Hasidism
With the invasion of Alexander the Great into Asia (332 BCE), Jews came into contact with Greek thought, which did not leave them altogether unaffected. Judah had become tributary to Egypt, whither the Greek civilization was transplanted, and two parties, Hellenists and Hassidim arose; the Hellenists admitting philosophy as man's guide, and the Hassidim recognizing only the law of Moses (Torah).
The contemporary Hasidim, or "pious ones" in Hebrew, belong to a special movement within Orthodox Judaism. Each Hasidic group is centered on the teachings of a particular Rebbe, or charismatic spiritual master. Hasidic sects are usually named after the town where the Rebbe was from. Some Hasidim wear distinctive clothing. Hasidim may also be (and usually are) ultra-Orthodox and rigorously observant of Jewish law. Haredim (literally, "those who tremble" [i.e. from fear of God]) are ultra-Orthodox in belief and stringently observant in their fulfillment of Jewish law. There are Hasidim and Haredim both inside and outside Israel, and while superficially similar, they are in fact quite different. Some non-Hasidic Haredim are among the fiercest and most hostile critics of Hasidim, generally opposing the Rebbe-centric approach of Hasidim, as well as what they view as some Hasidic innovations or deviations from traditional Jewish law.
At its height in the first half of the nineteenth century, the movement claimed the allegiance of millions in Eastern and Central Europe. Like other religious revitalization movements, Hasidism was a call to spiritual renewal and a protest against the prevailing religious establishment and culture. The Hasidic ideal is to live a hallowed life in which even the most mundane action is sanctified. Hasidim live in tightly-knit communities centered around a rebbe, the community's political and religious leader.
The founder of the Hasidic movement, Israel B. Eliezer, best known by the name Baal Sham Tove, literally master of the good name, which the people gave him as a miracle-worker, was born about 1700 and died in 1760. The Ba'al Shem Tov founded Hasidism, the popular religious movement, in the western Ukrainian regions of Podillia and Volyn during the first half of the 18th century. He was not a reformer bent on annulling the rabbinical law or amending it; what he found fault with was not the observance or the study of the Law, but the spirit in which it was done. His aim was to revive spiritual religion in the hearts and lives of men.
The teaching and practice of Hasidism offered hope and dignity to a large portion of the Jewish population of Eastern Europe, particularly those who were looked down upon by the Jewish establishment of community leaders and scholarly rabbis because of their semi- literacy, ignorance of Jewish law, and poverty.
The Ba'al Shem Tov and his followers placed prayer and faith on an equal footing with scholarship and knowledge of the law. Thus, through a religious movement, a large Jewish underclass was recognized as a powerful and legitimate religious and social force. With Hasidism, even the ignorant could find divine grace in prayer with purity of heart, devotion, and enthusiasm.
Hasidism taught that God should be served with joy and happiness, thus the movement fostered a rich tradition of song, dance, and story telling. A corollary to this was the increased belief in wonder-working rabbis. These sages, known as Tsaddikim, continue to be revered by Hasidic Jews today, who especially venerate the ir graves and consider it a duty and privilege to visit and pray at the resting places of their revered teachers, many of whom lie buried in the Jewish cemeteries of western Ukraine.
Initially rejected and bitterly fought by adherents of the Orthodox status quo, Hasidism was gradually embraced by much of the Jewish population of all social classes. In many ways the movement reinvigorated Eastern European Judaism after the devastation of the 17th-century pogroms and the increasing polarization of Jewish society.
The ruling idea of Hasidism is the in-dwelling of God in nature and man. All things are pervaded by the divine life; nothing is void of God, for if we could imagine such a thing it would instantly fall into nothingness. God is in every human thought; when a man speaks he should remember that the divine speaks through him. He who does not see the world in the light of God separates the creation from the Creator, and he who does not fully believe in this universality of God's presence has never properly acknowledged God's sovereignty, for he excludes God from a part of the actual world. God did not make the world and then leave it to itself; creation is a continuous process, a perpetual manifestation of the goodness of God. Revelation also is continuous, and the organ by which it is apprehended is faith. It is not prophecies and visions alone that come from heaven, but every utterance of man, if rightly understood, conveys a word of God.
Since God is in all, there is good, actual or potential, in all. Every man should think humbly of himself and be slow to think ill of another. He should try to recover the erring and sinful by friendliness to them and prayer for them. No man has sunk so low in sin as to be incapable of raising himself to God. Sin is not positive but negative; it is imperfection. With asceticism Baal Shem had no sympathy; pleasures are manifestations of God's love, and, so regarded, are spiritualised and ennobled. Eating and drinking and sleeping, as well as study and worship, are the service of God, which for the truly religious man includes all life. The motive for fulfilling the ordinances of the Law is not to accumulate merit by multiplying observances, but to become one with God. The object of the whole Law is that man should become a law to himself. Of all means of spiritual attainment prayer is the most efficacious. The essence of prayer is not petition, though that has its place, but "cleaving" to God, a sense of oneness in which the consciousness of separate existence is lost, and man finds himself in the eternal being of God. This state is accompanied by an indescribable bliss, which is a necessary element of the true worship of God.
