Hasidism
Description
This is the first comprehensive history of the pietistic movement that shaped modern Judaism. The book's unique blend of intellectual, religious, and social history offers perspectives on the movement's leaders as well as its followers, and demonstrates that, far from being a throwback to the Middle Ages, Hasidism is a product of modernity that forged its identity as a radical alternative to the secular world.
Hasidism originated in southeastern Poland, in mystical circles centered on the figure of Israel Ba'al Shem Tov, but it was only after his death in 1760 that a movement began to spread. Challenging the notion that Hasidism ceased to be a creative movement after the eighteenth century, this book argues that its first golden age was in the nineteenth century, when it conquered new territory, won a mass following, and became a mainstay of Jewish Orthodoxy. World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the Holocaust decimated eastern European Hasidism. But following World War II, the movement enjoyed a second golden age, growing exponentially. Today, it is witnessing a remarkable renaissance in Israel, the United States, and other countries around the world.
Written by an international team of scholars, Hasidism is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand this vibrant and influential modern Jewish movement.
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Content
List of Illustrations and Maps vii
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
Note on Spelling, Transliteration, and Annotation xi
Introduction: Hasidism as a Modern Movement 1
Section 1-Origins: The Eighteenth Century
PART I BEGINNINGS
1 Hasidism's Birthplace 17
2 Ba'al Shem Tov: Founder of Hasidism? 43
3 From Circle to Court: The Maggid of Mezritsh and Hasidism's First Opponents 76
PART II FROM COURT TO MOVEMENT
4 Ukraine 103
5 Lithuania, White Russia, and the Land of Israel 118
6 Galicia and Central Poland 141
PART III BELIEFS AND PRACTICES
7 Ethos 159
8 Rituals 183
9 Institutions 222
Section 2-Golden Age: The Nineteenth Century Introduction: Toward the Nineteenth Century 257
10 A Golden Age within Two Empires 262
PART I VARIETIES OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY HASIDISM
11 In the Empire of the Tsars: Russia 291
12 In the Empire of the Tsars: Poland 332
13 Habsburg Hasidism: Galicia and Bukovina 359
14 Habsburg Hasidism: Hungary 387
PART II INSTITUTIONS
15 "A Little Townlet on Its Own": The Court and Its Inhabitants 403
16 Between Shtibl and Shtetl 429
17 Book Culture 457
PART III RELATIONS WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD
18 Haskalah and Its Successors 477
19 The State and Public Opinion 502
20 The Crisis of Modernity 530
21 Neo-Hasidism 556
Section 3-Death and Resurrection: The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
Introduction: The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries 575
PART I BETWEEN WORLD WAR I AND WORLD WAR II
22 War and Revolution 579
23 In a Sovereign Poland 597
24 Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Romania 623
25 America and the Land of Israel 637
26 Khurbn: Hasidism and the Holocaust 652
PART II POSTWAR PHOENIX: HASIDISM AFTER THE HOLOCAUST
27 America: Hasidism's Goldene Medinah 677
28 The State of Israel: Haven in Zion 707
29 Hasidic Society 740
30 Hasidic Culture 770
31 In the Eyes of Others: Hasidism in Contemporary Culture 793
Afterword by Arthur Green 807
Annotated Bibliography 813
About the Authors 847
Index 849
