What is Hasidism?

when people think of hasidism or the hasidic movement they usually conjure up images of men in black hats and clothing and very strict religious practice the sometimes called ultra orthodox jews are featured in netflix series in movies etc and are as i said associated with very strict and and conservative you could say religious practices what many people don't know is that the hasidic movement is also a deeply mystical tradition steeped in the tradition of kabbalah and other forms of jewish mysticism this is a very broad topic and the hasidic movement is of course a lot more complex than what i have described just now but in this video we will be focusing on exploring the earliest developments and in the origins of the hasidic movements its practices its theological and metaphysical ideas and what characterizes it as well as discussing of course the founder you could say of this moment who was one of the most fascinating figures in the history of judaism [Laughter] [Applause] [Music] shaman peripatetic healer soothsayer heretic jewish holy man these are all labels that have at one point or another been attached to rabbi israel ben elizer also known as the baal shem tov or simply the best the name baal shem tov means master of the good name and the title balchem was given to certain people who used prayers incantations herbs and other techniques that some might call magical or quasi-magical most people don't associate such notions to jewish practice but history and reality is of course more complex than that and in this sense the best was not all that unique what was unique was how well he caught on with his community and the movement known as khasidism that he jumpstarted a movement that is still huge in the jewish world today and is even growing now hazardism today looks quite different from the hasidism of the 18th century when it originated and there aren't many aspects of the vast literature of hasidic thoughts that are truly set in stone doctrines as with many other observant jewish communities debate and study feature prominently though in its earliest stages not as prominently as the surrounding community so to outline just one fixed form of quote-unquote hasidism would give us a very narrow view which doesn't really correspond to to well reality also each hasidic master has expounded his own thoughts on a variety of topics and introduce new and dynamic ideas and scholars still hotly debate the characterization of the movement in general therefore it would probably be an impossible task to appease everybody with this episode but i will try to highlight some of the characteristic features of early hasidism as represented by the baal shem tov and his immediate successors born probably in 1698 in the small backwater town of occupy in what was then podolia which is now southwestern ukraine the balshem tov was not set up for success in the jewish world no great rabbis or scholar lived near him as i mentioned he wasn't that notable of a figure and in fact his early life is shrouded in relative mystery what we do know is that sometime in the 1730s the best embarked on a spiritual retreat in the carpathian mountains working as something called a line digger and during this time he is also said to have had some significant spiritual experiences when he returned he settled in the village of mitsubishi the village with which he would become more strongly associated he seems to have been received quite well there garnering a large following and even coming to be employed by the town as a kind of residential capitalist if you don't remember or haven't watched my earlier episodes on the kabbalah the kabbalah is a form of jewish mysticism that emerged primarily in iberia and in southern france in the middle ages associated with literary works like the zohar very famously and by the time of the baal shem tov and his life kabbalah was deeply intertwined with all of religious thought and practice and had been so for a couple of centuries at that point and indeed this is very important to remember that the baal shem tov and the hasidic movement in general comes out of this kabbalistic environment and and very deeply steeped in the tradition of kabbalah and jewish mysticism as the sort of in-house catalyst in matsubish the balshem tobe had his own minyan a group of 10 followers which was required to hold a prayer service and he was paid a salary it was from this position that he came to touch the hearts and souls of his disciples garnering modest but enthusiastic support from devoted pupils hailing from other parts of podolia galatia russia and other areas this is significant of course but it wasn't until the generations following his death that the bash's teachings would explode into the multinational movement that made it famous as is sometimes the case with people like him the baal shem tov didn't produce many writings of his own he transmitted orally his parables and homilies both trademark forms of hasidic interpretation it was his disciples perhaps most notably rabbi yaakov youssef of polnoy that gave us clear recordings of rabbi israel's teachings through these largely second-hand sources we get a picture of the besht's thought while very innovative in certain areas it is deeply steeped in a background of lurianic kabbalah a form of kabbalah developed by the thinker yitzhak luria in the 16th century an understanding of that background and of that kind of kabbalah is kind of necessary to grasp the complexities of the balsham tov's mystical ideas and endeavor the best borrowed from luria a dynamic understanding of the spheroids or emanations of the divine as well as the concept of divine sparks hidden inside the shells or vessels he greatly adapted luria's understanding of the sin sum or the divine contraction that is when the insof or the infinite so the ainsof is a common name for god the absolute form of god in kabbalah and