Israel Ba’al Shem Tov (the Besht), the purported founder of the Hasidic movement, achieved renown... more Israel Ba’al Shem Tov (the Besht), the purported founder of the Hasidic movement, achieved renown during his lifetime as a holy man and a ba’al shem—a magician and folk healer. This paper surveys the sources containing evidence pertaining to the Besht’s medico-magical activities, presents the variety of recipes and rituals that have been preserved in his name, and explores the implications these hold for understanding his life and legacy. It further argues that the centrality of magic we find in the life of the Besht did not disappear with his death but was maintained within the Hasidic movement that developed in his wake.
Modern Judaism - A Journal of Jewish Ideas and Experience, 2024
While Israel Ba'al Shem Tov (the Besht) is traditionally considered the founder of Hasidism, mode... more While Israel Ba'al Shem Tov (the Besht) is traditionally considered the founder of Hasidism, modern scholarship has shown that the Hasidic movement emerged only in the decades following his death. This image of the Besht as the founder of Hasidism poses significant challenges in assessing his impact both during his lifetime and independently of the movement. This study seeks to extricate him from the Hasidic context that has historically defined him by analyzing four distinct types of traditions that preserve his cultural legacy-mystical pietistic teachings, kabbalistic intentional formulae (kavvanot), medico-magical recipes, and biographical narratives-and tracing their oral and written transmission histories. It argues that the initial dissemination of traditions attributed to the Besht both preceded and exceeded the Hasidic movement and that recognizing this fact allows for a better appreciation of his contributions to Jewish culture on their own terms, as well as a more accurate assessment of their subsequent influence on the Hasidic movement.
Descriptions of the delivery of Hasidic sermons are relatively rare, especially from the first de... more Descriptions of the delivery of Hasidic sermons are relatively rare, especially from the first decades of the development of the movement. This article presents the earliest extant written account of a Hasidic sermon, which was delivered by Samuel Shmelke Horowitz, the rabbi of the Moravian city of Nikolsburg (Mikulov), on the eve of Yom Kippur of the year 1775. It situates the document containing this hitherto overlooked account in its historical and ideological context and explores the light it sheds on the geographical limits of the Hasidic movement in the 18th century. Appended to the article is an edition of the Hebrew text of the document based on two textual witnesses along with an English translation.
Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2022
This study explores the Hasidic psychologization of Jewish mysticism by focusing on the problem o... more This study explores the Hasidic psychologization of Jewish mysticism by focusing on the problem of distracting thoughts that arise during prayer, and the attitudes and responses to them that can be found in Hasidic literature. Two different theories of the origins of such thoughts, both attributed to Israel Ba'al Shem Tov, along with various techniques for engaging with them, are described. It is argued that these theories reflect two distinct paradigms, both of which exhibit significant similarities to the dynamic unconscious of psychoanalysis. In addition to tracing the reception of Israel's ideas on distracting thoughts within the Hasidic movement and without, the study connects them to his activities as a folk healer with a particular concern with treating mental illness.
EARLY MODERN WORKSHOP: Jewish History Resources, 2019
An introduction to and translation of Solomon of Lutzk's second introduction to Magid devarav le-... more An introduction to and translation of Solomon of Lutzk's second introduction to Magid devarav le-ya'akov (Koretz, 1781), an excerpt from his own work Dibrat shelomo (Zolkiew, 1848) and two anonymous texts, one found in Or torah (Koretz, 1804) and the other in Likutim yekarim (Lemberg, 1792).
“Nathan of Gaza, A Letter on Conversion” in Pawel Maciejko ed. Sabbatian Heresy: Writings on Myst... more “Nathan of Gaza, A Letter on Conversion” in Pawel Maciejko ed. Sabbatian Heresy: Writings on Mysticism, Messianism, and the Origins of Jewish Modernity (Waltham, Massachusetts: Brandeis University Press, 2017), 39-45.
Association of Jewish Studies, 55rd Annual Conference
Although often maligned by both traditional authorities and modern scholars, magic has been a con... more Although often maligned by both traditional authorities and modern scholars, magic has been a constant element of Jewish culture in every period and place. One of the primary sources for our knowledge of the magical beliefs and practices prevalent in Jewish societies in the late medieval and early modern periods are the many hundreds of surviving magical handbooks. These handbooks generally take the form of collections of loosely organized magical (or medico-magical) recipes, recommendations and formulas for a wide range of purposes and goals. Indeed, such collections very frequently go beyond medical material and include a wide and eclectic range of practical and useful kinds of knowledge, from fishing and cosmetics to crafts of all sorts. Scholars have rightly stressed the practical result-oriented nature of these collections and its importance for our understanding of their compilation, circulation and consumption whether by the professional magician and healer or the interested and literate layperson. Beyond offering knowledge of technical procedures and their cultivation and transmission, magical handbooks provide a rare window into the everyday concerns—the hopes, fears, and desires—of ordinary people in traditional Jewish society, including women and illiterate men. In other words, in addition to expert knowledge, this corpus embodies a set of psychological attitudes and expressions that has received relatively little attention. In this paper, therefore, I will focus on certain non-practical, specifically psychological, features of this literature and highlight their function as a site for the generation, articulation and transmission of desire. Through a series of examples drawn from a broad range of magical sources, I will show the deep psychological valence not only of the contents of this literature but of its particular literary form as well. I will argue that the sheer variety and eclecticism exhibited by these collections as well as the fact that a considerable amount of material was likely never thought of as practicable at all suggest that the real-world application of its contents was not necessarily the only or even the primary motivation for compiling or copying them but that the desire to accumulate information and for the sense of power and agency that accompanied it was an important force driving and shaping this type of literature. In this way, the re-conceptualization of this literature as comprised of catalogs of desire will contribute to the development of a fuller account of its particular nature, its literary features and the complex role it played in Jewish society.
Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, Columbia University
https://vimeo.com/803630841?embed... more Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, Columbia University
This paper aims to contribute to our understanding of the intellectual and cultural legacy of Isr... more This paper aims to contribute to our understanding of the intellectual and cultural legacy of Israel Ba’al Shem Tov (the Besht), the purported founder of the Hasidic movement, by describing the process through which traditions attributed to him were transmitted orally and recorded in manuscript and print. Drawing on a broad range of printed and manuscript sources, it will focus on four distinct literary genres in which these traditions were recorded and argue that they reflect four distinct types of lore: tales, pietistic teachings, Kabbalistic intentions and magical recipes. Despite a measure of overlap among them, each of these four genres has its own distinct literary and material form, historical trajectory and cultural impact and indelibly shaped the manner in which the traditions attributed to the Besht were preserved and disseminated. Thus, the Besht’s pietistic ideas and ideals were absorbed into the evolving discourse of piety and preserved in Hasidic works while his original Kabbalistic formulae interested contemporary Kabbalists and were recorded in Kabbalistic prayer books. Similarly, the Besht’s important though neglected contributions to the Jewish magical lore circulated as part of this tradition and were primarily recorded in collections of magical recipes. Finally, tales by and about the Besht played their own distinct role in cultivating and promoting his image and were disseminated and recorded within preexisting traditions of hagiography and storytelling. The elucidation of these different paths of dissemination and the literary genres in which they were recorded is crucial for assessing the scope of the Besht’s intellectual and cultural contributions and for reconstructing the literary and cultural contexts of their transmission and reception.
Max Weinreich Fellowship Lecture in Eastern European Jewish Studies, YIVO Institute for Jewish Re... more Max Weinreich Fellowship Lecture in Eastern European Jewish Studies, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H117k79fD1c
Bridging Divides: Rupture and Continuity in Polish Jewish History
https://youtu.be/T20RXXhnLNk?t... more Bridging Divides: Rupture and Continuity in Polish Jewish History
https://youtu.be/T20RXXhnLNk?t=7132
YSU-Kent State Emerging Scholars Lecture Series
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL3n8T5aL... more YSU-Kent State Emerging Scholars Lecture Series
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL3n8T5aLAQ
A fascination with dreams and dreaming is common across cultures and the Jewish tradition is no e... more A fascination with dreams and dreaming is common across cultures and the Jewish tradition is no exception. Dreams have been valued in Jewish culture in a variety of ways including as a vehicle for divine communication, a source of supernatural knowledge or a means of foretelling the future. Given the interest in cultivating mystical experiences and personal communion with the divine in Hasidism, it is not surprising that we find a particular interest in the significance of dreams in the Hasidic movement. This interest is reflected in theoretical discussions of the nature of dreams as well as in the frequent recounting or recording of dreams by Hasidic figures, sometimes in dedicated dream diaries, some of which still survive. One such extant dream diary was kept by the Polish Hasidic figure Akiva Meir of Lukow for a period of nearly forty years, from 1879 until his death in 1918. In addition to dreams, Akiva Meir recorded verses or phrases that occurred to him in the hypnopompic state as well as, and most uniquely, those that occurred during sexual intercourse. This paper will present this dream diary against the background of earlier Hasidic views on the revelatory significance of dreams and other forms of spontaneous thought and argue that it represents a rare and vivid testimony to the implementation of these Hasidic teachings in a personal spiritual practice.
This paper will discuss the place of manuscripts in Hasidic culture and highlight the importance ... more This paper will discuss the place of manuscripts in Hasidic culture and highlight the importance of considering the extant Hasidic manuscripts in contemporary scholarship on the movement and its literature. The paper will provide examples of both how manuscripts were copied and disseminated, as well as the kinds of insights a consideration of such manuscripts can offer. Two examples will be examined in detail: an anonymous, untitled manuscript referred to as the Rothschild manuscript; and an anonymous and untitled manuscript from William Gross's private collection which contains some rare magical traditions in the name of the Besht.
