• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

Books of Louis Jacobs

Registered UK Charity No 1139099

t. +44 (0)7714 894 781
e. Click here to email us directly

  • Home
  • Louis Jacobs
    • Annual Memorial Lectures
    • Bibliography
  • Catalogue
    • Autobiography
    • Chain of Tradition – Anthologies
    • Hasidism and Mysticism
    • Judaism
    • Prayer
    • Reference
    • Selections/Bibliography Related & Translated Books
    • Talmud
    • Theology
  • Writings
    • Articles
    • Academic Reviews
    • Reviews written by Louis Jacobs
    • Encyclopedia entries
    • ‘Ask the Rabbi’
    • Sermons / Divrei Torah
  • Media
    • Audio Tapes
    • Continuing the Quest
    • Teachings
  • Membership Levels
  • Contact
  • Member Login
  • Your Membership Account
You are here: Home / Books / Hasidic Thought

Hasidic Thought

Click here to see Contents

1 The Baal Shem Tov
How the Maggid was converted
What is the role of the zaddik?
What is real and what is an illusion?

2 Jacob Joseph Katz of Pulnoyye
For its own sake
What can one learn from the clown?
How can religious sincerity be achieved?

3 Phinehas Shapiro of Koretz
Illuminations
Should Jews wear non-jewish garb?
Should prayer be silent?
How can pride be overcome?

4 Meir Margoliouth of Ostrog
Attachment to the holy letters

5 Aryeh Leib, the Mokhiah of Pulnoyye
The cloven hoof
The vanity of scholars

6 Moses Hayyim Ephraim of Sudlikov
When all seems dark
Why was the Baal Shem Tov so important?
What happens on judgment Day?

7 Baruch of Meziboz
Hints in Scripture
External versus internal piety
How can God be served when man eats and drinks?
A playful comment
What is the role of the zaddik?

8 Nahman of Bratslav
Why are hindrances essential?
Why should good men be persecuted?
Why should one force himself to rejoice?
What are the virtues of solitude?
Should one plan for the morrow?

9 Dov Baer, the Maggid of Meseritch
God is in all
The role of the zaddik
How can man influence the Divine?
How is God like a father?
Rules for saints

10 Abraham ben Dov Baer, the “Angel”
The man too good to be a leader

11 Menahem Na~um of Chernobyl
How can God’s mercy and His justice be reconciled?
What are the virtues of humility?

12 Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk
How can man attach himself to God?
The zaddik is not a miracle worker

13 Elimelech of Lizensk
How can men have the Holy Spirit in an unholy age?
How can false modesty be avoided?
Rules for saints

14 Zeev Wolf of Zhitomer
A critique of zaddikism of the wrong kind

15 Levi Yitz~ak of Berditchev
How to serve God without thought of self
What is true humility?
Can man have an influence on the Divine?

16 Shneur Zalman of Liady
How can man rejoice in the Lord?
How can Schadenfreude be avoided?
What is the extent of man’s generosity?

17 Israel Hapstein, the Maggid of Koznitz and his son Moses Eliakim Beriah
How can man overcome the evil in his natOre?
What is the meaning of “the fear of God”?
Can a man lose himself in God?
Self-annihilation

18 Jacob lsaac, the “Seer” of Lublin
For the sake of Heaven
A critique of spiritual aristocracy
Rules for saints

19 Meshullam Feibush Helier of Zbarazh
How should man worship God?
How can man be humble?

20 Hayyim Haikel of Amdur
How can man love God?
How can man overcome his ego?
How can man provide a home for God?
A critique of Jjasidic frivolity

21 Hayyim Tyrer of Tchernowitz
The holiest hour of the Sabbath
Why is prayer called “the service of the heart”?
Gazing into Heaven
The dedication of a new house

22 Abraham Joshua Heschel of Apt
Reclaiming the “holy sparks”

23 Moses Sofer of Przeworsk
What did Moses look like?
What is the true aim of Torah study?

24 Moses Teitelbaum of Ujhely and his great-grandson Hananiah Yom Tov Lipa
Which type of pride is legitimate?
Belief in reincarnation
What is woman’s role in judaism?
Why did lsaac Luria die young?
Beyond time

25 Zevi Elimelech Spira of Dynow
Why do we blow the shofar on Rash Ha-Shanah?
How far can human reasoning take us?

26 Israel Friedmann of Ruzhyn
How can a sinner dare to pray?
How do we walk life’s tightrope?
Can prayer be confined to special times?
Music versus fasting
Will it be hard to be a good Jew?