this word ainsof means the infinite and in luriana kabbalah there is this very famous idea of the tsimsum which means contraction that when when the ainsworth when god in his absolute form wants to create something he has to contract within himself right he has to create a space within his infinite nature in which the world is created where he can sort of emanate the light that becomes eventually the created worlds and different thinkers including the baal shem tov have interpreted this idea of tim tsum differently of course but still is a very central and important part of lurianic kabbalah that is also very prominent in the hasidic movements and their metaphysical ideas he and his disciples also in some regard adopted the concept of gilgal or reincarnation in his messianic ideas along with many other important lyrianic innovations two of the main themes associated with bastian and hasidic theology is what we could call an imminentist conception of god as well as a kind of monistic cosmology to the baal shem tov god was not this transcendent otherworldly being that many other jews conceived of instead god or more specifically the shrina what professor shall maggot called the divine indwelling in nature was present in the world the shrina is usually conceived of as the last of the ten spherot as well as a kind of divine feminine principle but what we see in early hasidic literature is a sort of blurring of the harsh dividing lines between different spherot on the one hand and parts of the godhead now mapping out this cosmic realm while hugely important to medieval capitalists and dogma to traditional eastern european jews of the 18th century was not nearly as important to the balshem tov as experiencing the divine for the khasid god is not apart or holy transcendent from us but with us quote one must always think that the creator fills the earth with his glory one should consider that when he looks at physical things it is as if he is beholding the which is within him here in a sense god is paradoxically both transcendent and imminent his infinitude does not just mean he's way out there in the traditional transcendent conception god is not only the whole of the universe encapsulating it and all the other worlds out there but here as well within everything and within us this personalized inner quality of god is perhaps as we will see later the most important notion that the baal shem tov brings to the fore such an all-encompassing idea of divine imminence is central to hasidic theology it has often been labeled pan and theistic a concept meaning all in god so sort of a qualified version of pantheism all is god rabbi shnoor zalman of liadi the founder of the khabad movement which is its own big sub movement within hasidism takes this idea even a step further than the best in writing that quote his very essence and being may he be blessed which is called by the name einstoff completely fills the earth both in space and in time everything is filled with the light of the insolve now in traditional kabbalah as i said insofa is usually characterized as a hidden unknowable god that is somehow apart and transcendent from our world and that actually contracts out or contracts a space outside of himself in this process known as timsum this is one interpretation at least here however rabbi schneer solman is claiming that this unknowable god that we cannot perceive or even really talk about is here in our world instead of a physical symptom or contraction out of the world what scholars call an ontological conception of the process schneer zalman gives us an epistemological conception his idea of tim tom is in the words of alan nadler called a deliberate act of self-eclipse or concealment from human consciousness rather than an actual delimitation or contraction of the divine essence and spirit per se us humans cannot fully grasp or fathom the glory and essence of the ain't serve so he delimited himself in stages emanating these sphero that become less and less hidden or hard to fathom each time dove bed of matsurish also called the market of mercedes the great margin or simply marget and probably the best most important disciple gives a similar idea of tim tom as a process of ainsurf lessening its complexity so that we can understand it the laws of the torah becomes a sort of simple guidebook to steer us in the right direction since we can't actually grasp the god itself in the form of ainsof in its absolute form so to say in any case it is clear that instead of the harsh distinction between the profane world that we live in and the divine world of the godhead which arguably characterizes much of lyrianic kabbalah otherwise the baal shem tov sees god as being here present in our world in a very profound and direct sense and that this god can actually be reached this imminent god can be reached through certain spiritual exercises this is where perhaps the most important hasidic concept comes into play the idea of devakut the word is usually translated as cleaving to god or union or communion with god and it has a wide range of uses in the hasidic and even just the bastian literature for the baal shem tov de vekut is a deeply personal experience one cleaves to god by moving inward and cultivating what the best calls inner awe through certain spiritual exercises and forms of prayer the idea of cleaving to god or devakut of ascending through the cosmos and interacting with higher spheros is not unique to the best of course neither is the idea of moving upwards through the four worlds or hola mode it is the way the best proposes one ascends through these worlds who is allowed to do it and the prominence in the primary place that it takes in his general practice that is indeed revolutionary and that did become a point of major contention for many jews at the time first we have to consider that the best contemplative and prayer-based practices form the backbone