“Revealing of Secrets:” Hasidism and Haskalah in the Ukrainian Lands, Ukrainian Association for J... more “Revealing of Secrets:” Hasidism and Haskalah in the Ukrainian Lands, Ukrainian Association for Jewish Studies
https://youtu.be/up7gm5rN4fE?t=3066
This paper will introduce a particular anonymous collection of pietistic practices (HANHAGOT) and... more This paper will introduce a particular anonymous collection of pietistic practices (HANHAGOT) and argue that it can be considered the very earliest Hasidic work and indeed the earliest circulating source containing teachings attributed to the Besht. I will present the history of this text, its possible authorship and its historical impact. I will further discuss the relationship between two primary versions of the text (one being a censored version of the other) and argue for a reconstruction of the original form of the text that incorporates much more material than previously recognized.
Part of the collection under discussion was first printed in 1805 under the title DARKEI YESHARIM while another version of this same text, which can be shown to have undergone significant censorship, was included in the collection of early Hasidic material LIKUTIM YEKARIM printed in 1911. Both versions are testified to in multiple extant manuscripts from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. A perusal of these early manuscripts and related printed collections brings up additional material that I will argue on the basis of both content and style belong to the same composition as the textual unit printed as DARKEI YESHARIM and LIKUTEI AMARIM.
That this composition represents an independent work is highlighted by the fact that the ideas characteristic of the Maggid of Mezritsh and his disciples, whose writings comprise much of the rest of the early Hasidic corpus, are conspicuously absent from it. Furthermore, this text can be shown to have been composed directly in writing rather than being the result of a transcription made of an oral presentation as was the case with much of the rest of this corpus. Indeed, not only was it the earliest Hasidic text known to have circulated widely in the formative years of the Hasidic movement but it was the earliest circulating text containing a significant number of teachings attributed to the Besht. The importance of the text can be gauged not only from the many references to it found in subsequent Hasidic and non-Hasidic works but also from the controversies it provoked both within the movement and without.
This paper will focus on a unique technique of lucid dream cultivation practiced within the early... more This paper will focus on a unique technique of lucid dream cultivation practiced within the early Hasidic movement. The technique is preserved in the form of a homily on Psalms 17:14-15 and the fact that several versions of this homily circulated in the late eighteenth-century testifies to its popularity in this period. The homily presents a worldview in which fantasy and reality merge and thoughts, both positive and negative, have real cosmic and personal consequences. Thus, forbidden sexual fantasy, viewed as copulation with the demoness Lilith, leads to an increase in her spawn and the death of one’s own children. As an antidote to the pull of self-gratifying fantasy, the homily recommends employing a form of Neoplatonic contemplation that was widely taught in Hasidic circles. An encounter with a particular object of desire is to be taken as an opportunity to recognize the true nature of reality by redirecting one’s attention to its ideal form, that is, to god as the ultimate object of all desire. While this contemplative technique is ubiquitous in early Hasidic literature, this homily is unique in that it describes the practice of this technique as eventually leading to a dream-state in which one actually experiences the reality that had previously only been imagined in contemplation. What was only fantasy in the waking state becomes reality in the dream. Furthermore, this technique bears striking similarities to both the practice of Tibetan dream yoga and the methods for inducing lucid dream states developed by modern clinical researchers. In addition to comparing the Tibetan, clinical and Hasidic techniques and the phenomenological characteristics of the respective dream-states they were meant to induce, this paper will reflect upon the general coincidence of fantasy and reality in the Hasidic worldview and of the particular role played by dreams in bridging the two.
Israel Ba’al Shem Tov (the Besht), the purported founder of the Hasidic movement, achieved renown... more Israel Ba’al Shem Tov (the Besht), the purported founder of the Hasidic movement, achieved renown during his lifetime as a holy man and a ba’al shem—a magician and folk healer. This paper surveys the sources containing evidence pertaining to the Besht’s medico-magical activities, presents the variety of recipes and rituals that have been preserved in his name, and explores the implications these hold for understanding his life and legacy. It further argues that the centrality of magic we find in the life of the Besht did not disappear with his death but was maintained within the Hasidic movement that developed in his wake.
Modern Judaism - A Journal of Jewish Ideas and Experience, 2024
While Israel Ba'al Shem Tov (the Besht) is traditionally considered the founder of Hasidism, mode... more While Israel Ba'al Shem Tov (the Besht) is traditionally considered the founder of Hasidism, modern scholarship has shown that the Hasidic movement emerged only in the decades following his death. This image of the Besht as the founder of Hasidism poses significant challenges in assessing his impact both during his lifetime and independently of the movement. This study seeks to extricate him from the Hasidic context that has historically defined him by analyzing four distinct types of traditions that preserve his cultural legacy-mystical pietistic teachings, kabbalistic intentional formulae (kavvanot), medico-magical recipes, and biographical narratives-and tracing their oral and written transmission histories. It argues that the initial dissemination of traditions attributed to the Besht both preceded and exceeded the Hasidic movement and that recognizing this fact allows for a better appreciation of his contributions to Jewish culture on their own terms, as well as a more accurate assessment of their subsequent influence on the Hasidic movement.