This pantheistic mysticism contains little that is specifically Jewish, though it conserves the outward forms and observances of Judaism. As in similar systems - in India, for example - men who had attained to the heights of this god-consciousness became to their fellows a kind of godmen. What such a man intuitively perceives is divine truth; his utterance of it has the authority of revelation. He lives the divine life among men in its life-giving power- Baal Shem is reported to have given to the words of Hab. 2, 4, the turn, "The righteous can make alive by his faith." "He is a source of blessing and a foundation of grace"; God's grace is bestowed upon those who love him, while those who do not believe in him are apostates from God. Besides all this, divine virtue resides in such holy men; they can work miracles, exorcise evil spirits, lay ghosts, and give many other tangible proofs of their supernatural powers. Such men were called Zaddikim, "righteous men." They enjoyed a reverence and devotion which would have turned even heads not prepossessed by a belief in their superiority to plain humanity. In the last half of the 19th century better education and the influence of the movement for enlightenment (Haskalah) had drawn away many of the younger generation from Hasidism.
The legacy of Hasidism remains especially strong through western Ukraine, with numerous sites associated with the movement's founders and the many revered successors. Some places in Ukraine, like Sadhora, were established as major Hasidic centers and attracted large numbers of devout Jews for generations. In the 1730s, the Ba'al Shem Tov stayed in the vicinity of Kosiv (then part of Poland) and this town later became an important Hasidic center. Kuty also had a strong Hasidic element. Jews owned eleven houses in the town of Sniatyn as early as 1592 and this town later developed as a Hasidic center. Sadhora, established in the 18th century, had a famous synagogue known as the "Great Shul" and became the seat of the rabbis known as "Ruzhiner." All of these towns had impressive Jewish cemeteries, parts of which still survive. Members of the Shnayer dynasty of Tsaddikim are buried in the town of Vynohradiv (Western Ukraine).
Rabbi Yoel (Yoelish) Teitelbaum (1887–1979) of Satmar was unquestionably chief among leaders of Haredi Jews in Hungary. Rabbi Yoel’s position regarding the Holocaust was extreme and exceptional compared to views held by other rabbis and spokespeople of the Haredi community. Yet the worldview he cultivated, coupled with his theological explanations of the Holocaust and its mystical meaning, drew a growing number of followers, in whose eyes he was the last remnant of a dying ideology. Rabbi Yoel’s contribution to assisting Jewish refugees and to the rescue of Transylvanian Haredi Jews was negligible. On the contrary, he warned any would-be immigrants to Palestine or other countries that they were in danger of severely harming their Haredi way of life. Moreover, he refrained from cooperating with the Zionists.
Menachem Keren-Kratz wrote "When put to the test, he chose to save himself clandestinely after his own congregation had already been incarcerated in ghettos and to abandon his followers in the time of their harshest adversity.... Criticism concerning his flawed conduct hounded Rabbi Yoel during the Holocaust and persisted thereafter. Therefore, Rabbi Yoel found himself compelled to explain, to himself possibly as well as to others, his objection to emigration to the United States and Palestine... [he argued] The Holocaust is God’s punishment of the Jewish people for its sins, and primarily for the sin of Zionism. The Zionist concept implied a denial of God’s ability to deliver his people and disrupted the natural place of the people of Israel, destined to remain exiled until the true deliverance.... The Zionists bear the blame for the Holocaust not only because of their ideological concept, but also because of their actions, which included: provoking Hitler and causing him to take revenge upon the people of Israel... The Holocaust was part of the redemption process. The Messiah’s advent, destined to occur during its course, was impeded by the Zionists’ actions and the intervention of Satan...."
The post-Holocaust Hasidim avoided being swallowed up by American culture. The strategies Hasidism have chosen for their survival has led them to reject many of the things which Americans take for granted; public schooling, sports, television, popular music, etc. Over the past fifty years Hasidim have discovered that it is indeed possible to be a Hasid even in America. Despite their best efforts, they have become American Hasidim.
After the destruction and decimation of many Hasidic dynasties in Europe during the Holocaust, the Hasidic sects of Satmar, Pupa, Vishnitz, Vien, Tzelem, Skver, Klausenberg and Spinka joined together under the umbrella of The United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and called Brooklyn their home. Satmar Hasids, a group of Hasidic Jews with East European roots, has strongly resisted assimilation into modern society. The Satmars, like the Brethren, eschewed much of the modern world and maintained a very isolated community.
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