Hasidism and Modernity

1. Hasidism and Modernity

2. Study This: • where did the Hasidic movement emerge? • what were the main characteristics that made this a new movement in the Jewish community? • what is the difference between Hasidic Jews (from 17th-19th century) and today's ultra-orthodox, or haredi, Jews, who are descendants of Hasids but are actually ultra-orthodox? • how do haredi Jews practice Judaism today? • what is a yeshivah? what do they study there? how is it different than how we are studying Judaism in academic circles?

3. Contents • FRAME: Medieval vs Modern vs Post Modern • Origins of Hasidism • Controversy I • Effects of the Holocaust • Hasidic Diaspora and Renewal • Present-day Hasidim • Controversy II

4. Contents • FRAME: Medieval vs Modern vs Post Modern • Origins of Hasidism • Controversy I • Effects of the Holocaust • Hasidic Diaspora and Renewal • Present-day Hasidim • Controversy II

5. Characteristics

6. Christians and Jews [1] Stories about massacre victims who had been buried alive, cut to pieces, or forced to kill one another spread throughout Europe and beyond. These stories filled many with despair, and resulted in a revival of the ideas of Isaac Luria, and the identification ofSabbataiZevi as the Messiah.[17]

7. Christians and Jews [1] Stories about massacre victims who had been buried alive, cut to pieces, or forced to kill one another spread throughout Europe and beyond. These stories filled many with despair, and resulted in a revival of the ideas of Isaac Luria, and the identification ofSabbataiZevi as the Messiah.[17]

8. Contents • FRAME: Medieval vs Modern vs Post Modern • Origins of Hasidism • Controversy I • Effects of the Holocaust • Hasidic Diaspora and Renewal • Present-day Hasidim • Controversy II

9. OriginsIsrael benEliezer

10. Born 1698 in village of Okopy [@various times a Polish/Ukrainian/Russian] 70 miles W of Warsaw

11. Bio • Orphan • Daycare worker • Shammes • Married – wife died • Teacher/arbitrator • Ephraim of Brody/Chana • Secret studies of mystical texts • Mysterious stranger • Laborer clay and lime - Carpathian Mountains – peasants and plant lore • Shochet, innkeeper

12. Miracle Workers - 1 • Talmud • Honi the Circle Drawer (Rain) • HaninabenDosa (Prayer) • Middle ages and into early modern period • Miracle workers by the hundreds • Healing the sick, casting out demons. • Journeying from lower realm (where we live) to upper realm to intercede with heavenly powers (courts, God as King)

13. Miracle Workers - 2 • THE Master of the Good Name BeSHT • Kabbalists use the names of God, the names of the angels, and significant passages of Torah for practical magic: to protect women during childbirth, or to drive away demons that cause illness. 

14. Bio - 2 • Home-base Brody; a healer & preacher, wandering from town to town • Moved to ‘urban’ medzribozh • Change in tactics • “court,” disciples, scribes

15. What the BeSHT preached • To the rural populations of Poland, the BeSHT preached a story-based Torah, rather than a study based-Torah: • God is in everything • Duty to Cleave to God (Dveikut) • Ecstatic (Hitlahavut) prayer • Union with God; ever growing recognition of God • Joy

16. Aphorisms of the BeSHT • Your fellow is your mirror. If your own face is clean, so will be the image you perceive. But should you look upon your fellow and see a blemish, it is your own imperfection that you are encountering - you are being shown what it is that you must correct within yourself.

17. Aphorisms of the BeSHT • Cleave with devotion to your words. Slander murders 3: the person slandered, the teller, and the listener. This is all in spiritual terms, which is more severe than physical murder.

18. Aphorisms of the BeSHT • Every single thing that a person sees or hears, is an instruction to him in his conduct in the service of G‑d.

19. How the BeSHT preached • Niggunim (wordless melodies) • Niggun of the Alter Rebbe • Magical tales and mystical stories with simple morals that showed the spiritual value of simple lives filled with God • Ecstatic (Hitlahavut) prayer, filled with joy, characterized by shockling • Focused Kavannah(intention)

20. Hasidic tales about the BeSHT • Journey with the BeSHT(Chabad.org)

21. BeSHTian Time Warp53 miles from Brody to Poznan

23. Died 1760 in the Ukranian city of Medzabizh [also var. Rus/Polish/Uke]

24. What the BeSHT accomplished • Spiritual revolution - Democratization of Jewish spirituality (contrast with traditional Kabbalah study) • Folk magic, a spiritual economy more satisfying than prayer alone and more accessible than study • Simple revelation of mystical truths in the form of parables • A Jew is joyful and loving in the midst of hardship because all is God.