27 Menahem Mendel of Kotzk
Why the outburst of scientific achievement in the 1800’s?
The role of righteous indignation
Which type of worship is false?
Should we care what others think?
God helps those who help themselves
Aphorisms

28 Mordecai joseph Leiner of lzbica
How can man know his specific duty in life?
What should a man do when his faith weakens?
The importance of obstacles
How can we conquer fear?
The spiritual dangers of religion

29 Solomon Rabinowich of Radomsk
How important is sincerity?
How can men be holy outside the Holy Land?

30 Hayyim Halberstam of Zanz
Is it possible even today for holy men to be inspired?
What is the way to truth?
Is it true that religious people are bound to be poor?

31 Yitzhtak lsaac judah Jel;tiel Safrin of Komarno
Are unworthy motives ever admissible?
How can one learn from all men?
How can man honor God?
The harm of losing one’s temper

32 Judah Leib Eger of Lublin
The fragrance of a healthy conscience
A good and sweet year
Rejoicing on Sukkot

33 Zadok Ha-Kohen of Lublin
Never yield to despair
Opposition to secular learning

34 Judah Aryeh Leib Alter of Ger
The supernatural
How can man learn to follow his conscience?
How can Jewish particularism be reconciled with
universal ism?

35 Aaron Rokeah of Belz
How the Belzer Rebbe rebuked his followers
Finding good in every Jew
Should one’s own family come first?
Kindness to animals
The holiness of the BelzerRebbe

Chart of the Hasidic Masters

Hasidic Thought

In this series

The Chain of Tradition Series Volume I: Jewish Law
A Teacher’s Book for Jewish Law

The Chain of Tradition Series Volume II: Jewish ethics, philosophy and mysticism
A Teacher’s Book for Jewish ethics, philosophy and mysticism

The Chain of Tradition Series Volume III: Jewish Thought Today

The Chain of Tradition Series Volume IV: Jewish Biblical Exegesis

The Chain of Tradition Series Volume V: Hasidic Thought

 

First published 1976

THE HASIDIC MOVEMENT arose in Podolia and Volhynia in the first half of the eighteenth century. So rapid was the progress it made, in spite of-or because of-the fiercest opposition, that by the end of the century a large proportion of Polish and Russian Jewry had become hasidic. Even today the movement numbers many thousands of adherents, and thanks to the popularizing efforts of Martin Buber and Louis I. Newman and the scholarly work of Professor Gershom Scholem and his school, it is well known in both general and academic circles. There are books enough on hasidic. The excuse, if such is required, for adding another is that there has been little investigation of the actual texts of the hasidic masters. So far as I am aware, none of the texts presented here has ever before been translated into English.

Historical details about practically every aspect of hasidic life are readily available. (Bibliographies and much useful historical information are to be found in the numerous articles on hasidic and the Hasidic masters in the new Encyclopedia Judaica, on which I have relied, mainly, in the matter of dating.) Only those historical details essential to an understanding of the texts have been supplied here.

The reader is advised to read through the brief introduction to each series of texts before studying the texts themselves. The chart at the end of the book places each of the masters considered in the hasidic “chain of tradition.”

The method adopted is that of the other four volumes in the Behrman House Chain of Tradition series, to which there are occasional crossreferences. The text in English translation is printed in bolder type, with the explanatory notes inserted in the text in lighter type so that “he who runs may read.” The titles to the various pieces in the table of contents are mine, not those of the original authors. They are intended to encourage the reader to choose, in the first instance, the topics with a special appeal for him, with, as the Hasidic would say, something belonging to the root of his soul. In any anthology the principle of selectivity is complicated. But I have tried to choose passages from the main books used by the Hasidim and those which convey something of both the flavor of Hasidic thought and the rich variety of Hasidic expression. For this reason only one or two examples have been given of movements which developed a life of their own and produced a literature of their own within Hasidism-the Habad movement, for instance. Emphasis has been placed on texts from standard Hasidic books rather than on aphorisms and the like quoted in the name of Hasidic thinkers, with the exception of such tendencies in Hasidic thought as Ruzhyn, Kotzk, and Belz, which produced fascinating Hasidic leaders but no literature to speak of. Although a real attempt has been made to be fair to the Hasidic masters, it would have been inexcusable to omit from this anthology that which might be called the darker side of Hasidism-Moses Teitelbaum’s attitude regarding women or Zadok Ha-Kohen’s strong opposition to all general learning, for example. The Hasidim often speak of the special value of that light produced from out of the darkness, and, in any event, a round picture of what Hasidic thought is really like has been the aim of this book.

 

Hard copies of this book can be obtained from Behrman House.

 


Preview Book
Membership Options
Become a member and get free access to all of the content on this website. Find out more and sign up >

Submit your review
1
2
3
4
5
Submit
     
Cancel

Create your own review

Hasidic Thought Teaching
Average rating:  
 0 reviews
©2023 Books of Louis Jacobs
Privacy Policy & Cookies