of debit codes however he doesn't have a comprehensive handbook on the topic but rather a series of shorter teachings that have been collected from throughout his life a major part of the bahasa spiritual practice is the process of making or unifications there are generally three yehudim and with each one the practitioner rises to a new olam or world menachem outlines the altered state of consciousness one achieves with each quote the first involves contemplative awareness of the integral relationship of everything that exists within manifest creation all beings human and animal all life forms including the ignorant making a yehud means not only recognizing how all things are interconnected but specifically including oneself within that web of manifest existence from this gross level of integration one proceeds to ascend to enter more deeply into contemplative awareness of nishamut this level involves imaginal or angelic forces and powers as well as other souls that may appear within one's own consciousness at a subtle level one must then ascend to the level of recognition of elohuth as the causal itself here one encounters and integrates the highest spheres or swerot they are located at the very deepest levels of manifestations accessible to human consciousness effectively integrated within divinity itself making yechudim however is not simply a contemplative practice the practitioner prays very slowly paying attention to his breath while visualizing a quote flow of spiritual empowerment it is said that the best prayed so slowly and for so long that his disciples often could not stand it and would walk out of the synagogue in exhaustion devicuts however is not just meant for powerful heavy spiritual experiences one can and indeed should try to integrate or experience divakute on a daily or everyday basis even throughout the day while performing normal activities one can contemplate the shrina and the torah quotes even when talking to people bear in mind that the 22 letters that constitute the means of common speech are ultimately the substratum of the torah the barshem 12 also insists that even though one may be in a state of constricted consciousness known as katemoth where one can't fully focus on the divine one can still achieve the vakuts even in this state he writes quote when one is in constricted consciousness it should also be with adherence to the shrina so contemplating the shrina or the torah is also a kind of device although a smaller one compared to the very dramatic way of making that i described just previously much like abraham abulafia who i've already made an episode about the best even speaks of reaching devakut by focusing on hebrew letters one focuses on the core the sort of inner meanings of these letters contemplating them and understanding not just their external aspects but their essence the spherot with which they have connections and other lessons that can be drawn from them what the baal shem tov hoped to draw from these exercises was an authentic devotion to god and to the mitzvot the commandments of god in the torah or the jewish law indeed the word khasid means pious and the baal shem tov took his commitment to piety very seriously authentic prayer true inner piety and a yearning for profound mystical experience are paramount to hasidic practice the best cared about the genuineness of prayer not just going through the motions as such if you truly have a fear of god you can commune with god himself you don't pray because it will help you in the community or because you think it will result in some sort of financial gain or whatever you do it quote because of his omnipotent rule the upshot of this commitment to genuineness in prayer was a lessening commitment to the traditional formalities of the prayer service the hasidim introduced a new model of prayer centered on the stibul a small center of worship that featured lively prayer as well as very ecstatic exclamations and experiences the khasidim's focus on inner authenticity and spiritual ascendance however did run counter to the core of what we could call traditional quote-unquote judaism at the time which was a strict studying of the torah now that isn't to say that the baal shem tov didn't consider studying the torah to be a central part of judaism of course he did and he integrated this into the well became the hasidic movement as well of course but it doesn't have you could say the same primacy it's not as emphasized in the hasidic movements as it was for some other jews at the time and it wasn't just the baal shem tov's emphasis on devekut rather than intense study that angered many other jewish authorities but also his ideas about who could achieve this now traditionally the kabbalah and mystical experiences were kind of reserved for the very elite intelligentsia or the elite scholars there it is said that traditionally to study the kabbalah you had to be 40 years old you had to be married and have children you had to know the entire torah and talmud there were many restrictions on who could even begin to study the kabbalah and so the baal shem tov's idea is that anyone can reach devote in other words anyone can reach this experience of cleaving or uniting with god that was quite a new idea at this time this democratization of kabbalistic practice was quite shocking of course and could in a way disrupt the entire social structure of judaism as such at the time we must be clear however that the baal shem tov certainly did not espouse a total spiritual egalitarianism far from it actually he claimed to be on a higher spiritual plane and therefore uniquely capable of deep mystical experience this idea continued in the generation following the besht's death through the idea of this sadiq or the righteous one these sadiquim were seen as being more spiritually evolved and served as leaders thus an alternate power structure kind of emerged based not on intelligence