The Emergence of Hasidism, 1750–1880

Hasidism, with its focus on pietism and spirituality, is one among the genuinely new forms of Jewish identity to develop in the period 1750–1880. It burgeoned in Eastern Europe into a popular mass movement that offered alternative leadership models, new social organization, and a hierarchy of spiritual ideals different from rabbinic values. Earlier scholarly assessments of the Hasidic movement as appealing to semiliterate Jewish masses and led by leaders lacking scholarly bona fides have now been revised by scholars. Israel ben Eliezer (1700–1760), known as the Ba‘al Shem Tov (often referred to by the Hebrew acronym Besht), considered the founder of the movement, left few writings but was on the community payroll as a scholar, and many of his early adherents were rabbinic scholars as well. Thus, the movement was deeply rooted in the communities and included the elite from the outset.

The Origins of Hasidism

Hasidism’s rapid spread and the deep roots it struck throughout the nineteenth century cannot be pinned down to one factor. By the late eighteenth century, Poland was a polity in crisis, and the Jewish communal structure that depended on its kings and magnates either folded completely, as did the supraregional organization known as the Council of Four Lands in 1764, or lost the respect of the people, as did the magnate-appointed rabbis. Many Jews, across classes and in every corner of Eastern Europe, were attracted to the Hasidic emphasis on joy in the worship of God and the power of every Jew to create a relationship with the divine creator. Eventually, Hasidism built its own institutions, with dozens of spiritual leaders known as tsadikim or admorim. Each one built a center, known as a court, that attracted male adherents to celebrate the holidays together. Each Hasidic court emphasized a slightly different spiritual approach in prayer, thought, and song. Collectively, Hasidic thinkers produced a ramified homiletic literature that reflected their individual interpretation of Hasidic ideas and integrated and popularized elements of Jewish mystical teachings.

Early Reactions to Hasidism

As the movement grew in popularity, it was attacked from many sides. Adherents of Haskalah saw it as a regression from rationalism as well as from the progress Jews were making toward integration into the civic sphere. Rabbinic opponents (beginning with the ban of Elijah ben Solomon, Gaon of Vilna, in 1772) condemned it as a deviation from the ideal of Torah study as the highest expression of Jewish values. Given that the Jewish population in Poland on the eve of the partition (in the 1760s, approximately three-quarters of a million) was the largest population of Jews in the world at the time, its religious and cultural character was highly consequential. Such numbers, coupled with high concentrations of Jews in large cities and many villages, shaped the posture of East European Jewry as a powerful and confident minority. At a time when Enlightenment ideals became the yardstick of human progress in the West, the appearance and success of a Jewish movement that looked inward to Jewish tradition for its inspiration came as a surprise to its contemporaries. It remains something of a challenge for historians to the present day.

The strength of Hasidism sparked an outpouring of writing critical of the movement. From the hilariously satirical Revealer of Secrets by the maskil Joseph Perl, to the bitter reminiscences of an ex-Hasid such as Abraham Ber Gottlober, to the denunciations of Hasidism as a suspicious cult by rabbinic leaders beginning with Elijah, Gaon of Vilna, Hasidism came under attack from many quarters. It stimulated countermovements within rabbinic circles. That despite these attacks it remained a powerful magnet for generations of Jews throughout Eastern Europe testified to its power as a meaningful response to the challenges of modernization.