Descriptions of the delivery of Hasidic sermons are relatively rare, especially from the first de... more Descriptions of the delivery of Hasidic sermons are relatively rare, especially from the first decades of the development of the movement. This article presents the earliest extant written account of a Hasidic sermon, which was delivered by Samuel Shmelke Horowitz, the rabbi of the Moravian city of Nikolsburg (Mikulov), on the eve of Yom Kippur of the year 1775. It situates the document containing this hitherto overlooked account in its historical and ideological context and explores the light it sheds on the geographical limits of the Hasidic movement in the 18th century. Appended to the article is an edition of the Hebrew text of the document based on two textual witnesses along with an English translation.
Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 2022
This study explores the Hasidic psychologization of Jewish mysticism by focusing on the problem o... more This study explores the Hasidic psychologization of Jewish mysticism by focusing on the problem of distracting thoughts that arise during prayer, and the attitudes and responses to them that can be found in Hasidic literature. Two different theories of the origins of such thoughts, both attributed to Israel Ba'al Shem Tov, along with various techniques for engaging with them, are described. It is argued that these theories reflect two distinct paradigms, both of which exhibit significant similarities to the dynamic unconscious of psychoanalysis. In addition to tracing the reception of Israel's ideas on distracting thoughts within the Hasidic movement and without, the study connects them to his activities as a folk healer with a particular concern with treating mental illness.
EARLY MODERN WORKSHOP: Jewish History Resources, 2019
An introduction to and translation of Solomon of Lutzk's second introduction to Magid devarav le-... more An introduction to and translation of Solomon of Lutzk's second introduction to Magid devarav le-ya'akov (Koretz, 1781), an excerpt from his own work Dibrat shelomo (Zolkiew, 1848) and two anonymous texts, one found in Or torah (Koretz, 1804) and the other in Likutim yekarim (Lemberg, 1792).
“Nathan of Gaza, A Letter on Conversion” in Pawel Maciejko ed. Sabbatian Heresy: Writings on Myst... more “Nathan of Gaza, A Letter on Conversion” in Pawel Maciejko ed. Sabbatian Heresy: Writings on Mysticism, Messianism, and the Origins of Jewish Modernity (Waltham, Massachusetts: Brandeis University Press, 2017), 39-45.
Association of Jewish Studies, 55rd Annual Conference
Although often maligned by both traditional authorities and modern scholars, magic has been a con... more Although often maligned by both traditional authorities and modern scholars, magic has been a constant element of Jewish culture in every period and place. One of the primary sources for our knowledge of the magical beliefs and practices prevalent in Jewish societies in the late medieval and early modern periods are the many hundreds of surviving magical handbooks. These handbooks generally take the form of collections of loosely organized magical (or medico-magical) recipes, recommendations and formulas for a wide range of purposes and goals. Indeed, such collections very frequently go beyond medical material and include a wide and eclectic range of practical and useful kinds of knowledge, from fishing and cosmetics to crafts of all sorts. Scholars have rightly stressed the practical result-oriented nature of these collections and its importance for our understanding of their compilation, circulation and consumption whether by the professional magician and healer or the interested and literate layperson. Beyond offering knowledge of technical procedures and their cultivation and transmission, magical handbooks provide a rare window into the everyday concerns—the hopes, fears, and desires—of ordinary people in traditional Jewish society, including women and illiterate men. In other words, in addition to expert knowledge, this corpus embodies a set of psychological attitudes and expressions that has received relatively little attention. In this paper, therefore, I will focus on certain non-practical, specifically psychological, features of this literature and highlight their function as a site for the generation, articulation and transmission of desire. Through a series of examples drawn from a broad range of magical sources, I will show the deep psychological valence not only of the contents of this literature but of its particular literary form as well. I will argue that the sheer variety and eclecticism exhibited by these collections as well as the fact that a considerable amount of material was likely never thought of as practicable at all suggest that the real-world application of its contents was not necessarily the only or even the primary motivation for compiling or copying them but that the desire to accumulate information and for the sense of power and agency that accompanied it was an important force driving and shaping this type of literature. In this way, the re-conceptualization of this literature as comprised of catalogs of desire will contribute to the development of a fuller account of its particular nature, its literary features and the complex role it played in Jewish society.
Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, Columbia University
https://vimeo.com/803630841?embed... more Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, Columbia University
This paper aims to contribute to our understanding of the intellectual and cultural legacy of Isr... more This paper aims to contribute to our understanding of the intellectual and cultural legacy of Israel Ba’al Shem Tov (the Besht), the purported founder of the Hasidic movement, by describing the process through which traditions attributed to him were transmitted orally and recorded in manuscript and print. Drawing on a broad range of printed and manuscript sources, it will focus on four distinct literary genres in which these traditions were recorded and argue that they reflect four distinct types of lore: tales, pietistic teachings, Kabbalistic intentions and magical recipes. Despite a measure of overlap among them, each of these four genres has its own distinct literary and material form, historical trajectory and cultural impact and indelibly shaped the manner in which the traditions attributed to the Besht were preserved and disseminated. Thus, the Besht’s pietistic ideas and ideals were absorbed into the evolving discourse of piety and preserved in Hasidic works while his original Kabbalistic formulae interested contemporary Kabbalists and were recorded in Kabbalistic prayer books. Similarly, the Besht’s important though neglected contributions to the Jewish magical lore circulated as part of this tradition and were primarily recorded in collections of magical recipes. Finally, tales by and about the Besht played their own distinct role in cultivating and promoting his image and were disseminated and recorded within preexisting traditions of hagiography and storytelling. The elucidation of these different paths of dissemination and the literary genres in which they were recorded is crucial for assessing the scope of the Besht’s intellectual and cultural contributions and for reconstructing the literary and cultural contexts of their transmission and reception.
