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PHD abstract.pdf

The leadership of Eastern European Jewish communities experienced great upheavals during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as part of the social, philosophical and religious changes experienced by this traditional society. Without doubt, a significant factor in these changes was Hasidism, the movement of the Besht's followers (the Hasidim), which expanded significantly at the turn of the nineteenth century. This study seeks to distinguish between the various layers of Hasidic homiletic literature and, in so doing, to offer an initial characterization of the methods by which this literature was edited and the nature of its sources. Exposing the various layers of the text allows us to approach, albeit in part, the contexts in which they were created and reveals to the scholar the focal points which were of interest to their creators, writers and editors, as well as the rhetoric and rules of dialogue that governed their society. This study seeks to highlight the role of the community rabbis who identified with Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (the Besht) and his students, and who continued the traditional Rabbinical leadership methods and duties. This will be achieved through a characterization of texts based upon official sermons given to the general public in the Synagogue setting, works which were designated as such by the writers and which the editors presented thus in printed books. An analysis of the artistic, rhetorical and content-related characteristics of these sermons and their comparison with a variety of findings from Eastern European Ashkenazi culture offer a glimpse into the activities of these same Hasidic-Rabbis within the community, specifically regarding their intended audience, and places their endeavors in the framework of the social balance of power within the community. At the heart of this study is a discussion of the works by Rabbi David Shlomo Eybschutz, who lived and labored in Eastern Galicia and Bessarabia at the turn of the nineteenth century, some of which became best sellers later in the nineteenth century. Eybschutz's writings, and in particular his ‘Arvei naḥal, form the axis of this study: the function of homiletic literature and the Rabbinical role of the Hasidim are examined in comparison to them.

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