25. Contents • FRAME: Medieval vs Modern vs Post Modern • Origins of Hasidism • Controversy I • Effects of the Holocaust • Hasidic Diaspora and Renewal • Present-day Hasidim • Controversy II

26. Mitnagdimvs Hasidim

27. What the opponents preached • Mitnagdim [“the opponents”] • Vilna Gaon, leader of Lithuanian Jews • Urban populations, yeshivas, more affluence • Divinity emanates from God to us – a filtration or trickle down theory • Rote piety, precision in prayer, asceticism • Talmud study as a way to God

28. Dynastic Diaspora

29. After the BeSHT Hasidism spread across Poland to the Ukraine and on to Russia, Romania, and Hungary.

30. After the BeSHT • A lineage of powerful Rabbis who carried on his work, wrote down his words, and built up the numbers of Hasidim • R Dov Bear of Mezriz • CHANGES: • Tzaddik - Charismatic Rebbe became central, rather than the theological innovations of Hasidism • Dynasties (and corruption …)

31. Contents • FRAME: Medieval vs Modern vs Post Modern • Origins of Hasidism • Controversy I • Effects of the Holocaust • Hasidic Diaspora and Renewal • Present-day Hasidim • Controversy II

32. The Remnant in Diaspora • 15% of all Polish Jews survived, and an even smaller number of Hasidim. • YaffaEliach, in Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust, tells the story of the arrival in New York of Rabbi Israel Spira, the Grand Rabbi of Bluzhov, in 1946. An American G.I. translated for him into Yiddish the lines on the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." • The rabbi listened intently and wiped a tear from his eye. There he was, the lone survivor of his family; his beard was burnt off, his head and body still covered with open wounds from beatings... He placed his hand on the G.I.'s shoulder and said, 'My friend, the words you have just translated to me are indeed beautiful. We, the few survivors coming to these shores, are indeed poor, tired, and yearning for freedom. But we are no longer masses. We are remnants, a trickle of broken individuals who search for moments of peace in this world, who hope to find a few relatives on these shores.

33. Settling in the US Williamsburg - • Satmar • Klausenberg Crown Heights- • Lubavitch Boro Park • Bobover • Munkach • Ger • Belz • Stoliner

34. Contents • FRAME: Medieval vs Modern vs Post Modern • Origins of Hasidism • Controversy I • Effects of the Holocaust • Hasidic Diaspora and Renewal • Present-day Hasidim • Controversy II

35. Lubavitch

36. Lubavitch

37. Lubavitch

38. Who inherits Hasidic legacy? • Modern Hasidism, also known as Ultra-Orthodox or Haredi Jews? • A present day Hasidic wedding • Exclusionary, very rigid and legalistic, honoring of study, but also capable of joy, cutting loose and celebrating • Pluralistic Modern Orthodoxy? • Adheres to Orthodox doctrine but allows Jews of all denominations to study in their yeshiva, with men and women together; not so much on the ‘joy’ side. Also legalistic. • Yeshiva Jewish studies vs academic Jewish studies • Jewish Renewal movement? • Cross-denominational. • Chabad outreach to students by ShlomoCarlebachand ZalmanShachter-Shlomi • Shlomoreacts to the Holocaust

39. Contents • FRAME: Medieval vs Modern vs Post Modern • Origins of Hasidism • Controversy I • Effects of the Holocaust • Hasidic Diaspora and Renewal • Present-day “Hasidim” • Controversy II

40. Ultra Orthodox • Gender segregated prayer, learning and ritual space • Unequal educational opportunities for women; secular education for all is limited • In Israel, on Ultra Orthodox bus lines, women sit at the back of the bus • Birth rate is high, population is growing

41. Traditional 18th c. Sabbath garb

42. Everyday garb - Tzitzit

43. Everyday (for prayer) - Tefillin The boxes contain … … verses of Torah.

44. Everyday (for prayer) - Tefillin Ashkenazi Wrap

45. How to Lay Tefillin The Tefillin Booth

46. Jewish Renewal • Unaffiliated, undisciplined, appeals to old hippies and young activists • Not at all ‘observant’ in a traditional sense, but you’ll see more renewal-niks wearing tefillin than Conservative Jews. • ZalmanShachter-Shalomi on the difference between a movement and a denomination

47. What’s odd about this picture?

48. Contents • FRAME: Medieval vs Modern vs Post Modern • Origins of Hasidism • Controversy I • Effects of the Holocaust • Hasidic Diaspora and Renewal • Present-day Hasidim • Controversy II

49. Pick an issue … • Gay marriage and ordination • Women’s ordination • Israel’s treatment of Palestinian population • Ethics • Madoffponzii scheme • Agriprocessors (Kosher meat debacle) • Sexual misconduct of rabbis; no training as counselors or pastoral caregivers

50. Review • where did the Hasidic movement emerge? • what were the main characteristics that made this a new movement in the Jewish community? • what is the difference between Hasidic Jews (from 17th-19th century) and today's ultra-orthodox, or haredi, Jews, who are descendants of Hasids but are not "hasids" but are ultra-orthodox? • how do haredi Jews practice Judaism today? • what is a yeshivah? what do they study there? how is it different than how we are studying Judaism in academic circles?