Max Weinreich Fellowship Lecture in Eastern European Jewish Studies, YIVO Institute for Jewish Re... more Max Weinreich Fellowship Lecture in Eastern European Jewish Studies, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H117k79fD1c
Bridging Divides: Rupture and Continuity in Polish Jewish History
https://youtu.be/T20RXXhnLNk?t... more Bridging Divides: Rupture and Continuity in Polish Jewish History
https://youtu.be/T20RXXhnLNk?t=7132
YSU-Kent State Emerging Scholars Lecture Series
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL3n8T5aL... more YSU-Kent State Emerging Scholars Lecture Series
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL3n8T5aLAQ
A fascination with dreams and dreaming is common across cultures and the Jewish tradition is no e... more A fascination with dreams and dreaming is common across cultures and the Jewish tradition is no exception. Dreams have been valued in Jewish culture in a variety of ways including as a vehicle for divine communication, a source of supernatural knowledge or a means of foretelling the future. Given the interest in cultivating mystical experiences and personal communion with the divine in Hasidism, it is not surprising that we find a particular interest in the significance of dreams in the Hasidic movement. This interest is reflected in theoretical discussions of the nature of dreams as well as in the frequent recounting or recording of dreams by Hasidic figures, sometimes in dedicated dream diaries, some of which still survive. One such extant dream diary was kept by the Polish Hasidic figure Akiva Meir of Lukow for a period of nearly forty years, from 1879 until his death in 1918. In addition to dreams, Akiva Meir recorded verses or phrases that occurred to him in the hypnopompic state as well as, and most uniquely, those that occurred during sexual intercourse. This paper will present this dream diary against the background of earlier Hasidic views on the revelatory significance of dreams and other forms of spontaneous thought and argue that it represents a rare and vivid testimony to the implementation of these Hasidic teachings in a personal spiritual practice.
This paper will discuss the place of manuscripts in Hasidic culture and highlight the importance ... more This paper will discuss the place of manuscripts in Hasidic culture and highlight the importance of considering the extant Hasidic manuscripts in contemporary scholarship on the movement and its literature. The paper will provide examples of both how manuscripts were copied and disseminated, as well as the kinds of insights a consideration of such manuscripts can offer. Two examples will be examined in detail: an anonymous, untitled manuscript referred to as the Rothschild manuscript; and an anonymous and untitled manuscript from William Gross's private collection which contains some rare magical traditions in the name of the Besht.
“Revealing of Secrets:” Hasidism and Haskalah in the Ukrainian Lands, Ukrainian Association for J... more “Revealing of Secrets:” Hasidism and Haskalah in the Ukrainian Lands, Ukrainian Association for Jewish Studies
https://youtu.be/up7gm5rN4fE?t=3066
This paper will introduce a particular anonymous collection of pietistic practices (HANHAGOT) and... more This paper will introduce a particular anonymous collection of pietistic practices (HANHAGOT) and argue that it can be considered the very earliest Hasidic work and indeed the earliest circulating source containing teachings attributed to the Besht. I will present the history of this text, its possible authorship and its historical impact. I will further discuss the relationship between two primary versions of the text (one being a censored version of the other) and argue for a reconstruction of the original form of the text that incorporates much more material than previously recognized.
Part of the collection under discussion was first printed in 1805 under the title DARKEI YESHARIM while another version of this same text, which can be shown to have undergone significant censorship, was included in the collection of early Hasidic material LIKUTIM YEKARIM printed in 1911. Both versions are testified to in multiple extant manuscripts from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. A perusal of these early manuscripts and related printed collections brings up additional material that I will argue on the basis of both content and style belong to the same composition as the textual unit printed as DARKEI YESHARIM and LIKUTEI AMARIM.
That this composition represents an independent work is highlighted by the fact that the ideas characteristic of the Maggid of Mezritsh and his disciples, whose writings comprise much of the rest of the early Hasidic corpus, are conspicuously absent from it. Furthermore, this text can be shown to have been composed directly in writing rather than being the result of a transcription made of an oral presentation as was the case with much of the rest of this corpus. Indeed, not only was it the earliest Hasidic text known to have circulated widely in the formative years of the Hasidic movement but it was the earliest circulating text containing a significant number of teachings attributed to the Besht. The importance of the text can be gauged not only from the many references to it found in subsequent Hasidic and non-Hasidic works but also from the controversies it provoked both within the movement and without.
