals in the hasidic movement; distinctive outlooks and schools of thought within hasidism; the hasidic tale; the history of hasidic historiography; contemporary hasidism; and the present state of research on hasidism. The book also incorporates an extensive introduction that places the various articles in their intellectual context, as well as a bibliography of hasidic sources and contemporary scholarly literature.
Hasidism Reappraised shows an intellectual world at an important juncture in its development and points to the direction in which scholarly study of hasidism is likely to develop in the years to come.
Contributors: Jacob Barnai, Israel Bartal, Joseph Dan, Rachel Elior, Immanuel Etkes, Shmuel Ettinger, Morris M. Faierstein, Roland Goetschel, Arthur Green, Zeev Gries, Karl Erich Grözinger, Moshe Hallamish, Gershon David Hundert, Moshe Idel, Louis Jacobs, Jacob Katz, Naftali Loewenthal, Daniel Meijers, Yehoshua Mondshine, Gedaliah Nigal, Mendel Piekarz, Ada Rapoport-Albert, Moshe J. Rosman, Bracha Sack, Yoseph Salmon, Chone Shmeruk, Sara Ora Heller Wilensky, Elliot R. Wolfson
Notes on Contributors | ||
Introduction | ||
1 | Joseph G. Weiss: A Personal Appraisal | 3 |
2 | Joseph Weiss: Letters to Ora | 10 |
3 | The Conditions in Jewish Society in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Middle Decades of the Eighteenth Century | 45 |
4 | Social Conflicts in Miedzyboz in the Generation of the Besht | 51 |
5 | Hasidism and the Kahal in Eastern Europe | 63 |
6 | Hasidism after 1772: Structural Continuity and Change | 76 |
7 | The Hasidic Managing Editor as an Agent of Culture | 141 |
8 | The Zaddik: The Interrelationship between Religious Doctrine and Social Organization | 159 |
9 | The Paradigms of Yesh and Ayin in Hasidic Thought | 168 |
10 | Walking as a Sacred Duty: Theological Transformation of Social Reality in Early Hasidism | 180 |
11 | Hasidism and the Dogma of the Decline of the Generations | 208 |
12 | Personal Redemption in Hasidism | 214 |
13 | Hasidism as a Socio-religious Movement on the Evidence of Devekut | 225 |
14 | The Influence of Reshit hokhmah on the Teachings of the Maggid of Mezhirech | 251 |
15 | Torah lishmah as a Central Concept in the Degel mahaneh Efrayim of Moses Hayyim Ephraim of Sudylkow | 258 |
16 | The Teachings of R. Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk | 268 |
17 | Habad Approaches to Contemplative Prayer, 1790-1920 | 288 |
18 | The Fluidity of Categories in Hasidism: Averah lishmah in the Teachings of R. Zevi Elimelekh of Dynow | 301 |
19 | R. Naphtali Zevi of Ropczyce ('the Ropshitser') as a Hasidic Leader | 321 |
20 | New Light on the Hasidic Tale and its Sources | 345 |
21 | The Source Value of the Basic Recensions of Shivhei ha Besht | 354 |
22 | The Imprint of Haskalah Literature on the Historiography of Hasidism | 367 |
23 | The Historiography of the Hasidic Immigration to Erets Yisrael | 376 |
24 | Martin Buber and Gershom Scholem on Hasidism: A Critical Appraisal | 389 |
25 | Yitzhak Schiper's Study of Hasidism in Poland | 404 |
26 | Hasidism: The Third Century | 415 |
27 | Differences in Attitudes to Study and Work between Present-day Hasidim and Mitnaggedim: A Sociological View | 427 |
28 | Early Hasidism: Some Old/New Questions | 441 |
29 | The Study of Hasidism: Past Trends and New Directions | 447 |
Bibliography | 465 | |
Index | 493 |