and devotion to study but on spirits and charisma this too threatened the traditional community and its social structure during the life of the baltimore himself however this was not that much of a threat to the jewish community as such since the hasidic movement at this time was quite a small affair it garnered followers here and there but did not really have any kind of central authority other than the baal shem tov himself the baal shem tov died in 1760 and it was only in the generations following his death that the hasidic movement really started to gain some ground the basham tells closest disciples with significant figures like jacob yosef of ponoy d'or bear the margaret of mesrich and pinchas shapiro of cortez ushered the new hasidic movement into a new era and helped it spread across eastern europe in fact the movement exploded across europe capturing the hearts and minds of many especially younger jews despite its many radical innovations khasidism was sort of just accepted or at least tolerated in most places but in lithuania the story was very different some of the jewish authorities in lithuania specifically a man named elijah ben solomon zalman better known as the vil nagaon launched a vicious multi-year attack against the khasidim the gown wrote a series of polemics throughout the latter part of the 18th century directed against the encroaching hasidim in one he writes quote the stubborn hearts insist on rejecting good and choosing evil transgressing the torah and changing its laws in the torah of moses they have established a new covenant working out their evil schemes with the masses in the house of the lord interpreting the torah falsely while claiming that their way is precious in the eyes of god they call themselves khasidim that is an abomination how they have deceived this generation uttering these words on high these are thy gods of israel every stick and stone clearly there's a lot of exaggeration here he's writing polemically he is clearly as i usually say in this episode he's not a fan of the hasidim and thus he writes these kinds of things as we've seen the hasidim did not deny the importance of the torah they held the torah as a very central part of religious practice just like every other jew but it shows that there was some kind of tension especially in lithuania apparently about the hasidic movement there was a fear that the hasidim were secret practitioners of sabatianism a 17th century jewish messianic movement centered on the figure of shabtsvi that led many jewish to break certain laws of the torah in hopes of redemption if you don't know about shabtai sv he was a jewish figure who claimed to be the messiah in the 17th century and actually managed to get probably the majority of jews around the world to believe that he was indeed the messiah and started this massive movement until suddenly one day he converts to islam which completely was a bombshell in the entire community and when we look at the hasidic movements and its appearance in europe we also have to see it in the light of the aftermath of this massive event this was a traumatic event for the jewish world at the time and the hasidic movements kind of emerges as a not necessarily as a response to it but definitely as a result partly of the environment that that trauma kind of created you would think that these worries from some of the other jewish authorities came from perhaps the khasidim's use of lyrianic kabbalistic ideas but indeed when we look at for example the gowans who wrote the polemical quote that i just read to you he was also actually devoted capitalist and when we look deeper we can see that the theological differences between the khasidim and its enemies so to say weren't really that major at all the situation was a lot more complex than that allah nader writes that quote there was virtually no substantive theological difference between in their respective theoretical understandings of the nature of divine imminence where they did differ was on the place and application of this belief in religious life and the propriety of propagating it to the jewish masses thus it was the practice the prayers and the social organization that angered some jewish authorities not theological differences per se the tensions got so bad that in 1771 when an epidemic hit vilna causing the deaths of many of its jewish citizens there were riots against the khasidim they were blamed for this epidemic they were some of them were flogged and forced out of town despite the gown's best efforts however the hasidic movement spread far and wide new hasidic masters developed their own theologies and courts to which wide-eyed students would flock for advice and wisdom over the next few generations these courts became true destinations with communities forming around them and their associated rebates or rabbis they eventually came to follow a dynastic model whereby a close relative of the irabe would take over upon the former's death this system is largely in place today even though many hasidim have moved to america or israel so what was so appealing about the hasidic movement to so many people around the world and this is probably of course a complex question to answer but one could guess that at least one aspect of its popularity stem from the fact that it gave a more personal relationship to god and one's religious practice as well as a relatively egalitarian attitude where everyone was able to reach the most deepest mystical experiences and intimacy with god that did away with some of the more hierarchical structures that only allowed certain elite people to have access to the kabbalah and to the what some consider as the deeper aspects of the religion this instead allowed for a wider group of people to be invited to the secrets so to say of of of jewish mysticism and then khasidism in general or in particular i should say one of the biggest contributions of