Authors: David Assaf
ISBN-13: 9780804744683, ISBN-10: 0804744688
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Date Published: June 2002
Edition: 1
David Assaf is Professor of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University. He is the editor of the English translation (from Yiddish) of Journey to a Nineteenth-Century Shtetl: The Memoirs of Yechezkel Kotik and the compiler of Bratslav: An Annotated Bibliography.
This is a poineering study of the 19th centruy Hasidic movement as shown through the life of one of its most controversial and influential leaders, Rabbi Israel Friedman of Ruzhin (1796-1850). The dramatic episodes of his life are echoed by the contradictory and highly critical opinions of his personal charachter and leadership.
Assaf (Jewish history, Tel Aviv U.) tells the story of the zaddik Rabbi Israel Friedman of Ruzhin (1797-1850), with its elements of human tragedy and dark mystery, as a lens through which to explore the hasidic movement's encounter with modernism in eastern Europe of the 19th century. The study began as a 1993 doctoral dissertation for the University of Jerusalem and was published in Hebrew as by Merkaz Shazar in 1997; two chapters have been dropped in the English translation. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Preface | ix | |
A Note on Translation and Transliteration | xiii | |
Introduction | 1 | |
I. | Method | 1 |
II. | On the State of Research and Hasidic Historiography | 8 |
III. | The Sources and Their Nature | 21 |
Part I | The Young Rabbi Israel | |
1. | "But I Was Never a Boy": Accession to Leadership | 31 |
I. | "That Child Understood Everything": Childhood | 31 |
II. | Rabbi Abraham of Pohorbishch | 33 |
III. | "I Myself Have No Time to Study": Adolescence | 35 |
IV. | The Power of Inferiority | 41 |
V. | Conclusion | 44 |
2. | "The Main Thing Is One's Own Distinction": The Argument over Succession | 47 |
I. | Hereditary Leadership and Schism in Nineteenth-Century Hasidism | 47 |
II. | "Ancestral Merit" or "One's Own Distinction"? | 51 |
III. | Ancestral Lineage in the Ruzhin Clan | 57 |
IV. | The Victory of the "Sons of Zaddikim" and Its Implications | 63 |
Part II | From Ruzhin to Sadgora: The Making of a Hasidic Leader | |
3. | "The Untrod Path": Emergence and Expansion | 69 |
I. | On the Throne of Leadership | 69 |
II. | From Pohorbishch to Ruzhin | 72 |
III. | Avenues of Expansion and Growth | 76 |
IV. | His Personality and the Secret of his Charisma | 81 |
V. | A New Mode of Worship | 89 |
VI. | Opposition | 94 |
VII. | Rabbi Israel as Seen by the Maskilim | 98 |
4. | "The Jewish Kingdom Is Falling": The Ushits Case | 105 |
I. | Informers and the Law of the "Pursuer" | 105 |
II. | The Murder Case and the Investigation | 108 |
III. | Historical Significance of the Ushits Case | 114 |
5. | "Princes Have Persecuted Me Without Reason": In Prison | 116 |
I. | The Imprisonment and Its Repercussions | 116 |
II. | Rabbi Israel versus Nicholas I | 121 |
III. | Affliction and Its Significance | 124 |
6. | The Fugitive: Flight from Russia | 128 |
I. | The Memoirs of Yossi Rath | 128 |
II. | Return to Ruzhin | 129 |
III. | Flight from Russia | 131 |
7. | "A Guest at the Inn": The New Court at Sadgora | 136 |
I. | The Danger of Expulsion and Legal Problems | 136 |
II. | "For I Have No Strength to Endure": Instability and Discontent | 144 |
III. | Between Center and Periphery | 147 |
IV. | The Geographical Context | 149 |
V. | Economic Consolidation: Purchase of the Potik Zloty Estate | 153 |
VI. | The Fame of the New Court | 156 |
8. | "Broken and Mortified": The Last Years | 163 |
I. | In the Evening of Life | 163 |
II. | The Zaddik's Death and Succession | 168 |
Part III | Rabbi Israel as a Hasidic Leader | |
9. | "The Law of People": Rabbi Israel's Approach to Communal Leadership | 175 |
I. | Between Rebbe and Rabbi | 175 |
II. | Appointments and Dismissals | 181 |
III. | "A Remedy to Aid Israel": Intercession for the Jewish Community | 187 |
IV. | Working for the Land of Israel | 202 |
V. | Conclusion: Rabbi Israel as a Leader | 209 |
10. | "All the Money in the World Is Mine": Visions of Wealth and Royalty | 212 |
I. | The Novelty of the Regal Way | 212 |
II. | The Claim of Descent from King David | 216 |
III. | "Hidden Worship": The Ideological Basis | 218 |
IV. | Objection to Self-Mortification | 225 |
V. | Criticism of the Regal Way | 228 |
VI. | Musicians and Singers, Carriages and Horses | 233 |
VII. | Wealth and Honor as a Religious Test | 238 |
11. | "The True Zaddik of the Generation": Rabbi Israel as Zaddik | 244 |
I. | The Question of Uniqueness and Superiority | 244 |
II. | On Messianism and Redemption | 255 |
III. | Objection to Wonder-Working | 261 |
Part IV | Rabbi Israel's Court | |
12. | "Like a Small State within a Large One": The Royal Court and Its Members | 267 |
I. | The Sources and Their Nature | 267 |
II. | The Physical Framework | 269 |
III. | Social Aspects | 278 |
13. | "Money for Household Expenses": Economic Aspects of the Hasidic Royal Courts | 285 |
I. | Zaddikism as a Profession | 285 |
II. | The Meaning of the Pidyon | 288 |
III. | The Cost of the Pidyon and Methods of Amassing a Fortune | 292 |
IV. | The Zaddik's Travels | 296 |
V. | The Ma'amadot Taxes | 299 |
VI. | Concessions and Privileges | 303 |
VII. | The Decline of the Hasidic Royal Court | 307 |
14. | "Under One Tent": The Hasidim and Their Zaddik | 310 |
I. | The Pilgrimage to the Zaddik | 310 |
II. | Access to the Zaddik | 315 |
III. | Around the Zaddik's Grave | 321 |
Afterword: Dynamic Adaptation to a Changing World | 325 | |
I. | Rabbi Israel of Ruzhin as an Object of Biographical Research | 325 |
II. | Stagnation versus Innovation in Ruzhin Hasidism | 327 |
III. | Decline of the Generations or the Power of Inferiority? | 330 |
IV. | The Hasidic Court in an Era of Upheaval | 334 |
Notes | 341 | |
Glossary | 409 | |
Works Cited | 413 | |
Indexes of Names, Places, and Subjects | 445 | |
Alternate Forms of Place Names | 455 |