Encyclopedia entries

Originally published in Tzvi M. Rabinowicz (ed.), The encyclopedia of Hasidism (1996), p. 246. Joy is a key concept in Hasidism; its opposite, atzvut (melancholia), is held to be, as a well-known hasidic maxim has it, not a sin in itself but the main cause of sin. As in other areas, the hasidic teachings on joy…...

Originally published in Tzvi M. Rabinowicz (ed.), The encyclopedia of Hasidism (1996), pp. 188-92. The followers of the Besht did not coin the term hasidim with which to describe themselves but found it ready to hand among the early eighteenth-century ascetics and pneumatics, groups of whom existed in Eastern Europe and some of whose forms together…...

Originally published in Tzvi M. Rabinowicz (ed.), The encyclopedia of Hasidism (1996), pp. 169-71. The legal side of Judaism, the practice and study of the rules, customs, and observances. There is no doubt, despite occasional accusations to the contrary on the part of the Mitnaggedim, that the hasidim always accepted the complete authority of the halakhah…....

Originally published in Tzvi M. Rabinowicz (ed.), The encyclopedia of Hasidism (1996), pp. 133-4. It cannot be maintained that there is a special hasidic doctrine of free will. The hasidic sources, when referring, as they do frequently, to human freedom, generally content themselves with simply repeating the standard Jewish teaching that man is free; otherwise there…...

Originally published in Tzvi M. Rabinowicz (ed.), The encyclopedia of Hasidism (1996), p. 124. Ansky’s very popular play The Dybbuk has, as a central theme, an exorcism practiced by a hasidic tzaddik. There are, in fact, numerous tales of tzaddikim being called upon to use their magical powers to drive out a dybbuk (lit., “attachment”). The…...

Originally published in Tzvi M. Rabinowicz (ed.), The encyclopedia of Hasidism (1996), pp. 123-4. Atheistic existentialism, in which nothing is given, not even God, is obviously at variance with Hasidism. Religious existentialism, with its preference for involvement over detachment, its mistrust of rationalism or attempts at “proving” the existence of God, its recognition of the importance…...

Originally published in Tzvi M. Rabinowicz (ed.), The encyclopedia of Hasidism (1996), pp. 121-3. The principle behind hasidic exegesis of the Bible, as evidenced in the classical hasidic works, is that of the Zohar (III, 152a), according to which, in addition to the plain meaning, Scripture has an esoteric meaning, the “soul of the Torah.” Once…...

Originally published in Tzvi M. Rabinowicz (ed.), The encyclopedia of Hasidism (1996), p. 100. The term generally used in Hasidism for burning enthusiasm in prayer and worship is hitlahavut, from lahav, a flame. The term used for the raptures that result from the nearness of God in prayer and worship is hitpaalut, from paal, to do,…...

Originally published in Tzvi M. Rabinowicz (ed.), The encyclopedia of Hasidism (1996), pp. 99-100. Eating as an act of devotion occupies a prominent place in hasidic life and thought. In addition to the sacred meal in which the hasidim gather round the tzaddik (the tish, “table”) and eat of the food he has consecrated (shirayyim), the…...

Originally published in Tzvi M. Rabinowicz (ed.), The encyclopedia of Hasidism (1996), p. 88. Attachment to God, cleaving to Him in thought at all times, having God in the mind constantly—this idea is found in the work of a number of medieval authors, especially in Nahmanides’ comment: “To love the Lord your God, to walk in…...

Originally published in Tzvi M. Rabinowicz (ed.), The encyclopedia of Hasidism (1996), pp. 74-5. Hasidic thought follows the kabbalistic understanding of creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothing, yesh me’ayin) in terms of the emanation of the Sefirot and the universe (of yesh, that which is) from Ein Sof (the Limitless, the Ground of Being), known…...

Originally published in Tzvi M. Rabinowicz (ed.), The encyclopedia of Hasidism (1996), pp. 72-3. Moses, known as the Remak, was one of the most profound and systematic exponents of the teachings of the Zohar and a leading figure in the circle of mystics for which sixteenth-century Safed in Palestine was renowned. Few details of his life…...

Originally published in Tzvi M. Rabinowicz (ed.), The encyclopedia of Hasidism (1996), p. 48. Annihilation of selfhood: the hasidic ideal of self-transcendence. In hasidic theory a person’s ego interposes a barrier between the real self and God. A saying attributed to R. Uri of Strelisk, for example, interprets the passage “I stood between the Lord and…...

Originally published in Tzvi M. Rabinowicz (ed.), The encyclopedia of Hasidism (1996), p. 27. The early hasidic masters claim that the Besht taught a new way in the service of God—one in which the asceticism prominent in the Lurianic Kabbalah was abandoned in favor of avodah begashmiut, (worship through corporeality). The basic argument says that the…...

Originally published in Tzvi M. Rabinowicz (ed.), The encyclopedia of Hasidism (1996), pp. 3-4. Son of R. Moses Horowitz, a descendant of R. Isaiah Horowitz, he was born in Orsha in the district of Moghilev. In his youth, Aaron became a disciple of R. Shneur Zalman of Liady, and he stated that he sat at R…....

Originally published in Peter Bishop & Michael Darton (eds.), The Encyclopedia of World Faiths: an illustrated survey of the world’s living religions (1987), pp. 32-53. HISTORICAL OUTLINE Judaism is centred on a people, the Jews, of whom in the second half of the twentieth century there are around twelve million, residing mainly in the USA and…...