these movements are the twin ideas of ayin and yesh often translated as nothingness and suchness ain is very similar to einstoff and in fact ayin and ain are essentially the same word as einsof is an idea born out of a negative theology in other words explaining what god is through negations one can't say anything about what god is in a positive sense one can only describe god but by what he isn't that is that's what apathetic or what negative theology means ain could be described as a notion born from negative ontology it is a sort of nothingness that is necessary for yesh or creation to occur it pervades and links everything anyway it is sort of like dark matter a mysterious stand-in for what we can't comprehend about the universe ain is also however a goal it is self-annihilation to reach ain is in the markets formulation a goal of devekut james jacobson myself writes that quote one who has achieved ayin has achieved equanimity an indifference to the vagaries of life and an absence of self-concern achieving ain means realizing both the unity and equivalence of everything in the world as well as its essential non-value as the margat himself teaches quotes a person must consider himself nothing they must abandon themselves and forget their suffering in order to come to the world of thought where everything is equivalent this is not the case when he is cleaving to the corporal reality of this world and quotes in both cases some including the important scholar rivka schatz offenheimer have used this concept to claim that hasidism is at its core a quietest movement focused primarily on contemplation the great scholar of jewish mysticism gershom sholem went in a different direction claiming that khasidism is essentially world denying viewing our life in a rather pessimistic light but many scholars today have pushed back against these conceptions including james jacobs and maycells and moshe edel claiming that hasidism and its specific spiritual practices are in fact activists and fundamentally world affirming in this model hazardism calls upon its adherence to find deeper connections to the world and other people and thereby also finding a deeper connection with god in this episode we have only discussed the earliest developments and origins of the hasidic movements some of its basic theological ideas and practices i'm doing this video in collaboration with my good friend zevi from the channel seekers of unity he will be making a video releasing today as well depending on when you're watching of course but still he'll be making a sister video to this one which i know i've seen it it's absolutely amazing you should watch that zevi is a fantastic educator on youtube and especially when it comes to this subject he has a personal connection to the hasidic movements having grown up in this kind of environment which i of course haven't so i definitely encourage you to go watch his video to see a very thoroughly scholarly perspective very objective so to say as much as possible but also very importantly from a kind of inside perspective which i think is always very valuable in these kinds of discussions so go watch zavi's video go subscribe to his channel he's doing amazing work i really love his channel and the videos that he's putting out so i highly recommend that after you've watched this video of course today the hasidic movement is a very significant force in the jewish world they exist in many parts around the globe very famously for example in israel of course but also in new york the hasidic movements are often strongly associated with the so-called ultra orthodox or more properly called the hadidim which are very strictly observant jews famous for some other attire for example and these two terms the hasidi or khasidim and the haredim are sometimes synonymous even though they of course aren't synonymous completely but this shows you that the the fact that the hasidic movement or khasidism is a deeply mystical tradition it is steeped in jewish mysticism and kabbalah and yet it is very strict for the most part in its conception and practice of jewish law and interpretation of the torah for example it's another good example to show that this very modern nuagey kind of interpretation that mysticism is always some kind of liberal kind of hippie thing as opposed to strict religion when in fact for most of history that's basically the opposite of the truth that mystics are sometimes more often some of the most strict people in terms of religious practice and in this case law for example we see this in many other religions like islam and christianity too with that said there's of course a lot of nuance and diversity here as well but i think that's a good point to keep in mind at the very least in any case if you want to understand judaism today you cannot do so fully without also knowing about the hasidic movements and in this episode i have attempted to give you at least a simple overview of the earliest developments and ideas of this very interesting jewish tradition it stands as one of the most significant and important aspects of judaism in the world today and is of course as i hope you will agree at this point is very fascinating and intriguing on various different levels too thank you for watching and i will see you next time thank you to seth weapon for writing this episode and a special shout out as always to all of my patrons who keep this channel going thank you all so much [Music] you

Channel: Let's Talk Religion

Views: 224,373

Keywords: What is Hasidism, Hasidism, Hassidism, Chassidism, Hasidic movement, Jewish mysticism, Haredim, Ultra Orthodox Jews, Orthodox Judaism, Pantheism, Panentheism, mystical judaism, Monism, Baal Shem Tov, Chabad, Religion, Let's Talk Religion, Judaism, Jewish history, Hasidism explained, religion Europe

Id: qi9JW95P1T8

Length: 33min 12sec (1992 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 08 2021