This paper will focus on a unique technique of lucid dream cultivation practiced within the early... more This paper will focus on a unique technique of lucid dream cultivation practiced within the early Hasidic movement. The technique is preserved in the form of a homily on Psalms 17:14-15 and the fact that several versions of this homily circulated in the late eighteenth-century testifies to its popularity in this period. The homily presents a worldview in which fantasy and reality merge and thoughts, both positive and negative, have real cosmic and personal consequences. Thus, forbidden sexual fantasy, viewed as copulation with the demoness Lilith, leads to an increase in her spawn and the death of one’s own children. As an antidote to the pull of self-gratifying fantasy, the homily recommends employing a form of Neoplatonic contemplation that was widely taught in Hasidic circles. An encounter with a particular object of desire is to be taken as an opportunity to recognize the true nature of reality by redirecting one’s attention to its ideal form, that is, to god as the ultimate object of all desire. While this contemplative technique is ubiquitous in early Hasidic literature, this homily is unique in that it describes the practice of this technique as eventually leading to a dream-state in which one actually experiences the reality that had previously only been imagined in contemplation. What was only fantasy in the waking state becomes reality in the dream. Furthermore, this technique bears striking similarities to both the practice of Tibetan dream yoga and the methods for inducing lucid dream states developed by modern clinical researchers. In addition to comparing the Tibetan, clinical and Hasidic techniques and the phenomenological characteristics of the respective dream-states they were meant to induce, this paper will reflect upon the general coincidence of fantasy and reality in the Hasidic worldview and of the particular role played by dreams in bridging the two.
Scholars have generally defined Hasidic literature as works that were produced within the Hasidic... more Scholars have generally defined Hasidic literature as works that were produced within the Hasidic movement. However, this definition ignores the complex interrelationship between the emergence of the Hasidic movement and the production of a corpus of literature that became identified as Hasidic. After presenting the methodological issues involved in defining literary forms, genres and traditions in general and the particular difficulty of differentiating Hasidic literature from earlier and contemporary homiletic, ethical and mystical writings I will propose a more nuanced definition of Hasidic literature. I will show how Hasidic writing practices emerged from an oral tradition combining a particular mystical discourse and praxis and highlight the underappreciated role played by such writings in the spread of the movement. I will then trace the development of Hasidic literary practices into a particular literary tradition and indeed, multiple traditions, by examining the various responses, both positive and negative, provoked by the initial literary efforts as well as the evidence for the growth of a specific readership for Hasidic texts. I will argue that the dissemination, expansion, imitation of, and even resistance to, the new modes of discourse, and, above all, the extensive, implicit and explicit, intertextuality exhibited by these works all contributed to the development of an awareness among readers of a distinct literary tradition and to its subsequent perpetuation as such. Furthermore, the dissemination via this literature of an original constellation of ideas and symbols and a unique conceptual and linguistic vocabulary created a shared discursive universe that contributed to the formation of a distinct Hasidic identity. Furthermore, the mere possession of a Hasidic book could serve as an identity marker for even those who were unable to directly assimilate its contents. I will conclude with a brief discussion of some of the literary and poetic features of Hasidic literature and the kinds of aesthetic pleasure they evoke. Looking beyond the more narrative elements such as parables and folktales found in this literature, I will point to the role played by myths, metaphors and a range of hermeneutical practices in shaping a particular Hasidic literary form and a particular Hasidic literary experience.
While Israel Baal Shem Tov, known as the Besht (c.1700-1760) and traditionally viewed as the foun... more While Israel Baal Shem Tov, known as the Besht (c.1700-1760) and traditionally viewed as the founder of the Hasidic movement, did not write down any of his teachings, many of them were transmitted orally and eventually recorded in the works of his disciples and later Hasidic writers. These teachings often take the form of parables, aphorisms or words of advice but the vast majority of them consisting of brief interpretations of biblical or classical rabbinic texts in which these texts are strongly misread. My paper will focus on the significance of these formal features of the teachings attributed to the Besht for our understanding of the history of their transmission and reception. I will argue that the arresting nature of the Besht’s hermeneutical strategies as well as the concision of their formulations facilitated their oral transmission by making them both particularly memorable and easily communicable. Furthermore, the terseness of the teachings resulted in an indefiniteness in their content that encouraged active interpretation, adaptation, and application on the part of later Hasidic figures. I will conclude with a discussion of the importance of these formal features of the teachings of the Besht for the attempt to determine the authenticity of particular teachings and to evaluate the stability of their transmission.
