How Hasidic Judaism Began
Below is a script I wrote for BimBam, a Jewish Educational Media Company.
Hasidic Jews are known to many as those quirky people walking in the center of Brooklyn in the dead of summer, in silk kaftans, big fur hats and 17 kids in tow. They look like they came straight out of the 18th century, and to understand who they are, that’s exactly where you need to start. It all began with a single man, who lived in Eastern Europe, the Baal Shem Tov. He travelled around as a practical Kabbalist - selling herbs, blessing houses and crops, producing amulets, providing all sorts of spiritual advice, doing exorcisms, and living a life free of many possessions.
He spoke of how to elevate the soul, you don’t have to fast or go to the Mikva every day, you can just live your life in joy, free from sad pietistic rituals.
He introduced Kabbalistic rituals into everyday life, saying, “There is nothing that doesn’t have a divine spark in it.” You do. I do. That tree outside does. He spoke of how we need to redeem the sparks and return them to God by finding truthful meaning in every thing and everyone.
He didn’t have a Yeshiva or thousands of students tending to him. He just traveled, as all of the Kabbalists travelled back then. His disciple, Rabbi Dov Bear, the Maggid of Mezritch, changed the tradition of a traveling Kabbalist because he had bad legs. Instead, people came to see him. And his disciples became the great leaders of Hasidim.
It was around these disciples that the movement emerged, passed from father to son in law. While In 1772 there were 30 or 40 active Hasidic thinkers, by the 1800’s, Hasidic thought captured all of this area. So...how?
It certainly wasn't because everyone was for it. In fact, many influential Rabbis didn’t want a split between them and this new Hasidic thing, and were worried this was a false Messianic movement all over again.
Hasidim were religious enthusiasts. When they prayed, they’d clap, jump, summersault, crying out their souls. And in Hasidism, everything became prayer. Me talking right now? Prayer. Because it’s leading to finding more sparks.
The Mitnagdim, who disliked this enthusiasm, denounced them to the authorities. For 25 years, there was a series of religious bans against the Hasidim, and yet during this time is exactly when the movement grew.
The Hasidim, in order to convince people they were part of the Jewish community, contributed in all sorts of ways.
For one thing, they provided a spiritual authority in town. Rabbis, at the time, mostly served as legal authorities. Someone to tell you if your chicken was Kosher, for instance. Hasidim gave blessings and cured the depressed.
They refocused what it meant to be Jewish from going to the Yeshiva (as it was before) to praying. They said if you praid with Kavanah, an enthusiastic understanding, that your prayer is God. This brought thousands to Hasidim.
Of course, this made people think they were anti-learning, so Hasidim were the first to publish many Jewish books, increasing the Jewish printing presses from two to twenty. Showing people they were all for the Talmud too.
They also changed the laws of butchering, Shekhitah – introducing the concept of sharp knives, which made them the go-to butchers. And as people talked to the Butcher, he’d explain what he and Hasidim were about.
They penetrated into the chavurot, groups of people who took care of one Mitzvah. For instance, providing a dowry to the poor girls was one group, visiting the sick was another, giving bread to the poor, fixing books, providing free loans, the Chevra Kaddisha. They got into them to make sure people understood Hasidim. They both penetrated old institutions and established new ones. They proved they were part of the community. And this was the social revolution of Hasidism.
By the 1820’s - 40’s, this rivalry between the Mitnagdim and Hasidim ended as a common enemy came in the form of the enlightenment - which was the precursor to Reform Judaism. And by the end of the century Mitnagdim and Hasidim worked together to create Agudat Yisrael, the first political organization of the Orthodox Jews. It united the two groups into something called “Orthodoxy” which never existed before in Judaism. Before the split between Hasidim and not-Hasidim, there was simply traditional Jews. Orthodoxy, in that way, is a modern phenomenon.
They came to America because of the persecution by the Soviet Union. The head of the Chabad Lubuvitch movement, one of the Hasidic sects, escaped capital punishment and in the 1930’s moved to the United States where he began the revival of the movement in a new place.
Which brings us back to today, to Brooklyn, and the history that was shaped by the Baal Shem Tov and Dov Bear.
To learn about how the Reform movement was beginning at this same time, go on to the next video.