While much has been written about the rich and varied literature of the Hasidic movement and the ... more While much has been written about the rich and varied literature of the Hasidic movement and the fierce controversies it aroused, relatively little attention has been paid to criticism of this literature coming from within the Hasidic movement. Following a brief overview of the emergence of Hasidic literature, my paper will discuss a number of types of self-censorship that were variously applied to this literature by the Hasidim themselves. The first, exemplified in the writings of Jacob Joseph of Polnoye (d.c.1782) is the self-censorship of the author in the process of writing his own work, whether out of concern for the opposition the censored content might arouse or as an expression of the ideals of esotericism traditional applied to mystical ideas. The second type of self-censorship is reflected in the attempt by some Hasidic leaders to preserve Hasidic literature among an elite within the movement and limit its dissemination among the masses. In addition to a concern about potential opposition, this type of self-censorship appears to have also been motivated by pedagogical considerations according to which the masses were deemed incapable of grasping the material correctly. As an example of this I will discuss Abraham of Kalisk’s (d.1810) criticism of the dissemination of Hasidic literature among the masses which, I will argue, was directed beyond the works of his colleague Shne’ur Zalman of Liadi (d.1812) to include even the writings attributed to his master Dov Ber of Mezritsh (d.1772). The third type of self-censorship is the direct attempt to suppress certain forms of Hasidic literature and is reflected in the extensive effort made by Shne’ur Zalman of Liadi to assert control over the dissemination of Hasidic literature among his followers. While this was ostensibly to eliminate textual errors that had accumulated from repeated copying, the extraordinary lengths that were gone through in order to accomplish this suggests that its goals were more far-reaching. I will argue that this was an attempt to directly censor, and even suppress, manuscripts of earlier Hasidic literature (among which his own writings were initially disseminated) and replace it with a new and carefully controlled corpus.
My presentation will address the origins and development of Hasidic literature through an explora... more My presentation will address the origins and development of Hasidic literature through an exploration of an extensive manuscript tradition that developed in the first decades of the movement. Based on an analysis of a large corpus of Hasidic writings, including hitherto unknown or neglected texts in both manuscript and print, I will argue that although previous scholarship has attributed this corpus to Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritsh (d. 1772), as transcribed by his disciple Levi Yitshak of Barditshev (d. 1809), it is better viewed as the product of a collective enterprise that extended over a number of decades and included both transcriptions of oral sermons and original compositions by various individuals both known and unknown. I will trace the emergence of this corpus and its gradual development into an extensive manuscript tradition that was repeatedly copied, continually supplemented and widely disseminated in numerous pamphlets and larger collections. I will also describe its occasionally ambivalent reception within the Hasidic movement and its critical reception without. I will further trace the transition this corpus underwent under the impact of print from an open and fluid textual tradition to a relatively closed body of literature. Finally, I will argue that the textually open and cumulative character of this corpus reflects the decentralized social structure of the early Hasidic movement and that the evidence for its widespread dissemination leads to the conclusion that in addition to the oft-stressed oral traditions, written literature, and in particular, manuscripts, played a significant role in the spread of the movement.
This paper addresses the various attitudes toward languages other than Hebrew that can be found i... more This paper addresses the various attitudes toward languages other than Hebrew that can be found in early Hasidic literature. One of the principle ideals promulgated by the Hasidic movement is the practice of being mindful of God (devekut) at all times, even while engaged in activities that lie outside the traditional ritualistic contexts of study, prayer and the performance of the commandments. In order to assist in the maintenance of mindfulness during such mundane activities, a variety of practical techniques were developed and these were often theorized as effecting the further goal of raising the divine sparks that have become trapped in the material world.
Since attitudes towards foreign language are often expressed in the context of the techniques presented for maintaining mindfulness even while engaged in mundane conversation, this paper focuses on these particular techniques, with special attention given to the implicit and explicit assumptions regarding the languages to which they might be applied. Some of these techniques involve non-semantic elements, such as focusing on the components of the speech process and their corresponding mystical symbols, or transliterating the utterance in one’s mind into Hebrew characters, while others involve analyzing the content of the conversation in various ways. Although Yiddish, the lingua franca of Eastern European Jewry, was often seen as semi-sacred and is, indeed, it is explicitly described as such in some of these discussions, all of the above mentioned techniques apply in principle to all other languages as well.
Other discussions, however, explicitly refer to languages other than Hebrew or Yiddish and in addition to offering techniques for their sanctification, various mystical, and even magical, significance is often attached to such activity. In some sources, for example, we find the claim that since it is the spiritual quality of the utterance that defines its sanctity, the particular language in which it happens to be uttered is of no consequence, apparently dismissing the traditional ontological priority of Hebrew over all other languages. In other sources, speaking in the vernacular is not only justified and even recommended, but the elevation of foreign languages by engaging with them mindfully is presented as an imperative with strong messianic implications. In one striking passage, the practice of elevating vernacular languages is explicitly described as a necessary component of the process of redemption, which is accomplished by redeeming the fallen divine sparks contained in them. Furthermore, not only is the origin of this practice here explicitly attributed to the Baal Shem Tov but it is presented as the primary goal of the Hasidic movement.
The paper concludes by suggesting that the subsequent eschewing of these positive views of engaging with foreign languages by the Hasidic movement in the 19th century should be viewed as a defensive reaction to the rise of the centralized state and its concomitant attempts at reforming traditional Jewish life through compulsory vernacular education. Both the earlier and later Hasidic attitudes toward foreign languages exhibit some of the complex practical and ideological factors that shaped the particular ways in which Jews negotiated the influence of their surrounding cultures.
Opening Event for "Seeing the Unseeable: Kabbalistic Imagery from The Library of the Jewish Theol... more Opening Event for "Seeing the Unseeable: Kabbalistic Imagery from The Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary" -
Video: https://youtu.be/gmN3Lkaia2Q?si=SZrONPlzQ3KBQNhn
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Articles by Elly Moseson
Translations by Elly Moseson
https://books.google.fr/books?id=m8ODDgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA39#v=onepage&q&f=false
Papers by Elly Moseson
https://vimeo.com/803630841?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=117182239
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H117k79fD1c
https://youtu.be/T20RXXhnLNk?t=7132
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL3n8T5aLAQ
https://youtu.be/up7gm5rN4fE?t=3066
Part of the collection under discussion was first printed in 1805 under the title DARKEI YESHARIM while another version of this same text, which can be shown to have undergone significant censorship, was included in the collection of early Hasidic material LIKUTIM YEKARIM printed in 1911. Both versions are testified to in multiple extant manuscripts from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. A perusal of these early manuscripts and related printed collections brings up additional material that I will argue on the basis of both content and style belong to the same composition as the textual unit printed as DARKEI YESHARIM and LIKUTEI AMARIM.
That this composition represents an independent work is highlighted by the fact that the ideas characteristic of the Maggid of Mezritsh and his disciples, whose writings comprise much of the rest of the early Hasidic corpus, are conspicuously absent from it. Furthermore, this text can be shown to have been composed directly in writing rather than being the result of a transcription made of an oral presentation as was the case with much of the rest of this corpus. Indeed, not only was it the earliest Hasidic text known to have circulated widely in the formative years of the Hasidic movement but it was the earliest circulating text containing a significant number of teachings attributed to the Besht. The importance of the text can be gauged not only from the many references to it found in subsequent Hasidic and non-Hasidic works but also from the controversies it provoked both within the movement and without.
https://books.google.fr/books?id=m8ODDgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA39#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://vimeo.com/803630841?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=117182239
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H117k79fD1c
https://youtu.be/T20RXXhnLNk?t=7132
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL3n8T5aLAQ
https://youtu.be/up7gm5rN4fE?t=3066
Part of the collection under discussion was first printed in 1805 under the title DARKEI YESHARIM while another version of this same text, which can be shown to have undergone significant censorship, was included in the collection of early Hasidic material LIKUTIM YEKARIM printed in 1911. Both versions are testified to in multiple extant manuscripts from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. A perusal of these early manuscripts and related printed collections brings up additional material that I will argue on the basis of both content and style belong to the same composition as the textual unit printed as DARKEI YESHARIM and LIKUTEI AMARIM.
That this composition represents an independent work is highlighted by the fact that the ideas characteristic of the Maggid of Mezritsh and his disciples, whose writings comprise much of the rest of the early Hasidic corpus, are conspicuously absent from it. Furthermore, this text can be shown to have been composed directly in writing rather than being the result of a transcription made of an oral presentation as was the case with much of the rest of this corpus. Indeed, not only was it the earliest Hasidic text known to have circulated widely in the formative years of the Hasidic movement but it was the earliest circulating text containing a significant number of teachings attributed to the Besht. The importance of the text can be gauged not only from the many references to it found in subsequent Hasidic and non-Hasidic works but also from the controversies it provoked both within the movement and without.
Since attitudes towards foreign language are often expressed in the context of the techniques presented for maintaining mindfulness even while engaged in mundane conversation, this paper focuses on these particular techniques, with special attention given to the implicit and explicit assumptions regarding the languages to which they might be applied. Some of these techniques involve non-semantic elements, such as focusing on the components of the speech process and their corresponding mystical symbols, or transliterating the utterance in one’s mind into Hebrew characters, while others involve analyzing the content of the conversation in various ways. Although Yiddish, the lingua franca of Eastern European Jewry, was often seen as semi-sacred and is, indeed, it is explicitly described as such in some of these discussions, all of the above mentioned techniques apply in principle to all other languages as well.
Other discussions, however, explicitly refer to languages other than Hebrew or Yiddish and in addition to offering techniques for their sanctification, various mystical, and even magical, significance is often attached to such activity. In some sources, for example, we find the claim that since it is the spiritual quality of the utterance that defines its sanctity, the particular language in which it happens to be uttered is of no consequence, apparently dismissing the traditional ontological priority of Hebrew over all other languages. In other sources, speaking in the vernacular is not only justified and even recommended, but the elevation of foreign languages by engaging with them mindfully is presented as an imperative with strong messianic implications. In one striking passage, the practice of elevating vernacular languages is explicitly described as a necessary component of the process of redemption, which is accomplished by redeeming the fallen divine sparks contained in them. Furthermore, not only is the origin of this practice here explicitly attributed to the Baal Shem Tov but it is presented as the primary goal of the Hasidic movement.
The paper concludes by suggesting that the subsequent eschewing of these positive views of engaging with foreign languages by the Hasidic movement in the 19th century should be viewed as a defensive reaction to the rise of the centralized state and its concomitant attempts at reforming traditional Jewish life through compulsory vernacular education. Both the earlier and later Hasidic attitudes toward foreign languages exhibit some of the complex practical and ideological factors that shaped the particular ways in which Jews negotiated the influence of their surrounding cultures.
Video: https://youtu.be/gmN3Lkaia2Q?si=SZrONPlzQ3KBQNhn